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Tocobaga Indians
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SAFETY HARBOR CULTURE, 900 - 1700 AD
on Florida's Gulf Coast
Who were the Tocobaga?
An ancient people once lived along the bays, bayous and rivers of the Tampa Bay. They belonged to a complex society dating back hundreds of years before the first Spanish expeditions arrived in the 1500’s. They built cities with large temple mounds. They played ball games on the courts at the center of their towns. They conducted the business of their people in large council houses. They fished and hunted and Raised crops for a living. Sometimes they traveled south to the Caribbean islands or north, up the Mississippi River to trade shells, beads, feathers, and dried fish for the things they could not get locally. They were a well-organized society that drew upon their ancient knowledge of this place. These were the Tocobaga Indians.
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In downtown St. Petersburg there was once an ancient city. It's outline appears on the Ogden map of 1879. This city had six temple mounds located within a 48-acre berm. These were a Mississippian people - who depended upon the sea for their livelyhood. Like maritime people all over the world, they worked hard and celebrated the season of the fish with a festival.
Left. Work is never work when you bring joy to it. Temporary shelters have been thrown up. In the background is the temple mound complex up on the rise above Booker Creek. It is autumn.
Men, tending nets out in the bay, have filled canoes with mullet. Once ashore, the women and children take over the work of processing the catch.
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Gulls, begging for scraps, arrive by the thousands while a boy, armed with palmetto fronds, chases them away. The women in the foreground fill baskets with mullet, which they will carry over to the woman who will split them. She will then scrape the heads and entrails into a bowl to be used later for fertilizer in the gardens.
Young people place the split mullet on racks to dry. Later, the mulet will be smoked or salted in order to preserve them. Children chase away the screaming gulls who have come to scavenge a free meal of fish guts. There is plenty to go around.
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Meanwhile out on the bay, men are hauling in their catch.
The estuaries of the central Gulf Coast teamed with life. Although there were fish, shellfish, and game all year long, the autumn was a time of amazing plenty. Ducks and geese that flew in from the north, formed great rafts on the bay. Schools of mullet and then mackerel flooded in. For the people, it was both a time of great bounty and exhausting work. Every family had its own fishing place that had been established over generations.
When the nets were run out, they had to be constantly tended. Too many fish and the nets would sink and even tear. Sharks and blue crab rushed to feed on the fish caught in the nets. It kept everybody busy.
Of course, there were always lots of pesky seagulls!
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