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For us, history is simply the most important subject we know. If we take a moment to look in the mirror, what we see is our history. History is our story mixed in with the story of our family, our neighborhood, our city, our state, our country, right to the very origins of our universe. It’s a cause and effect kind of story which is linked and interconnected with everything else. It is the story of who we are right down to the atoms which build our anatomy.

Having said that, we'd like to take a look at how some modern writers view the story of the native people whose roots reach back into the ancient soil of this place. In a recently published book, purporting to tell Florida’s history from its highways, the Tequesta of the Miami area and the Calusa Indians of the western Glades and Charlotte Harbor are described as a "primitive warlike people". This travel writer continues to promote the old saw begun 500 years ago by those who came to conquer, kill, and enslave the Indians. Based on this kind of thinking, it’s reasonable to assume that any country foolish enough to attack the United States of America would consider Americans a "warlike people".

America today is a collective of diverse human perspectives. There are farmers working small farms near rural mid-western towns. There are city folks who have traveled around our planet and settled in New York, San Francisco or Tampa. Some would argue that the farmer is "primitive" and that the world traveler is "civilized and sophisticated". In fact, the world traveler would likely starve to death before he could grow a crop to feed himself, let alone his family.

Truth is, the human mind is a complicated affair no matter where the head bearing it lives. People reflect their environment. It just depends how they focus. They can reflect a microscopic view or a cosmic view, but they probably can't describe both of them at the same time.

The people who lived here in Florida, just before contact with Europeans, were human beings and as such, had adapted to their environments. Like all human communities, they defended their property rights. They had learn to make a living there. This was their home after all and home is the place where we feel confident that we can raise our family among like-minded folks. The people on the other side of the swamp may not share our beliefs, but that's alright as long as they stay over there where they belong.
Hurricanes, floods, droughts, and even plagues can change the economy of an area. Suddenly, people who had plenty and raised lots of kids are hungry. When they look at their neighbors, they might see advantages that they once enjoyed. The neighbors may share their bounty, or not.

The story of the Florida Indian’s is a complex story. As a culture, they are extinct, and so there is no one to speak for them. The modern men and women who study them have little to go on. All that remains are the culturally biases accounts of the conquerors and a scattering of archaeological evidence.

For example, we all know that divorce is very serious stuff in our modern world. It changes our lives, even turns our world up-side-down. Imagine looking back a thousand years for a divorce. All the written information has long since disappeared. The few artifacts that remain could be interpreted in a variety of ways. Yet the divorce still had powerful consequences even if we cannot comprehend them.

The nations of people who made up Florida before the coming of Europeans were just as complicated in their humanness. They experienced the interconnectedness of things and because they lived in a smaller world perspective than we do, they ascribed certain supernatural attributes to them. They struggled with these issues just as they struggled to insure a steady supply of food and safety for their families. Interpersonal issues were as challenging then as now. Their relationship with the resources of their world was critical. They traded to bring in needed supplies, as well as goods that enhanced the quality of their lives. They worked and learned to live in and deal with their environment.

For some strange reason, the Florida Indians have been thought to be "exclusive feeders". We were told that the Indians lived off shellfish. The really ancient hunters ate mammoths. Now it is assumed that they ate mostly fish. Because it isn't understood how these so-called "primitive" people gardened, we conclude they didn’t.

Most of the people who live close to the good earth aren’t exclusive. Green, growing things are a very consistent and reliable food resource. Given the most minimal of observational skills over the many thousands of years they lived here, is it not reasonable to assume that Florida Indians developed some kind of horticulture? In central and south America, anthropologist have discovered a very complicated system called a "milpa" where plants are placed so symbiotically close to each other that the casual observer would think their gardens were merely wild forests.

Among the Calusa, modern scholars have determined that the leader or "cacique," married his sister, Antonia, an assumption based on reports left behind by Spanish priests, which in itself should set off alarms. American Indians that we have interviewed say that "sister" refers to a woman of equal status. A "brother" would be a man of equal status. "Grandmother" or "grandfather" is a revered elder. Moreover, marrying within your totem, a blood relative, would be absolutely forbidden. Interestingly, these same priestly reporters recorded that Antonia, the "sister/wife" of Carlos, sat with a large gathering of women behind her when meeting with Pedro Menéndez de Aviles. Could it have been that Antonia was the leader of the women's society and not merely a concubine of the chief? In another incident, Antonia is porportedly "given to Menéndez" to take as a wife. Could another interpretation be that she was acting as an ambassador, given her social status? Her non-warrior role would make her a much more effective diplomat than her "warrior clan brothers". Because Menéndez and his chroniclers were so socially inept as to not understand the subtleties of Calusa diplomacy, and women's roles within that society, we should not negate the fact that she may well have been a much more influencial force it her community than she has been given credit.

Only when we give native people dignity and open our minds to their humanity, we can stop looking at them as ignorant savages. And when we "dig" into their cultural heritage let's make them human, with all the complexities of humans who were able to survive well for millennia before "civilized" Europeans arrived.