Archive for January 15th, 2010
Calusa: The Shell Indians
The sun has again smiled on us in SW Florida after many days of rain and/or cold weather. (That’s a relative term). So tomorrow my friend and I plan to paint en plein air at the Randell Research Center at Pineland on Pine Island, northwest of Fort Myers, where the Calusa (kah-LOOS-ah) Indians once lived.
The population of this tribe may have been as many as 50,000 and they controlled most of south Florida from Tampa to Miami for 1500 years. Calusa means “fierce people” and they were the first ones the Spanish wrote home about in 1513.
The Calusa lived along the coast and inner waterways, built homes on stilts and made roofs from Palmetto leaves. They fished for food, used spears to catch eels and turtles and made fish bone arrowheads to hunt for animals such as deer. They used shells for tools and utensils, jewelry and ornaments. Shell spears were made for hunting and fishing, and shell mounds (garbage dumps) are still found on Pine Island. The Calusa died out in the late 1700s due to enemies and diseases brought by Spanish and French explorers.