La Florida Everglades


In the 1500’s, the European explorers landed in the wettest land condition they have ever discovered, La Florida. They landed in these lands, more specifacally the everglades, in the early 1500’s. Although these conditions were harsh and hard to live in, the European settlers were not the first to step on this so called, “undiscovered land.” Native Americans were already inhabitting this land by the time the Europeans explored the everglades. It only took until the 1700’s for most of the local native american tribes to be completely wiped out from murder or European disease. 
Although these wet conditions seem impossible to live in, there have been humans living in the everglades since 13,000B.C. The two main tribes that occupied this region were the Calusa Indians and the Tequesta Indians.


Pictured above is estimated to be what these ancient tribes looked like so long ago. “The Tequesta tribe was a smaller tribe, but the Calusa was bigger in size, about 4,000 to 7,000 at their peak.” (Miller, 4). These tribes were both hunter-gatherer societies and got all of their protein from catching lots of fish (Miller, 4). The Calusa were experts at catching fish, they had a system for catching lots of small fish that inscreased their protein intake. This wet land may seem hard to live in for the average explorer, but these tribes used it for their benifit. The wet condition made fishing a lot easier to come by, giving them more access to lots of protein. Sadly, by the time the Europeans had become comfortable on this land in the 1700’s, the Calusa tribe and the Tequesta tribe had been either killed off by explorers, or had succumbed to the new diseases the europeans had introduced. Although we may see the everglades as inhabitable, it is interesting to see these native Americans adapt and use the land for their benifit to thrive. 

Miller, Mike. “The Florida Everglades - Past, Present, and Future.” Florida Back Roads Travel, 4 Oct. 2021, https://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/florida-everglades.html. Accessed Sep 9, 2022

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