Historian John Hann has produced the first survey of Florida’s natives who lived south of a line roughly through Orlando that includes some of the richest cultural history in the nation. Focusing first on the “Fierce People,” the Calusa of the southern Gulf Coast, Hann draws on the latest archaeological research to try to explain these people as they vainly resisted Spanish colonialism.
This volume also tells the story of the Tequesta of Miami Circle fame on the Atlantic coast. Chapters on religious beliefs and political and economic organization make this a well-rounded study with an interest and significance far beyond the region.