
General Info:
- The Tocobaga people were found to use tools such as the atlatl and the adz. The atlatl was a throwing stick used to hunt. ...
- The Tocobaga people also made simple pottery, usually plates, bowls, and simple tools.
- Something that leaves many people of today confused is the fact that the Tocobaga people had corn. ...
What is the Tocobaga tribe?
The "Tocobaga" tribe was comprised of several small chiefdoms such as Ucita, Pohoy, and Mococo, that ranged from today’s Pinellas County to Sarasota County. They maintained a fishing and hunting culture for approximately 600-800 years before being encountered by the Spanish explorers in the early 1500s.
What did the Tocobaga use to hunt?
For hunting, the Tocobaga Indians used a throwing stick called an atlatl. It looked and functioned much like a spear. It was used to kill animals for food and clothing. While hunting, the Tocobaga would wear deerskin, or sometimes deer heads over themselves, to get close enough to the animals to kill them.
How did the Tocobaga go extinct?
In approximately 1528, Pánfilo de Narváez, a Spanish explorer, arrived in the Tampa Bay area. He and his men found the Tocobaga and brought disease and violence to the tribe's peaceful existence. As a result, the Tocobaga Indians became extinct within the next 100 years.
How did the Tocobaga get to St Augustine?
The Tocobaga were engaged in transporting produce from Apalachee Province to St. Augustine, carrying it in canoes along the coast and up the Suwannee River and, probably, the Santa Fe River. Other people carried it overland the rest of the way to St. Augustine.

What did the Tocobaga tribe make?
The Tocobaga Indians built mounds within their villages. A mound is a large pile of earth, shells, or stones. The chief's home and the tribe's temple were each built on a mound. The Tocobaga also built burial mounds outside the main village area as a place for burying the dead.
What games did the Tocobaga tribe play?
The Tocobaga played checkers . They even made checkers.
Is the Tocobaga tribe still alive?
When Conquistador Panfilo de Navarez arrived to Tampa Bay in 1528, the Tocobaga had hundreds of thousands of inhabitants living in the area off of its abundant natural resources. The Spanish brought war, enslavement, cruelty, and disease that wiped out the group within the next 150 years. There are no living members.
Who was the leader of the Tocobaga tribe?
In 1528 this Spanish soldier was captured by the Tocobaga tribe who lived around Tampa Bay. The head of the tribe, Chief Uzita, ordered that Ortiz be burned to death.
What was the Tocobaga culture?
The "Tocobaga" tribe was comprised of several small chiefdoms such as Ucita, Pohoy, and Mococo, that ranged from today's Pinellas County to Sarasota County. They maintained a fishing and hunting culture for approximately 600-800 years before being encountered by the Spanish explorers in the early 1500s.
What did the Tocobaga eat?
Because of their proximity to both the bay and freshwater streams, the Tocobaga fished and gathered shellfish as their primary source of food. They also ate manatees, which were abundant in the nearby waters. During this time, the Tampa Bay area was rich with animals such as deer, rabbits, armadillo, and squirrels.
What does the word Tocobaga mean?
Tocobaga (occasionally Tocopaca) was the name of a chiefdom, its chief, and its principal town during the 16th century.
What was the population of the Tocobaga tribe?
between 400 and 2500 peopleThe Tocobaga were originally from the Tampa Bay area. When the Spanish explorer Panfilo de Narvarez landed in the area in the 1500s, the Tocobaga chiefdom was centered around the northwestern end of Tampa Bay, near the current community of Safety Harbor. It had an estimated population between 400 and 2500 people.
What does the word Tampa mean?
It is believed to mean "sticks of fire" in the language of the Calusa, an Indian tribe that once lived south of the area. This may relate to the high concentration of lightning strikes that west central Florida receives every year during the summer months.
What did the Tocobaga tribe wear?
Most accounts of the Tocobaga come from the writings of Spanish explorers. According to them, the members of the tribe wore minimal clothing, leaving most of the skin bare to expose their elaboratte tattoos.
How were the Tocobaga and the Tequesta tribes different?
Both of these indian tribes lived near the coast of Florida. The Tocobaga lived on the western coast, where Tampa Bay is today. The Tequesta lived on the southeast coast, where Miami is today. Like the Tocobaga, the Tequesta ate shellfish and manatees as well as sharks, porpoises, alligators, and turtles.
Who were the first people in Tampa?
Calusa and Timucua peoples (later replaced by the Seminoles) were early inhabitants of the area, which was visited by the Spanish explorers Pánfilo de Narváez (1528) and Hernando de Soto (1539). Settlement of Tampa began with Fort Brooke, established in 1824 to oversee the Seminoles.
What did the Tocobaga Indians build?
The Tocobaga Indians built mounds within their villages. A mound is a large pile of earth, shells, or stones. The chief's home and the tribe's temple were each built on a mound . The Tocobaga also built burial mounds outside the main village area as a place for burying the dead.
What are some of the things that the Tocobaga Indians have found?
Archaeological digs in the Safety Harbor area of Florida have uncovered many artifacts, or man-made objects from the Tocobaga. Items such as plates and pots have been found indicating that the Tocobaga Indians were expert potters.
What animals did the Tocobaga hunt?
During this time, the Tampa Bay area was rich with animals such as deer, rabbits, armadillo, and squirrels. As a result, the Tocobaga became great hunters. They also gathered a variety of berries, nuts, and fruit to supplement their diet. Interestingly, the Tocobaga Indians had corn, an unusual find in the Tampa Bay area.
How did Tocobaga make a tool?
The Tocobaga also constructed a tool by placing a living tree branch through a shell with a hole in it. Over a period of time the branch would grow into the shell. The branch would then be cut off the tree. This produced a sturdy tool used for digging clams.
When was Tocobaga named?
The name "Tocobaga" is often applied to all of the native peoples of the immediate Tampa Bay area during the first Spanish colonial period (1513-1763).
When did the Tocobaga settle in Apalachee?
In 1677 a Spanish official inspecting the missions in Apalachee Province visited a village of Tocobaga people living on the Wacissa River one league from the mission of San Lorenzo de Ivitachuco. There is no record of when the Tocobaga settled on the Wacissa River, but they appear to have been there for a while.
How many people did Pohoy kill in Tocobaga?
Marks River under the protection of a battery. In August that year 25 to 30 Pohoy attacked the Tocobaga settlement, killing eight and taking three away as captives.
What language did the Mocoso people speak?
Another town near Uzita encountered by de Soto was Mocoso, but evidence suggests that, while Mocoso was in the Safety Harbor culture area together with Uzita and Tocobaga, the Mocoso people spoke a different language, possibly Timucua .
What happened to the Potano people in 1608?
In 1608 an alliance of Pohoy and Tocobaga may have threatened Potano people who had been converted to Christianity. In 1611 a raiding party from the two chiefdoms killed several Christianized Natives carrying supplies to the Spanish mission (Cofa) at the mouth of the Suwannee River. In 1612, the Spanish launched a punitive expedition down the Suwannee River and along the Gulf coast, attacking Tocobaga and Pohoy, killing many of their people, including both chiefs. The Tocobaga were weakened by the Spanish attack, and the Pohoy became the dominant power in Tampa Bay for a while.
Where did Narvaez and De Soto land?
^ The exact place (s) at which Narváez and de Soto landed is disputed. Bullen (51) and Hann (2003: 12) place Narvaez's landing on the south side of Tampa Bay, with a route north around the east side of the bay, well away from Tocobaga. Milanich (1998: 120) suggests Narvaez landed on the Pinellas peninsula, and marched directly north through Tocobaga territory. The De Soto National Memorial marking de Soto's landing is on the south side of Tampa Bay. Bullen (51-3) and Milanich 1998 (107-8) argue that the descriptions of de Soto's initial travels fit that location better than proposed alternatives, such as Charlotte Harbor or the Caloosahatchee River. Hann (2003: 105) simply states that the landing was on the south side of Tampa Bay. Neither expedition recorded the name Tocobaga.
What did Narváez order?
Garcilaso de la Vega (known as el Inca ), in his history of de Soto's expedition, relates that Narváez had ordered that the nose of the chief of Uzita be cut off, indicating that the two explorers had passed through the same area.
What happened to the Tocobaga tribe in Florida?
Massacres and disease had effectively destroyed most indigenous Florida tribes, and by the 1760s the Tocobaga were amongst the very small number of Indians remaining. In 1763, Spain finally agreed to give up its claim to Florida and evacuate all Spaniards to Cuba, the last of the Tocobaga went with them. The "Tocobaga" tribe was comprised of ...
Where did the Tocobaga live?
They lived in over twenty temple villages in the Tampa Bay area . Archaeological evidence shows that the autonomous villages of the Tocobaga shared many features. Typically, each town had a single, large, flat-topped temple mound, from which a ramp extended down toward a plaza.
What tools did the Tocobaga use?
The Tocobaga developed many tools for hunting, cooking, and eating. One such tool was the adz. The adz was made of a shell or pointed stone tied to the end of a curved branch. It was used for digging. They also constructed a tool by placing a living tree branch through a shell with a hole in it.
What did the Tocobaga Indians use to hunt?
For hunting, the Tocobaga Indians used a throwing stick called an atlatl. It looked and functioned much like a spear. It was used to kill animals for food and clothing. While hunting, the Tocobaga would wear deerskin, or sometimes deer heads over themselves, to get close enough to the animals to kill them.
What tool did the Tocobaga Indians use to dig clams?
This produced a sturdy tool used for digging clams. For hunting, the Tocobaga Indians used a throwing stick called an atlatl. It looked and functioned much like a spear.
When did Tocobaga first appear?
The name "Tocobaga" first appears in Spanish documents in 1567, when Pedro Menendez de Aviles visited the Safety Harbor site with a party of Calusa he had brought with him from the south.
What were the Native Americans of Tampa Bay known as?
ABOUT THE NATIVE AMERICANS OF TAMPA BAY, COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE TOCOBAGA. Florida tribes' tools and weapons were not of a style that you normally associate with Indians. In Florida, there was no metal, and little to no suitable hard stone such as basalt of flint.
