Before the Spanish settlers arrived, the Calusa (friendly like war-people) lived on the coast and inner waterways of Florida. The population reached about 50,000 people. Homes were built on stilts and palmetto leaves were woven. Their diets consisted of deer, mullet, pinfish, pigfish, catfish, eels, turtles, shellfish – conchs, crabs, clams, lobsters and oysters. The bones from the animals were turned into spears for hunting. Shells were used for tools, utensils, jewelry, and ornaments for shrines.  

The Calooshahatchee River, “River of the Calusa” was the main waterway that the Calusa sailed on to protect their land from the different groups of Europeans that came ashore. The dugout boats were made from hollowed out cypress logs at about 0.3 meters (15 feet) long. The Calusa tribe sailed for long periods of time. They were known to sail to Cuba and the west coast salvaging the wealth from shipwrecks.

By the late 1700’s tribes from Georgia and South Carolina began raiding the Calusa’s territory. Eventually, the Calusa’s were captured and sold as slaves. 

The Tequesta were another Native American group to settle in South Florida. They ate the same food as the Calusa tribes and hunted bear, elk, wild boar and small mammals. They hunted shark and used their teeth to carve out logos to make canoes. The Tequesta’s were eventually taken out by the European settlers in the 1500’s.