Tequesta << teh KEH stah >> were a Native American people who lived in what is today southeast Florida. The Tequesta homeland was centered on what is now Miami and extended north along the Atlantic coast to Fort Lauderdale and west into the Everglades. The Tequesta were small in population, but their location near the mouth of the Miami River and the entrance to the Florida Keys made them an important political alliance for nearby peoples. They remained in their homeland until at least the early 1600’s. By the mid-1700’s, the Tequesta ceased to exist as an ethnic group in Florida.
Tequesta society was organized as a chiefdom—a group of villages with a principal chief called thecacique << kah SEE keh >> ruling over less powerful village chiefs. The name Tequesta was applied to the people in all of the villages ruled by a cacique named Tequesta in the mid-1500’s. Tequesta’s brother also held a key political position. Scholars believe leadership was inherited among Tequesta groups. At times, the Tequesta paid tribute (gifts or payment) to chiefs of the more powerful Calusa people of southwest Florida. Marriages between high-ranking members of different groups helped create alliances.
Ways of life
The village of Tequesta was named for Cacique Tequesta. It was located where the Miami River enters Biscayne Bay. The location of this village positioned the Tequesta to take advantage of freshwater food resources such as trout, eel, and alligator. It also allowed them to harvest fish, shellfish, sharks, and whales from the ocean. They used inland and coastal waterways to gather such seasonally available plant foods as roots, nuts, and fruits. They also hunted deer and other land animals.
The Tequesta fashioned most of their tools from local, natural materials. They made conch and other shells into woodworking tools and hammers, which were used to make ocean-faring canoes. They set shark teeth into wooden handles to use as knives or carving tools. Other tools were fashioned from deer bone or antler. The Tequesta fired clay pots for cooking. They made fishing nets, clothing, mats, and other woven items from plant fiber. Waterways enabled the Tequesta to participate in long-distance trade networks, getting items from such other regions as the Midwest and the Great Lakes area. For example, archaeologists have found ground stone axes, the mineral hematite, and a bead made from the mineral galena—all items obtained from other regions—at the Tequesta site known as the Miami Circle.
The Miami Circle lies at the mouth of the Miami River. Archaeologists discovered the site in 1999, after high-rise condominiums in the area were demolished for new construction. A large area of midden (waste from early inhabitants) was found underneath the old buildings. The midden included discarded shellfish, animal bones, broken pottery, and tools. It covered holes that had been carved in the limestone bedrock. One group of holes was in the shape of a perfect circle measuring 38 feet (11.5 meters) in diameter. Archaeologists believe these holes once held posts marking the site of a large public structure that existed within the village of Tequesta. Such a large public meeting house is consistent with early historic writings about the village, which describe Tequesta as a gathering place for neighboring communities. Other nearby midden areas and rock and burial mounds were also part of the village of Tequesta. Most of these were destroyed as the city of Miami was built. Today, the Miami Circle is a National Historical Landmark and park owned by the state of Florida.
History
Before Spain colonized the Florida area, illegal slaving expeditions ventured into southeast Florida to capture Native Americans. Captured individuals were taken to nearby Caribbean islands to work in Spanish mines and on Spanish farms. In 1513, when the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León arrived in Florida and officially claimed the region for Spain, he made note of a village called Chequescha, which later became known as Tequesta. In 1567, the Spanish naval captain Pedro Menéndez de Avilés established a fort at Tequesta. The fort was occupied by a garrison of soldiers and sometimes by a Jesuit priest. The brother of Cacique Tequesta was baptized in Spain and given the name Don Diego before being returned to the community to serve as a Christian ambassador. Ultimately, attempts to eliminate traditional Tequesta religious practices resulted in rising tensions, and the fort and mission were abandoned in 1568.
By the early 1600’s, Spanish settlements had expanded across northern Florida. The Spanish and, later, English colonists brought unfamiliar diseases that killed many indigenous people. By the early 1700’s, armed Native American slavers sponsored by the English forced other Florida peoples off their traditional lands. Many sought refuge near present-day Miami and in the Florida Keys. A Spanish mission was briefly set up to assist them. The Spanish evacuated some indigenous Floridians to Cuba between 1711 and 1763. Some scholars believe surviving Tequesta individuals may have been among them.
