Spanish Indians

Spanish Indians was the name Americans sometimes gave to Native Americans living in southwest Florida and in southernmost Florida during the first half of the 19th century. Those people were also sometimes called "Muspas". Seminoles, Muscogees (called "Creeks" by English-speakers), Alabamas, and Choctaws were also reported to be living in southwest and southern Florida in the early 19th century. Many Native Americans were employed by and often resident at Spanish-Cuban fishing ranchos along the coast of southwest Florida. During the Second Seminole War, a band led by Chakaika that lived in the Shark River Slough in the Everglades was particularly called "Spanish Indians". The residents of the fishing ranchos and, after Chakaika's death in 1840, many people from his band, were sent west to the Indian Territory, and Spanish Indians were no longer mentioned in the historical record. Scholars long regarded the Spanish Indians as likely a surviving remnant of the Calusa people. More recent scholarship regards the Spanish Indians as Muskogean language-speakers (collectively called "Muscogulges") who had settled in southern Florida in the 18th century and formed a close association with Spaniards, or were even beginning to form a Spanish-Native American creole people.

There were a number of different Native American peoples living in southwestern Florida in the late 18th century and early 19th centuries. It was reported in 1823 that there were Seminoles, as well as small numbers of Muscogees, Alabamas, Choctaws, and other tribes, living near Tampa Bay and Charlotte Habor, with some living in the Cape Sable region, and "not more than 50" on the east coast near Cape Florida. People living in the area of Charlotte Harbor were called both "Spanish Indians" and "Muspas", and it was long assumed later in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century that the Spanish Indians and Muspas were remnants of the Calusa. The Spanish Indians lived in palmetto thatched huts, raised food in mainland farms, spoke Spanish, dealt with Spanish-Cuban fishermen, visited and traded with Havana, and were in communication with other Indian bands in Florida, but had no contact with English-speakers.

When the Spanish first reached Florida, southwest Florida was the home of the Calusa and other peoples who were closely associated with and dominated by them. Spanish presence in the Calusa domain was sporadic and limited, with the last Spanish attempt to place a mission with the Calusa failing in 1697. After the destruction of the Spanish mission system in northern Florida at the beginning of the 18th century, Yamassees and Muscogulges raided far into the Florida peninsula, killing many of the Florida natives, and capturing others for sale as slaves.

Continued raiding by Muscogulges pushed the last Calusas and other peoples into extreme southern Florida. The last 60 Calusas on Key West were evacuated to Cuba in 1760. Bernard Romans reported that the coast between Cape Sable and Cape Romano was the last refuge of the Calusa before they were driven off the continent by the Muscogulges, and that the last 80 families of Calusa left Florida for Havana in 1763, when Florida was ceded to the British by the Spanish.

There are some reports of possible remnants of Calusas remaining in Florida. William Bartram reported that in 1774 an old Muscogee told him about a town called "Calusahatche" on the "Bay of Carlos" (Charlotte Habor), occupied by Calosulges (Calusa people) which included ancient residents of Florida called "Painted people" and "Bat necks". However, Benjamin Hawkins mentioned the town of Caloosahatchee as being Seminole in 1778-1779. Botanist John C. Gifford found a village on the Shark River in 1904 that he thought was not typically Seminole, but perhaps a mixture of Calusa and Seminole.

Muskogean-speakers began settling in the Florida Peninsula by the middle of the 18th century. A band of Hitchiti-speaking Oconees, led by Ahaya, settled on the Alachua Savanna (now called Paynes Prairie) sometime around 1750. They later became known as the "Alachua Seminoles".

People speaking Muskogean languages may have settled in southern Florida before all of the Calusa left. In the 1950s, Miccosukees living west of Miami told William C. Sturtevant that they remembered the kalasa:Lî (Calusa people), but regarded them as Spanish. They did not remember any Painted people, Bat necks, or Muspas. Frances Densmore recorded 17 songs from a Cow Creek (Muscogee-speaking) Seminole in 1932 that were said to be Calusa. According to the informant, the Seminole and Calusa had lived peaceably near each other for a while, and learned songs from each other. The two peoples later fought, and the Seminoles defeated the Calusa. Muscogulges dominated all of Florida after the departure of the Calusa in the 1760s, even attacking Spanish fishing vessels along the Florida coast (including at Key West) during the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). Bernard Romans reported using a "Spanish Indian" guide at the St. Lucie River in 1769. As Romans elsewhere reported the departure of all Calusa from Florida by 1763, this Spanish Indian was likely a Muscogulge rather than a Calusa.

Spanish records include lists of names of Florida Indians, eventually including hundreds each year, that visited Cuba between 1771 and 1823. Sturtevant notes that most of the names of chiefs and towns recorded by the Spanish appear to be Muscogee. While the remaining names may be Calusa, they may also be Muscogee names distorted by poor transcription and copying errors.