A member of the Tocobaga tribe is portrayed in the painting “Tocobaga Beach” in the “Florida’s Lost Tribes” series of paintings by artist Theodore Morris.
Native Americans who lived in western Pasco and northern Pinellas counties for more than 500 years — until the 16th century — belonged to a tribe called the Tocobaga.
Tocobaga means “the place of the gourds.” The word, spelled different ways, first appears in Spanish records in 1567 and in varying contexts could refer to a village, a chief or the people themselves.
These natives lived in small villages, each built around a central meeting area. Wooden poles held up the palm-thatched roofs of their round houses.
Spaniards who encountered the Tocobagas thought they were giants. Indeed, they were much taller than the Spaniards. Renowned explorer Ponce de Leon, for example, was slightly over 5 feet tall. The coastal natives were well-muscled, strong and agile, partly due to a protein-rich diet culled from the area’s bountiful seafood and wildlife.
The tribe used oyster and clam shells to build mounds, which served several purposes. A midden mound basically was a garbage heap of discarded shells and trash. A burial mound contained skeletons and weapons. A ceremonial mound was built high, with a meeting place or chief’s residence on top.
Excavated midden mounds have revealed much information about what the people ate. The natives were good hunters and consumed deer, rabbits, armadillos and squirrels. The Tocobaga fished and gathered shellfish as their primary source of food. They also ate manatees and supplemented their diet with wild berries, nuts and fruit.
Other mounds and excavations of villages reveal tools the Tocobaga developed for hunting, cooking and eating. For hunting, they threw a stick with a spear called an atlatl. They also crafted tools including hammers, adzes, knives, drills and scrapers, most of which probably were used for tasks such as digging, fabricating of shelter and preparing food. The people wore little clothing, but had many tattoos signifying their status within the tribe.
The Rao Musunuru, M.D., Museum and Library, home of the West Pasco Historical Society, focuses on post-colonial Pasco county. But it has a room dedicated to prehistoric Pasco, with a collection of indigenous artifacts. Exhibits include examples of stone and shell tools and pottery from the Tocabaga and Seminole Indians.
“The Tocobaga of Pasco were the same people that had mounds in Safety Harbor, and this area represents some of the best archaeological evidence remaining today of Tocobaga culture,” said museum curator Brittni Bradford. “Finding out which tribes existed in prehistoric Florida is an ongoing search archaeologists are trying to answer even today. There were indigenous people in Florida before, during and after the Tocobaga.”
The Tocobaga disappeared after the 16th century. No one knows exactly when because of a gap of 200 years between visits by the Spanish. The reason for their demise also is unclear. They might have died from exposure to disease spread by the Europeans, been killed in wars with neighboring tribes or merged with other tribes.*
*http://www.tbo.com/Local/CommunityNews/tocobaga-tribe-lived-in-west-pasco-north-pinellas-20160311/
ETZNAB
Kin 78: White Cosmic Mirror
I endure in order to reflect
Transcending order
I seal the matrix of endlessness
With the cosmic tone of presence
I am guided by the power of spirit.
As we enter deeper into telepathic civilization we will increasingly
understand that mathematical ratios govern the psychic and inter-psychic sense experiences.*
*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2016-2017.
The Sacred Tzolk'in
Sahasrara Chakra (Dali Plasma)
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