Sacred Ground

For thousands of years before European conquest, untold generations of indigenous people thrived and adapted in this landscape as a matrilineal society that skillfully used its rich resources for food, medicine, clothing, shelter, tools, vessels, fishing nets, ocean-going canoes, and immense shell mounds. Between first contact, generally cited as 1513, and the end of the 18th century, native populations declined to the point of near extinction as Spanish, English, and French invasions of La Florida eradicated Florida's native people and annihilated their culture and community life. By the mid-18th century, new native people, now identified as the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes, began to move into peninsular Florida.

Palm Harbor, Florida · United States