A tribe of Southeast Indians, the Timucua once lived in what are now northeastern Florida and southeastern Georgia. They spoke a language that is also called Timucua. The Timucua may have been the first Native Americans encountered by the Spanish explorers who arrived in Florida in the early 1500s. They no longer exist as a tribe.
The Timucua lived in villages that typically had a central plaza that was used for playing games. Houses were round and consisted of a wooden pole frame covered with palm branches. The Timucua got most of their food by farming, with the most important crops being corn, squash, and beans. They also fished, collected shellfish, and hunted deer, bears, turkeys, alligators, and other animals.
The first contact between the Timucua and Europeans probably came in 1513, when the Spanish explorer Ponce de León reached Florida. The brutality of a Spanish expedition led by Hernando de Soto in 1539 led to armed conflict that killed hundreds of Timucua. In the 1560s the tribe came in contact with a group of French Protestants, or Huguenots, seeking refuge from persecution in France. Relations between the Timucua and the French were friendly, but in 1565 the Spanish eliminated the French settlements and began to expand their control over Florida. They built missions to convert the Indians to Christianity and exploited them for labor. In addition, diseases carried by the Spanish greatly reduced the tribe’s numbers.
In the early 1700s Timucua territory was invaded by the English and their Creek Indian allies. Many Timucua died in warfare. Sometime after 1736 the remnants of the tribe moved to the area near the site of present-day Mosquito Lagoon in east-central Florida. It is likely that the remaining Timucua were eventually absorbed into Seminole culture.