The Amacanos were a native American people who lived in the vicinity of

Apalachee Province Apalachee Province was the area in the Panhandle of the present-day U.S. state of Florida inhabited by the Native American peoples known as the Apalachee at the time of European contact. The southernmost extent of the Mississippian culture, th ...

in Spanish Florida during the 17th century. They are believed to have been related to, and spoken the same language as, the Chacato,

Chine A chine () is a steep-sided coastal gorge where a river flows to the sea through, typically, soft eroding cliffs of sandstone or clays. The word is still in use in central Southern England—notably in East Devon, Dorset, Hampshire and the Is ...

, Pacara and

Pensacola Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ci ...

peoples. The Amacano were served, together with other peoples, by a series of

Spanish missions The Spanish missions in the Americas were Catholic missions established by the Spanish Empire during the 16th to 19th centuries in the period of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. These missions were scattered throughout the entirety of ...

during the last quarter of the 17th century.

Origins

The origins of the Amacanos are obscure.

John Swanton John Reed Swanton (February 19, 1873 – May 2, 1958) was an American anthropologist, folklorist, and linguist who worked with Native American peoples throughout the United States. Swanton achieved recognition in the fields of ethnology and ethn ...

classified the Amacanos as Yamassee, apparently based only on the resemblance of their names. John Hann states that relationship is incorrect. The Amacano language is believed to be the same as, or closely related to, the Chacato language, as are the languages of other peoples that lived in the Florida Panhandle west of Apalachee Province in the 17th century, including the Chine, Pacara, and Pensacola people. All of those peoples were likely descended from people of the Fort Walton culture who lived along the Big Bend Coast of the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

, in the Apalachicola River Valley, and in points west.

Location

Michael Gannon says the Amacanos lived west of Apalachee Province, as do John Hann and Bonnie McEwan (1998) and Joseph Hall.

Jerald T. Milanich Jerald T. Milanich is an American anthropologist and archaeologist, specializing in Native American culture in Florida. He is Curator Emeritus of Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida in Gainesville ...

suggests that the Amacanos were from the lower Withlacoochee River in west central Florida north of

Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater ...

. Hann (2006) states that the Amacanos lived on the coast south and southeast of Apalachee in 1633. John Worth suggests that the Amacano lived along the Florida coast between the

Aucilla river The Aucilla River rises in Brooks County, Georgia, USA, close to Thomasville, and passes through the Big Bend region of Florida, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico at Apalachee Bay. Some early maps called it the Ocilla River. It is long and h ...

and

. In 1628 or 1629, the Spanish in St. Augustine pressured the

Pohoy Pohoy (also Pojoy, Pojoi, Pooy, Posoy, Pujoy) was a chiefdom on the shores of Tampa Bay in present-day Florida in the late sixteenth century and all of the seventeenth century. Following slave-taking raids by people from the Lower Towns of the Musc ...

of Tampa Bay to make peace with the Amacano, which suggests that the Amacano were living on the coast between the Pojoy on Tampa Bay, the

Timucua The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The v ...

in the Suwannee Valley, and Apalachee Province. The coast between Tampa Bay and Apalachee Province has been traditionally identified as inhabited by the Timucua; Milanich suggests that the boundaries of the Timucua reached Florida's west coast only at a few points. The Amacano were said to be a small nation, and so likely occupied only a small territory, though they may have migrated or relocated in the 17th or 16th centuries.

Early contacts

The Amacanos may have moved closer to Apalachee Province when Spanish missionaries first arrived to establish missions in 1633, although Hall thinks they were always close to the province. The Amacanos contacted the Spanish missionaries shortly after missions were first established in Apalachee Province. They requested a mission, but the Spanish missionaries were short-handed. The Amacanos built a church and convent (residence for a missionary) in anticipation of receiving a missionary. There is one report of a possible mission to the Amacanos in 1635, but no later mention in Spanish records of such a mission. By 1637 the Amacano were reported to be living west of Apalachee Province, at the mouth of the Apalachicola river. That year, Amacano canoes met Spanish supply ships at the mouth of the Apalachicola River, and guided them towards Apalachee Province, but stopped before reaching Apalachee. In 1638, Damian de Vega Castro y Pardo, governor of Spanish Florida, sent Sergeant-Major Antonio de Herrerra López y Mesa to negotiate peace among the Apalachee, Apalachicola, Amacano and Chacato peoples. The Amacano next appeared in Spanish records in 1674, when they were recorded living in association with Chine and Pacara people in the town of Chaccabi in the southern part of Apalachee Province near

Apalachee Bay Apalachee Bay is a bay in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico occupying an indentation of the Florida coast to the west of where the Florida peninsula joins the United States mainland. It is bordered by Taylor, Jefferson, Wakulla, and Franklin ...

. The three people were described as allies, speaking the same language, but as separate "nations". The Chine were probably the most numerous of the three peoples in Chaccabi.

Missions

A mission dedicated to St. Peter the Apostle (''San Pedro'') was founded in Chaccabi in April, 1674, to serve the Amacano, Chine, and Pacara people of the town, who were gradually being converted to Christianity. The three peoples of Chaccabi had apparently moved to a new site known as "the place of the Chines" by the next year, when Gabriel Díaz Vara Calderón, bishop of

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains ...

, founded the mission of Assumpcíon del Puerto on February 2, 1675 to serve them. That mission does not appear in Spanish records after 1675. The mission, identified as "Assumpcíon de Nuestra Señora", was reported to have 300 residents in 1675, which may be an undercount. The Chines, along with the Amacanos and Pacaras, may have moved more than once after 1675. A mission of "San Pedro de los Chines" is on a mission list from 1680. A mission named "San Antonio de Chines" was listed in 1694, which Hann says may be the result of a move to a location closer to San Luis. A census in 1681 counted 158 adults. A list in 1689 gave the population as 30 families.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * *{{Cite book , last=Worth , first=John E. , url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv18x4j2b , title=The Timucuan Chiefdoms of Spanish Florida: Volume II: Resistance and Destruction , date=1998 , publisher=University Press of Florida , doi=10.2307/j.ctv18x4j2b , jstor=j.ctv18x4j2b , isbn=978-0-8130-1575-0 Extinct Native American peoples Native American tribes in Florida