Mayaca was the name used by the Spanish to refer to a Native American tribe in central

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, to the principal village of that tribe and to the chief of that village in the 1560s. The Mayacas occupied an area in the upper

St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...

valley just to the south of Lake George. According to

Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda ( – after 1575, dates uncertain) was a Spanish shipwreck survivor who lived among the Native Americans of Florida for 17 years. His ''circa'' 1575 memoir, ''Memoria de las cosas y costa y indios de la Florida'', ...

, the Mayaca language was related to that of the Ais, a tribe living along the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

coast of Florida to the southeast of the Mayacas. The Mayacas were hunter-fisher-gatherers, and were not known to practice

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

to any significant extent, unlike their neighbors to the north, the Utina, or ''Agua Dulce'' (Freshwater)

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 va ...

. (In general, agriculture had not been adopted by tribes living south of the Timucua at the time of first contact with European people.) The Mayaca shared a

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...

tradition (the St. Johns culture) with the Freshwater Timucua, rather than the Ais (the Indian River culture).

History

The Spanish first encountered the Mayaca in 1566 while attempting to ransom some Frenchmen held by the Indians. Several villages near the Atlantic coast were reported to owe allegiance to Mayaca. At that time Mayaca appears to have been allied with the

Mocama The Mocama were a Native American people who lived in the coastal areas of what are now northern Florida and southeastern Georgia. A Timucua group, they spoke the dialect known as Mocama, the best-attested dialect of the Timucua language. Their ...

, or ''Agua Salada'' Timucua chief Saturiwa against the Agua Dulce (Freshwater) Timucua. In 1567 the Mayaca joined with the Saturiwa and the Potano, another Timucua people, against the Agua Dulce, which was defeated with Spanish aid.Hann, John H. (1996). ''A History of the Timucua Indians and Missions'', pp. 63–69. University Press of Florida. . Spanish

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

friars first visited the Mayaca late in the 16th century. The chief of the Mayaca had been converted to Christianity by 1597, but a mission, San Salvador de Mayaca, was not established until later. That mission is not mentioned in Spanish records for most of the 17th century. Missionary activity resumed again by 1680, at Anacape (San Antonio de Anacape) and Mayaca. By this time, Chachises (or Salchiches), Malaos (or Malicas) had become part of the population in Mayaca province, while refugee Yamassees had become the majority of the population. By the 1690s missions had been established at Concepción de Atoyquime, San Joseph de Jororo and in Atisimmi, in what had become the Mayaca-Jororo Province, and some Spanish ranches operated in the area. Disturbances in 1696 and 1697 led to the murders of a friar and some Indian converts. Peace was restored, but in 1708 raids by Indians allied with English colonists in the

Province of Carolina The Province of Carolina was a colony of the Kingdom of England (1663–1707) and later the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1712) that existed in North America and the Caribbean from 1663 until the Carolinas were partitioned into North and Sou ...

drove part of the Mayaca to seek refuge around St. Augustine. Others of the Mayacas moved south to the eastern side of

Lake Okeechobee Lake Okeechobee ( ) is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the List of largest lakes of the United States by area, eighth-largest natural freshwater lake among the 50 states of the United States and the second-largest ...

, which was named "Lake Mayaca" on maps in the 1820s ( Port Mayaca, on the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee, is a remnant of that name). In 1738 and 1739 a series of battles between the Mayaca living at Lake Okeechobee and their allies the Jororo and Bomto (or Bonita) on one side and the

Calusa The Calusa ( , Calusa: *ka(ra)luś(i)) were a Native American people of Florida's southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region. Previous Indigenous cultures had lived in the area for thousands o ...

, Pojoy and Amacapiras on the other side, together with a raid by the Uchise on the Pojoy, resulted in some 300 deaths. Some Mayaca were still living near Lake Okeechobee in 1743.

Related tribes

Jororo

The Jororo or Hororo lived just to the south of the Mayaca, probably in what is now Polk and Osceola counties in south-central Florida. They first appear in the Spanish records in the 1680s, and spoke the Mayaca language. Like the Mayaca, the Jororo were hunter-fisher-gatherers. Their land was very wet, full of lakes and "brambles", and subject to frequent flooding. Hann suggests that the name of the mission at Jizime or Atissime or Atisme indicates that Jororo territory extended in the valley of the

Kissimmee River The Kissimmee River is a river in south-central Florida, United States that forms the north part of the Everglades wetlands area. The river begins at East Lake Tohopekaliga south of Orlando, flowing south through Lake Kissimmee into the large ...

Others

Mayajuaca, Macoya and Mayrra are mentioned by early Spanish and French sources, and were probably located in the St. Johns River valley and associated with Mayaca. Macoya may in fact be a variant form of Mayaca.Hann 2003:62, 64

Notes

References

*Hann, John H. (1993). "The Mayaca and Jororo and Missions to Them", in McEwan, Bonnie G. ed. ''The Spanish Missions of ''La Florida. University Press of Florida. . *Hann, John H. (2003). ''Indians of Central and South Florida: 1513-1763''. University Press of Florida. *Milanich, Jerald T. (1996
"The Timucua"
Blackwell Publishers. {{authority control Archaeology in the Americas Extinct Native American peoples Pre-Columbian cultures Native American tribes in Florida