Pensacola people

<h2 id="pensacola-culture">Pensacola culture</h2>

The historical Pensacola people lived in part of a region once occupied by a group that archaeologists call the <a href="/facts/Pensacola_culture/Vdw7DgJR">Pensacola culture</a>, a regional variation of the <a href="/facts/Mississippian_culture/p7KW2KKG">Mississippian culture</a> that lasted from 1100 to 1700 CE.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1">1</a> The <a href="/facts/Archaeological_culture/atr9Dx9M">archaeological culture</a> covers an area stretching from a transitional Pensacola/<a href="/facts/Fort_Walton_culture/WwtmhqRH">Fort Walton culture</a> zone at <a href="/facts/Choctawhatchee_Bay/5tDPls3z">Choctawhatchee Bay</a> in Florida<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2">2</a> to the eastern side of the <a href="/facts/Mississippi_River_Delta/GcnP93vT">Mississippi River Delta</a> near <a href="/facts/Biloxi,_Mississippi/bJEaoYlz">Biloxi, Mississippi</a>, with the majority of its sites located along Mobile Bay in the <a href="/facts/Mobile-Tensaw_River_Delta/kAbfqXhU">Mobile-Tensaw River Delta</a>. Sites for the culture stretched inland, north into the southern <a href="/facts/Tombigbee_River/wymhbHgV">Tombigbee</a> and <a href="/facts/Alabama_River/hL95XLzf">Alabama River</a> valleys,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3">3</a> as far as the vicinity of <a href="/facts/Selma,_Alabama/56Jg8C1e">Selma, Alabama</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a> (The Fort Walton culture continued to exist in the <a href="/facts/Florida_Panhandle/LR0Uj4Ml">Florida Panhandle</a> to the east of the Pensacola area into the period of European colonization.)
Perhaps the best known Pensacola culture site is the <a href="/facts/Bottle_Creek_Indian_Mounds/1RW0QNWs">Bottle Creek Indian Mounds</a> site, a large site located on a low swampy island north of <a href="/facts/Mobile,_Alabama/r3yXLrtQ">Mobile, Alabama</a>. This site has at least eighteen <a href="/facts/Platform_mound/WIYV5svL">platform mounds</a>; five of which are arranged around a central <a href="/facts/Plaza/G9AhtLRh">plaza</a>. Its main occupation was from 1250 to 1550. It was a ceremonial center for the Pensacola culture peoples, and a gateway to their society. This site seems like an unlikely place to find a ceremonial center because it is surrounded by swamps and is difficult to reach on foot. However, it would have been easy access by a dugout canoe, the main mode of transportation available to the people who built the Bottle Creek site.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a>

<h2 id="early-contacts">Early contacts</h2>
The Pensacola's first contact with Europeans may have been with the <a href="/facts/Narv%C3%A1ez_expedition/lorAJAn9">Narváez expedition</a> in 1528. <a href="/facts/Cabeza_de_Vaca/IvWp7myo">Cabeza de Vaca</a> reported that the Indians they encountered in the vicinity of what is now <a href="/facts/Pensacola_Bay/x5ajsvaH">Pensacola Bay</a> were of "large stature and well formed," and lived in permanent houses. The cacique wore a robe of what de Vaca called "civet-marten", "the best [skins], I think, that can be found." After initially appearing to be friendly, the Indians attacked the Spaniards without warning during the night.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a>
In 1539 Diego Maldonado, exploring the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico under orders from <a href="/facts/Hernando_de_Soto/hrnElJWW">Hernando de Soto</a>, found Pensacola Bay (which the Spanish called the Bay of Achuse, Achusi, Ochuse or Ochus). Maldonado found a village on the bay, where he seized one or two of the inhabitants, along with a "good blanket of sables." De Soto ordered Maldonado to meet him at the Bay of Achuse the next summer with supplies for his expedition. Maldonado returned three years in succession, but de Soto never appeared.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a>
In 1559 <a href="/facts/Trist%C3%A1n_de_Luna_y_Arellano/1fGSzHqT">Tristán de Luna y Arellano</a> led an expedition to establish the Spanish colony of <a href="/facts/History_of_Pensacola,_Florida/GPv339mI">Ochuse</a> on Pensacola Bay, then known as the Bay of Ichuse (also spelled Ychuse).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a> The Spanish had planned to rely on the Indians for food supplies, but found the area almost deserted, with only a few Indians in fishing camps around the bay. The colony lost hundreds of people through storms and disease. Some tried to relocate to <a href="/facts/Santa_Elena_(Spanish_Florida)/9BPHT8jx">Santa Elena</a> (present-day <a href="/facts/Parris_Island,_South_Carolina/vxzY8R0x">Parris Island, South Carolina</a>), but were damaged by storms there, too. Survivors moved on to Cuba and Mexico City.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12">12</a>

<h2 id="panzacola">Panzacola</h2>
The first record of the name "Pensacola" was as Panzacola (or Pansacola) in 1657 as the name of a village associated with the mission of <a href="/facts/San_Juan_De_Aspalaga/zaj8lIGb">San Juan De Aspalaga</a> in the <a href="/facts/Apalachee_Province/BMJS3x2U">Apalachee Province</a> (Pansacola was a common surname among the Apalachee).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13">13</a> In 1685 the Spanish became concerned over reports that the French were trying to establish a colony on coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Over the next few years the Spanish searched for the rumored French colony, and for a good site for a Spanish colony to protect their interests in the area. The name Panzacola first was recorded in association with Pensacola Bay when Juan Jordan de Reina entered the bay in 1686; he found local Indians who called themselves and the bay Panzacola.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14">14</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15">15</a> That same year a letter reported that Panzacola could be reached by canoe by travelling west from <a href="/facts/San_Marcos_de_Apalache_Historic_State_Park/UKTB0yUU">San Marcos de Apalachee</a>, placing it twelve <a href="/facts/League_(unit)/0E43AAtF">leagues</a> from the "Indians of <a href="/facts/Mabila/fWp5jFj1">Mobile</a>".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16">16</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17">17</a> Panzacola is reported to have meant "long-haired people" or "hair people" in the Pensacola language. The Pensacola language was closely related to or the same as that of other peoples in western Florida, including the <a href="/facts/Amacano_people/cABl22Az">Amacano</a>, <a href="/facts/Chatot/bHNE4RCT">Chatot</a>, <a href="/facts/Chine_people/rn5y99BH">Chine</a>, and Pacara, and was closely related to the <a href="/facts/Choctaw_language/X4kKbooF">Choctaw language</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18">18</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:19" href="#fn:19">19</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:20" href="#fn:20">20</a>
Another expedition in 1688 found large, prosperous villages of "gentle and docile" Indians.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:21" href="#fn:21">21</a> In 1693 two expeditions, one from <a href="/facts/Vera_Cruz,_Vera_Cruz/GbAnvrE7">Vera Cruz</a> in <a href="/facts/New_Spain/NYaDwcqK">New Spain</a> and another from Apalachee, found the area around Pensacola Bay nearly deserted, supposedly due to the Pensacola being wiped out in a war with the Mobile.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:22" href="#fn:22">22</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:23" href="#fn:23">23</a> The Spanish did find two small bands of <a href="/facts/Chatot_people/bHNE4RCT">Chacato</a> (who were closely related to the Pensacola) in the area of Pensacola Bay that year.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:24" href="#fn:24">24</a> Swanton states that the Pensacola had not been killed, but had moved inland and to the west.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:25" href="#fn:25">25</a>

<h2 id="final-years">Final years</h2>
A Spanish colony was established at Pensacola Bay in 1698, given the name <a href="/facts/Pensacola/DchhvCbf">Pensacola</a>. The governor of Pensacola, anxious to have Indians living in the area to help provision and defend the new colony, met with a few Pensacolas and Chacatos, and urged them to move their villages closer to Pensacola.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:26" href="#fn:26">26</a> However, by 1707 the only Indians living near the Spanish fort were called Ocatazes by the Spanish.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:27" href="#fn:27">27</a> In 1725 or 1726 a village of Pensacolas and <a href="/facts/Biloxi_people/9twmIj5Y">Biloxis</a> on the <a href="/facts/Pearl_River_(Mississippi%E2%80%93Louisiana)/PI6BSo6L">Pearl River</a> was reported to have no more than 40 men.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:28" href="#fn:28">28</a> In 1764 a village of Pensacola, Biloxi, Chacato, <a href="/facts/Capinan_people/yD8SkLlx">Capinan</a>, Washa, Cawasha, and <a href="/facts/Pascagoula/GMhToxbA">Pascagoula</a> had 261 men. After 1764 most of the Pensacola are believed to have been assimilated into the <a href="/facts/Choctaw/tRfRBwBu">Choctaw</a>, but some may have gone to Louisiana with the Biloxi and merged into the <a href="/facts/Tunica-Biloxi/VRElK9Xh">Tunica-Biloxi</a>, or been assimilated by <a href="/facts/Creek_people/rh6VII7Q">Creek</a> bands that moved into the area.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:29" href="#fn:29">29</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:30" href="#fn:30">30</a>

<h2 id="other-pensacola-indians">Other "Pensacola Indians"</h2>
From time to time various groups of Indians moved to the vicinity of the Spanish fort at Pensacola and were sometimes recorded as "Pensacola Indians". In 1704, 800 refugees from the <a href="/facts/Apalachee_massacre/FmwcKgDk">Apalachee massacre</a> reached Pensacola. The governor of Pensacola tried to persuade them to stay there, but most moved on to French <a href="/facts/Old_Mobile_Site/xfgV0Hrn">Mobile</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:31" href="#fn:31">31</a> Some Apalachee moved back to Pensacola, and then onward to near San Marcos de Apalachee. By 1763 there were about 40 families of Apalachee living at Pensacola. In that year, at the end of the <a href="/facts/Seven_Years%27_War/fVDINs8P">Seven Years' War</a> and Britain's defeat of France, the Spanish evacuated more than 200 Yemassee and Apalachee to <a href="/facts/Veracruz/jt5rM0VK">Vera Cruz</a> in Mexico before they turned Florida over to the British.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:32" href="#fn:32">32</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:33" href="#fn:33">33</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:34" href="#fn:34">34</a>

<h2 id="notes">Notes</h2>

<h2 id="citations">Citations</h2>

<ul><li>Bense, Judith Anne. (1999) Editor. Archaeology of colonial Pensacola. University Press of Florida. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 0-8130-1661-4 Found at <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=_WnLuhfm7vAC&q=archaeology+of+colonial+pensacola">Google Books</a></li>
<li>Coker, William S. (1999) "Pensacola, 1686-1821." in Bense.</li>
<li>Dysart, Jane E. (1999) "Indians in Colonial Pensacola." in Bense.</li>
<li>Hahn, John H. (1988) Apalachee: the Land between the rivers. The University Presses of Florida. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 0-8130-0854-9</li>
<li>Milanich, Jerald T. (1994) Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida. The University Press of Florida. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 0-8130-1273-2</li>
<li>Swanton, John Reed. (1952) The Indian Tribes of North America. Found at <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Xpx6WoPz7xIC&q=pensacola+indians">Google Books</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">Brown, Ian (2003). "Introduction to the Bottle Creek Site". In Brown, Ian W. (ed.). Bottle Creek, A Pensacola Culture Site in South Alabama. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. pp. 1–26. <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">Marrinan, Rochelle A.; Nancy Marie White (Winter 2007). "Modeling Fort Walton Culture in Northwest Florida" (PDF). Southeastern Archaeology. 26 (2): 292–318. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 April 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130403084151/http://www.trailoffloridasindianheritage.org/pdf/fw1.pdf" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20130403084151/http://www.trailoffloridasindianheritage.org/pdf/fw1.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">"Bottle Creek Site". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation and Auburn University. Retrieved 2012-05-02. <a href="http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1160" target="_blank">http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1160</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">Brown, Ian (2003). "Introduction to the Bottle Creek Site". In Brown, Ian W. (ed.). Bottle Creek, A Pensacola Culture Site in South Alabama. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. pp. 1–26. <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">Snow, Dean R. (2010). Archaeology of Native North America. New York: Prentice-Hall. pp. 248–49. <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">Dysart:61 <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Swanton:136 <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">Swanton:136 <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">"Hernando de Soto", Catholic Encyclopedia <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04753a.htm" target="_blank">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04753a.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">Dysart:62 <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">Swanton:136 <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:12">Dysart:62 <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:13">Hahn:122, 354 <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:14">Coker:6 <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:15">Dysart:62-63 <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:16">Coker:7 <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:17">A date of 1606 has been attributed to the letter, but Hahn asserts that the correct date is 1686.[13] <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:18">Swanton:136 <a href="#fnref:18" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:19">Coker:6 <a href="#fnref:19" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:20">Hann, John H. (2006). The Native American World Beyond Apalachee. University Press of Florida. p. 11. ISBN 9-780-8130-2982-5. <a href="9-780-8130-2982-5" target="_blank">9-780-8130-2982-5</a> <a href="#fnref:20" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:21">Dysart:62-63 <a href="#fnref:21" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:22">Coker:8 <a href="#fnref:22" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:23">Dysart:63-64 <a href="#fnref:23" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:24">Hahn:406 <a href="#fnref:24" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:25">Swanton:136 <a href="#fnref:25" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:26">Dysart:64 <a href="#fnref:26" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:27">Dysart:64 <a href="#fnref:27" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:28">Swanton:136 <a href="#fnref:28" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:29">Swanton:136-37 <a href="#fnref:29" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:30">"Notice of Inventory Completion for Native American Human Remains ..." Nation Park Service. Retrieved 19 September 2013. <a href="http://www.nps.gov/nagpra/fed_notices/nagpradir/nic0537.html" target="_blank">http://www.nps.gov/nagpra/fed_notices/nagpradir/nic0537.html</a> <a href="#fnref:30" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:31">Dysart:64 <a href="#fnref:31" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:32">The Apalachee and Yemassee evacuated to Vera Cruz in 1763 are sometimes called "Pensacola Indians".[21] <a href="#fnref:32" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:33">Coker:22 <a href="#fnref:33" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:34">Dysart:65 <a href="#fnref:34" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Pensacola people open-in-new

Pensacola people