Continuation of Chronology of Hutto Pond

When the Spanish arrived in Florida, they named the people in this area, as well as most all of north Florida east of the Aucilla River, as “Timucuas.” At least 25-30 separate chiefdoms, however, fell under the rubric of Timucua in an area covering more than 190,000 square miles. More is known about the Saturiwa than any other Timucuans. In 1562, the French encountered them and captured their images in the drawings of Jacques Le Moynes de Morgues. Each Timucuan village had its own leader who was under the jurisdiction of a head chief. When Spanish Missions first became established in this region in the 17th Century, the native peoples were divided into Saltwater Timucua (Saturiwa and Mocano), Fresh Water, Potano, Utina and Yustaga. It should be emphasized that a single group calling themselves Timucuans never existed. Rather, they all should be thought of as independent groups who spoke dialects of the same language. These tribes in Florida (inhabiting the northern third of the peninsula) and parts of southern Georgia never considered themselves one tribe. In fact, they often fought against each other. The Uzachile (later Spanish and French reports refer to them as the Yustaga) probably were some of the first Timucuans to encounter Europeans because their territory bordered that of the Apalachee. This meant that both Panfilo de Narvaez and Hernando de Soto passed through their territory looking for the Apalachee and their alleged riches. Upon crossing the Suwannee River in 1539, de Soto’s army entered the territory of the Yustaga (led by its Chief Uzachile), a western Timucuan group living west of the Suwannee River whose domain encompassed Madison County. The Spanish first passed through a small village well east of the main village. Uzachile (a town that went by the same name as its chief and group) itself contained about 200 houses and had an abundance of maize, beans and pumpkins. Representatives of Chief Uzachile met and attempted to make peaceful overtures toward de Soto’s Army before they crossed the Suwannee River. A former chief of the Yustaga, named Dulchanchellin, also had attempted 11 years earlier to befriend Narvaez and his men. But when the Spaniards finally arrived at the main Yustaga village of Uzachile, located along Sampala Lake (only about six miles southwest of Hutto Pond and listed in the Florida Master Site File as MD22), this time, they found it abandoned. The Yustaga had learned from their previous encounters with the invaders not to trust Spanish conquistadors. So, they temporarily deserted their main village—taking their food with them— leaving de Soto and his army no choice but to march across the Aucilla River into Apalachee Territory. It was there where de Soto and his men ended up spending the winter of 1539-1540 at Anhaica, located about a mile east of the Capitol in Tallahassee. Chief Uzachile also was closely affiliated with Utina chiefs to the east of his territory. Spanish chroniclers noted that a buffer existed on the other side, which took two days to cross, between Uzchile’s village and his Apalachee enemies west of the Aucilla River. After decades of fierce resistance, including a desperate attempt to ally with their Apalachee enemies, the Yustaga finally were coerced into submission in the 1620s as part of the Spanish Mission system. Three or four Spanish Missions may have once served the Yustaga. They include San Matheo de Tolapatafi (MD5), San Pedro de Potohiriba (MD30), Santa Elena de Machaba (MD85) and San Miguel de Asile (JE106). All four missions were still in place in 1688 but they all had been destroyed by 1704 or shortly thereafter by the English and their allies. It is noteworthy here that San Miguel was initially labeled as a Yustaga Mission even though it lies on the west side of the Aucilla River in Apalachee Territory. It is best left to historians to reach consensus as to whether San Miguel was a mission to the Yustaga or the Apalachee. In any event, San Matheo lies only 1.5 miles southwest of Hutto Pond, Santa Elena 2.5 miles west, San Pedro 21 miles southwest and San Miguel about 25 miles southwest. Yustaga territory, nevertheless, did not remain vacant for long as Creek Indians from Georgia and Alabama soon filled this void. The Spanish began referring to these people as cimarrones, loosely translated as runaways or wild ones. This term eventually morphed into Seminoles. We think that General Andrew Jackson destroyed the Miccosukee towns just west of the Aucilla River in his campaign against the Seminoles in 1818 (First Seminole War 1816-1819). This resulted in John Hicks (Tuko-See Mathla) relocating his village to a few miles west of Hutto Pond. The village became known as Hicks Town or Hixtown, the original name for the town of Madison. This village was abandoned in 1826, when the Seminoles there were forced to move to central Florida. A historic marker now commemorates John Hicks on U.S. 90 about five miles west of Madison. It also noteworthy that John Hicks acted as the Seminole Chief from 1824-1837 mostly during the gap between the First and Second Seminole Wars. White settlers eventually moved there in the late 1820s to occupy this area left vacant by the displaced Native Americans. In 1830, the Hicks Town Post Office was established. Soon after that, the village had more or less disappeared because of the Second Seminole War (1835-1842) and the creation of an official Madison County (established in 1827 and named in honor of former U.S. President James Madison) seat at San Pedro. The county seat was moved again in 1838 to the town of Madison (named for its founding father Madison C. Livingston), which ultimately resulted in the abandonment of San Pedro. In sum, it is remarkable that the Hutto Pond site cradled evidence of Paleo-Indian, Early Archaic, Middle Archaic, Late Archaic, Norwood, Deptford, Swift Creek, McKeithen Weeden Island, Suwannee Valley Culture and Yustaga peoples. In essence, this site spans the entire spectrum of Native American existence in northern Florida and southeastern North America. This begs the question as to why Indians throughout their long history continued to be drawn to this place that was known to Indians more than 5,000 years before the pyramids were built in Egypt.