a Guide to Management - USGS National Wetlands Research Center

3.4 PRE-COLUMBIAN HUNiiNG AND
GATHERING
In his Travels, William Bartram ob-
served that North Florida "being such
a swampy, hommocky country, furnishes
such a plentiful and variety of sup-
plies for the nurishment of varieties
of animals, that I can venture to as-
sert, that no part of the globe so
abounds with wild game or creatures
fit for the food of man" (Bartram
1791, p. 182). Bartram perceived that
the interspersion of hammocks and
swamps in the pinelands of Florida
were of great value in the production
of animals fit for human consumption.
The 1 and animal most commonly used for
food by the Indians of pre-Columbian
north Florida was deer, followed by
raccoon (Larson 1980). Hydric hammock
is excellent habitat for both species.
However, acorns and hickory nuts were
considerably more important than meat
to the diets of the Indians (Larson
1980). Live oak acorns, as well as
laurel or water oak acorns, were among
the most conspicuous plant remains
from an Indian site at Hontoon Island
on the St. Johns River (Newsom 1986).
While living with the Seminoles in
1773, Wi 1 1 i am Bartram observed "The
Indians obtained from it [the acorn of
the live oak] a sweet oil, which they
use in the cooking of hommony [sic],
rice, etc.; and they also roast it in
hot embers, eating it as we do chest-
nuts" (Bartram 1791, p. 90). The cab-
bage palm, another hydric hammock
tree, was used for food, thatch, and
tinder by the Indians (Cl ausen 1971) ;
after acorn and hickory, it was the
most abundant wild plant resource re-
CHAPTER 3. HISTORY OF USE
covered at Hontoon f s! and (Newsom
1986). Other hydric hammock species
used for food included black bear,
squirrel, turkey, opossum, box turtle,
snakes, wild grape, persimmon, red
mu1 berry, swamp tupelo, sugarberry,
hawthorns, greenbri ar, switch cane,
and mushrooms (Cl ausen 1971 ; Larson
1980 ; Newsom 1986).
The Timucuans, the Indians of nortk-
eastern Florida at the time of Euro-
pean contact in the 15001s, cultivated
crops, hunted, gathered, and fished
(Spell man 1948). Early expl orers ob-
served fields of maize, beans, mi 11 et ,
squash, and pumpkins. Granaries were
used to store the harvest, but Timu-
cuans along the St. Johns River grew
and stored food sufficient for only
half the year (Laudonniere 16th cen-
tury). During the winter these Indi-
ans moved into the woods (presumably
hammocks) where they constructed palm-
thatch homes and ate mast, fish, deer,
and turkey (Laudonni ere 16th century).
3.2 CAlTLE AND HOG RANCHING
Cattle and hogs were introduced into
Florida by Spanish explorers in the
sixteenth century (Spel lman 1948; Ar-
nade 1961). Some of the hogs escaped,
and wild hogs have roamed Florida ever
since. Both the Spaniards and the In-
dians tended cattle and hogs on open
range, a practice continued by the
early white settlers and their descen-
dants through the first half of the
twentieth century.