Original Settlers of the Everglades: Native Tribes to Conservationists

Human History of the Everglades: Four Waves

1. Indigenous Peoples (10,000 BCE – 1800s)

• Calusa: SW coast, shell mounds, canals, maritime empire.
• Tequesta: SE coast (Miami), hunter-gatherers.
• Seminole & Miccosukee: Migrated 1700s from Creek Confederacy; adapted to wetlands — chickees, canoes, hunting, horticulture. Resisted removal (3 Seminole Wars).

2. European Explorers & Settlers (1500s–1800s)

• Ponce de León (1513), de Soto (1539).
• Spanish missions (failed), British/Spanish periods — minimal settlement.
• Early 1800s: Bahamian wreckers, Cuban fishermen, runaway slaves (Black Seminoles).

3. Pioneers & Homesteaders (Late 1800s–Early 1900s)

• Drainage schemes (Hamilton Disston, 1881; Napoleon Broward, 1904).
• Farmers: sugar cane, vegetables, citrus on muck soil.
• Towns: Moore Haven, Clewiston, Belle Glade.

4. Conservationists & Park Advocates (1900s–Present)

• Ernest Coe, Marjory Stoneman Douglas (*River of Grass*, 1947).
• Everglades National Park established 1947 (1.5M acres).
• CERP (2000): $20B restoration — largest ecosystem project.

Today: Seminole/Miccosukee tribes retain sovereignty; park visited by 1M+/yr.