How did people live in the everglades?

• Hunter-gatherers like the Calusa and Tequesta lived on the coast and depended on hunting, fishing, and gathering plants for food

• Built chickees (thatched-roof huts), constructed from materials like wood and palm leaves

• Organized into clans, chiefdoms, and villages

• Had advanced navigational skills, using canoes to travel

• Constructed earthworks for agriculture, such as mounds for growing crops

• Engaged in trade with tribes from other regions

• Developed unique cultural practices and traditions

After European contact:

• Population severely declined due to European diseases and violent conflicts

• Some Indigenous groups were forced into slavery while others were displaced from their traditional lands

• Some Indigenous peoples merged with Seminole communities

• Some enslaved Africans escaped to the Everglades, forming communities like those in the Maroons of Jamaica

• Indigenous groups, like the Miccosukee, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and Seminole, continued to live in harmony with the environment while navigating the challenges of colonization