The Tocobaga

George M. Cole
and John E. Ladson III
Aucilla Research Institute

One of the more interesting stories regarding the Spanish Mission Period in Florida involved the Tocobaga Native Americans. Although relatively unknown, that small tribe played an important role – that of transporting produce. This allowed the missions in the Aucilla River area to fulfill one of their important tasks – that of providing provisions for the struggling Spanish colony in St Augustine. Initially, the use of the human backpack was used to transport the produce grown by the Apalachee at the missions. As might be expected, this resulted in resistance from the Native Americans impressed into such service. In addition, a limited amount of produce was sent via ship from the port of St. Marks, going around the Florida Keys to St. Augustine. But, due to difficulties caused by storms, currents and pirates, the sea route between the Apalachee area and St. Augustine was not dependable. As a result, an alternate means of transporting provisions to St. Augustine was developed. That approach involved the Tocobaga Native American tribe.
The Tocobaga were originally from the Tampa Bay area. When the Spanish explorer Panfilo de Narvarez landed in the area in the 1500s, the Tocobaga chiefdom was centered around the northwestern end of Tampa Bay, near the current community of Safety Harbor. It had an estimated population between 400 and 2500 people. A Tocobaga temple mound, made of alternating layers of shell and sand still, exists in that location today.
Renowned for their maritime skills, the tribe relocated to the Apalachee region during the Mission era, possibly at request of the Spanish to serve as their transporters. They established several villages in the area. A1678 Spanish map depicted a “Pueblo de Tocopacos” on the Gulf Coast just west of St Marks and another on the western bank of what appears to be the Aucilla/Wacissa River channel. Other sources describe three Tocobaga settlements in the area including one along the west bank of the lower Aucilla just south of the Wacissa Slave Canal, one near the Headwaters of the Wacissa and a third located west of St. Marks.
Based on a translation of a Spanish journal by Florida historian John Hann, (published in the Florida Archaeology Journal in 1993), the Tocobaga village located near the headwaters of the Wacissa was visited during a 1678 inspection tour by Alonso de Leturiondo, on behalf of the Spanish Governor of Florida. The results were described as follows:

And his excellency ordered the counting of the number of people that there were and he found three hundred and forty-eight persons between men, women and children without some of them whom they said were away traveling.

Hann’s translation of the Domingo Leturiondo journal included a statement that Leturiondo cautioned the other Native Americans in the area to take care not to disturb the Tocobagas, since they rendered great service to the Crown by manning canoes for trade with St. Augustine. Interestingly, that translation revealed the journal also contained the following entry regarding the village:

In the place of the Tocopacas, of a heathen nation on the ninth day of the month of January of the year one thousand and six hundred and seventy and eight the señor Sergent-Major Domingo de Leturiondo, lieutentant of the governor and captain general and visitor of these provinces of Apalachee and Timuqua, having visited them … telling them how the señor governor and captain general was ordering and commanding them to close the Channel of Bazisa (Wacissa), where the said Tocopacas lived mixed up tribes because of the concern with the enemy English that are to be feared and with other pirates of the sea. And after having conferred about this matter at length, they said that they had no complaint at all except some concern that they wished to expel them from that spot, even though they caused no harm to anybody but rather were of great assistance to the neighboring places. For in their canoes and with their pirogues they carried the maize and the rest of the things that were shipped to the presidio when the occasion arose for this, as they were doing at the moment. That for this purpose they went out by an arm of the channel which they had concealed so that they could enter and leave by it because of the principal channel being closed off with trees… After having seen this and taken it into account, his excellency ordered that they should remain alert and live where they have been until now, charging them with the responsibility of being careful in this manner.

The Tocobaga village at the Wacissa headwaters appears to have been especially active since it was conveniently close to several of the missions located in that area. With their sea going canoes, they developed a route down the Wacissa River and through what is now known as the Wacissa Slave Canal; continuing on down the Aucilla River to the Gulf of Mexico; then along the Gulf coast to the Suwannee River; then up the Suwannee to its junction with the Santa Fe River and then some distance up that river. From that point, freight was carried on horseback or by human backpack overland.
Based on a knowledge of the configuration of the streams comprising the lower Wacissa, the only passage that the Tocobaga could have taken to travel from the Wacissa Headwaters to the open Gulf would have been through the Wacissa Slave Canal. It is the only tributary that connects directly to the Gulf. Thus, the Tocobaga used the Canal long before it was improved during the Early U.S. era.
The 1704 raid on the Spanish missions by James Moore had a devastating impact on the Tocobaga as well as the Apalachee. Reportedly, many of the Tocobaga, along with the Apalachee, were taken to South Carolina as slaves. Several years later, when a Spanish agent came through the area. He found only three Tocobaga living at the village at the Wacissa headwaters. He arranged for their move to a location near the Spanish fort at St. Marks for protection. Sadly, no record of tribe members has been found after that time.
It is surprising that, despite their important role in the operation of the missions, limited physical evidence from the Tocobaga has been found. As an example, although shown on Spanish maps and described in their journals, the precise locations of their villages in the Aucilla River area, such as the one near the headwaters of the Wacissa, remains a mystery. Further, despite the challenging routes and presumedly large payloads associated with the canoes or pirogues used by the Tocobaga, no precise description or remains from any of their vessels have been found. Thus, major portions of the story of the Tocobaga remain to be told.