Calusa

The Calusa were a fishing people of Florida's southwest coast, heirs of the Caloosahatchee culture, who built a hierarchical society on fisheries, not agriculture. Their capital Calos, probably on Mound Key, ruled a realm from Charlotte Harbor to Marco Island, with neighboring peoples under its influence.

War canoes met Juan Ponce de León in 1513, and in 1521 the Calusa drove off his expedition; he died of his wound. In 1566 Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded a mission among them and married chief Carlos's sister. The Spanish later killed Carlos, abandoning the post by 1569.

Isolated and without firearms, the Calusa faced Creek and Yamasee raiders sweeping the peninsula after 1702. Epidemics and slave raids broke their power: 270 survivors were evacuated to Cuba in 1711, and when Florida passed to Britain in 1763 the last Calusa were removed there.