Apalachee

Apalachee country lay in Florida’s panhandle between the Aucilla and Ochlockonee rivers, at the head of the bay that now bears the people’s name. The Apalachee spoke a Muskogean language and lived in towns and farming communities linked through a stratified chiefdom. Their fields, river crossings and paths supported a dense population, while the shallow coast offered access to marine resources without making the coast the sole centre of power. The site of Velda Mound was occupied from about 1450 until the community largely abandoned it during the period of Spanish settlement.

The Narváez expedition entered Apalachee territory in 1528 and met resistance; in 1539 Hernando de Soto reached Anhaica, near present-day Tallahassee. In 1633 Apalachee leaders invited Franciscan friars to establish a mission. San Luis later became a community of Apalachee and Spanish residents, but colonial demands and epidemic disease changed local life. In 1704 raids by forces from Carolina and their Indigenous allies devastated the mission province. Many Apalachee were killed or enslaved, while others fled, including families who moved west toward French Mobile.