List of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition
Encyclopedia
This is a list of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition in the years 1539–1543. In May 1539, de Soto left Havana, Cuba, with nine ships, over 620 men and 220 surviving horses and landed at Charlotte Harbor, Florida
. This began his three-year odyssey through the Southeastern North American continent, from which de Soto and a large portion of his men would not return. They met many varied Native American
groups, most of them belonging to the widespread Mississippian culture
. Only a few of these cultures survived into the seventeenth century. The others' only appearance in the written historical record was in the accounts of de Soto's expedition.
Port Charlotte, Florida
Port Charlotte is a census-designated place in Charlotte County, Florida, United States. The population was 46,451 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Punta Gorda Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
. This began his three-year odyssey through the Southeastern North American continent, from which de Soto and a large portion of his men would not return. They met many varied Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
groups, most of them belonging to the widespread Mississippian culture
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
. Only a few of these cultures survived into the seventeenth century. The others' only appearance in the written historical record was in the accounts of de Soto's expedition.
Florida
- AcueraAcueraAcuera was reported to be the tribal headsman of a community of indigenous people of the same name. The Acuera were a Timucua people who flourished, in the north central region what is now called Florida, at the time of European arrival in the 16th century but, after fiercely defending their...
- Ocale
- Northern UtinaNorthern UtinaThe Northern Utina, also known as the Timucua or simply Utina, were a Timucua tribe of northern Florida. They lived north of the Santa Fe River and east of the Suwanee River, and spoke a dialect of the Timucuan language known as "Timucua proper". They appear to have been closely associated with the...
- Uzita
- MocosoMocosoMocoso was the name of a 16th century chiefdom located on the east side of Tampa Bay, Florida near the mouth of the Alafia River, of its chief town and of its chief. Mocoso was also the name of a 17th century village in the province of Acuera, a branch of the Timucua...
- Uzachile
- Yustaga
- PotanoPotanoThe Potano tribe lived in north-central Florida at the time of first European contact. Their territory included what is now Alachua County, the northern half of Marion County and the western part of Putnam County. This territory corresponds to that of the Alachua culture, which preceded the...
- Alachua cultureAlachua cultureThe Alachua culture is defined as a Late Woodland Southeast period archaeological culture in north-central Florida, dating from around AD700 to 1700. It is found in an area roughly corresponding to present-day Alachua County, the northern half of Marion County and the western part of Putnam County...
- GualeGualeGuale was an historic Native American chiefdom along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 16th century. During the late 17th century and early 18th century, Guale society was shattered...
- AnhaicaAnhaica.Anhaica was an Apalachee Indian town and capital of Apalachee Province located near Myers Park in the present-day city of Tallahassee, Florida. Anhaica's population was approximately 30,000. The province had an estimated population of around 60,000...
- ApalacheeApalacheeThe Apalachee are a Native American people who historically lived in the Florida Panhandle, and now live primarily in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Their historical territory was known to the Spanish colonists as the Apalachee Province...
- TimucuaTimucuaThe Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The various groups of Timucua spoke several dialects of the...
- Narváez expedition's "Bay of Horses"
Georgia
- Muskogean languagesMuskogean languagesMuskogean is an indigenous language family of the Southeastern United States. Though there is an ongoing debate concerning their interrelationships, the Muskogean languages are generally divided into two branches, Eastern Muskogean and Western Muskogean...
- Capachequi
- Ocute
- HitchitiHitchitiThe Hitchiti were a Muskogean-speaking tribe formerly residing chiefly in a town of the same name on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River, 4 miles below Chiaha, in west Georgia. They spoke the Hitchiti language, which was mutually intelligible with Mikasuki; both tribes were part of the loose...
- Coosa chiefdomCoosa chiefdomThe Coosa chiefdom was a powerful Native American paramount chiefdom near what are now Gordon and Murray counties in Georgia, in the United States. It was inhabited from about 1400 until about 1600, and dominated several smaller chiefdoms...
- Telfair County, GeorgiaTelfair County, GeorgiaTelfair County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the population was 11,794. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 13,366...
Tennessee
- Chiska
- ChiahaChiahaChiaha was a horticultural Native American chiefdom located in the lower French Broad River valley in modern East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. They lived in raised structures within boundaries of several stable villages. These overlooked the fields of maize, beans, squash, and...
- Coste
- TaliToqua (Tennessee)Toqua is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee, located in the southeastern United States. Along with the Overhill Cherokee village for which the site was named, Toqua was home to a substantial pre-Cherokee town that thrived during the Mississippian period...
- ChalahumeChilhowee (Cherokee town)Chilhowee was a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Blount County and Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States...
- SatapoCitico (Tellico archaeological site)Citico is a prehistoric and historic Native American site in Monroe County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The site's namesake Cherokee village was the largest of the Overhill towns, housing an estimated population of 1,000 by the mid-18th century...
Alabama
- AbihkaAbihkaThe Abihka were a division of the Upper Muscogee Creeks. Their main place of residence was 50 miles west along the banks of the Coosa and Alabama Rivers, in what is now Talladega County, Alabama. At times their name is used for all of the Upper Creeks. They had three towns named Abihkutchi,...
- AlibamuAlabama (people)The Alabama or Alibamu are a Southeastern culture people of Native Americans, originally from Mississippi...
- Chief Tuskaloosa
- ChoctawChoctawThe Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
- Coosa chiefdomCoosa chiefdomThe Coosa chiefdom was a powerful Native American paramount chiefdom near what are now Gordon and Murray counties in Georgia, in the United States. It was inhabited from about 1400 until about 1600, and dominated several smaller chiefdoms...
- MabilaMabilaThe town of Mabila was a small fortress town known to Chief Tuskaloosa in 1540, in a region of present-day central Alabama. The exact location has been debated for centuries...
- TaliTali-Places:* Tali, township, part of Kozhikode, Kerala* Tali, Finland, town in Finland* Tali, Helsinki, Finland* Tali, South Sudan, town in South Sudan* Tali, Estonia, village in Saarde Parish, Pärnu County, Estonia...
Mississippi
- ChicazaChickasawThe Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
- Quizquiz (tribe)
- Walls PhaseWalls PhaseThe Walls Phase is an archaeological phase in southwestern Tennessee and northwestern Mississippi of the Late Mississippian culture. Chucalissa Indian Village is a Walls Phase mound and plaza complex located on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. Other contemporaneous groups in the area...
- Quigate
- Quigualtam
- Natchez peopleNatchez peopleThe Natchez are a Native American people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area, near the present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi. They spoke a language isolate that has no known close relatives, although it may be very distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek...
Arkansas
- Aquixo
- CasquiCasquiCasqui was a Native American tribe discovered in 1541 by the Hernando de Soto expedition. This tribe inhabited fortified villages in eastern Arkansas....
, believed by many archaeologists to be the same as the site of the Parkin Archeological State ParkParkin Archeological State ParkParkin Archeological State Park, also known as Parkin Indian Mound, is an archeological site and state park in Parkin, Cross County, Arkansas. Around 1350–1650 CE an aboriginal palisaded village existed at the site, at the confluence of the St. Francis and Tyronza Rivers. Artifacts from this...
. - PacahaPacahaPacaha was a Native American tribe encountered in 1541 by the Hernando de Soto expedition. This tribe inhabited fortified villages in what is today the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Arkansas...
, believed by many archaeologists to be the Nodena SiteNodena SiteThe Nodena Site is an archeological site east of Wilson, Arkansas and northeast of Reverie, Tennessee in Mississippi County, Arkansas, United States. Around 1400–1650 CE an aboriginal palisaded village existed in the Nodena area on a meander bend of the Mississippi River. The Nodena site...
. - Chaguate
- ColiguaKoroaThe Koroa were one of the groups of indigenous people who lived in the Mississippi Valley prior to the European settlement of the region. They lived in the northwest of present-day Mississippi in the Yazoo River basin. They were believed to speak a dialect of Tunica.The Koroa may be the tribe...
- Tunica peopleTunica peopleThe Tunica people were a group of linguistically and culturally related Native American tribes in the Mississippi River Valley, which include the Tunica ; the Yazoo; the Koroa ; and possibly the Tioux...
- TulaTula tribeThe Tula were a Native American tribe that lived in what is now western Arkansas.-History:The Tula are known to history only from the chronicles of Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto's exploits in the interior of North America....
- Anilco, possibly the Menard ComplexMenard-Hodges SiteThe Menard-Hodges Site , is an archaeological site in Arkansas. It includes two large mounds as well as several house mounds. It is the type site for the Menard phase, a protohistoric Mississippian culture group. It is considered as a possible candidate for the Province of Anilco encountered by the...
in the southeastern corner of the state. - Guachoya
- QuapawQuapawThe Quapaw people are a tribe of Native Americans who historically resided on the west side of the Mississippi River in what is now the state of Arkansas.They are federally recognized as the Quapaw Tribe of Indians.-Government:...
- AaysEyeishThe Eyeish were a Native American tribe from eastern Texas.-History:The Eyeish were part of the Caddo Confederacy, although their relationship to other Caddo tribes was ambiguous, and they were often hostile to the Hasinai...
Caddo confederacy. - NaguatexNatchitoches (tribe)The Natchitoches are Native American tribe from Louisiana. They are part of the Caddo Confederacy.In the early 17th century they were joined by some of the remnants of the Kadohadacho, a tribe with many members who had been killed or enslaved by the Chickasaw...
Texas
- CaddoCaddoThe Caddo Nation is a confederacy of several Southeastern Native American tribes, who traditionally inhabited much of what is now East Texas, northern Louisiana and portions of southern Arkansas and Oklahoma. Today the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma is a cohesive tribe with its capital at Binger, Oklahoma...
- NadacoNadacoThe Nadaco, also commonly known as the Anadarko, are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas. Their name, Nadá-kuh, means "bumblebee place."-History:The Nadaco were part of the Hasinai branch of the Caddo Confederacy....
(Nondacao) - HasinaiHasinaiThe Hasinai Confederacy was a large confederation of Caddo-speaking Native Americans located between the Sabine and Trinity rivers in eastern Texas...
- Soacatino
- Adai (Native American culture)
See also
- Alabama languageAlabama languageAlabama is a Native American language, spoken by the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Texas. It was once spoken by the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town of Oklahoma, but there are no more Alabama speakers in Oklahoma. It is a Muskogean language, and is believed to have been related to the Muklasa and...
- Caddoan languagesCaddoan languagesThe Caddoan languages are a family of Native American languages. They are spoken by Native Americans in parts of the Great Plains of the central United States, from North Dakota south to Oklahoma.-Family division:...
- Cherokee languageCherokee languageCherokee is an Iroquoian language spoken by the Cherokee people which uses a unique syllabary writing system. It is the only Southern Iroquoian language that remains spoken. Cherokee is a polysynthetic language.-North American etymology:...
- Chickasaw languageChickasaw languageThe Chickasaw language is a Native American language of the Muskogean family. It is agglutinative and follows the pattern of subject–object–verb. The language is closely related to, though perhaps not entirely mutually intelligible with, Choctaw...
- Choctaw languageChoctaw languageThe Choctaw language, traditionally spoken by the Native American Choctaw people of the southeastern United States, is a member of the Muskogean family...
- Creek languageCreek languageThe Creek language, also known as Muskogee or Muscogee , is a Muskogean language spoken by Muscogee and Seminole people primarily in the U.S. states of Oklahoma and Florida....
- Etowah Indian MoundsEtowah Indian MoundsEtowah Indian Mounds is a archaeological site in Bartow County, Georgia south of Cartersville, in the United States. Built and occupied in three phases, from 1000–1550 CE, the prehistoric site is located on the north shore of the Etowah River. Etowah Indian Mounds Historic Site is a designated...
- HitchitiHitchitiThe Hitchiti were a Muskogean-speaking tribe formerly residing chiefly in a town of the same name on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River, 4 miles below Chiaha, in west Georgia. They spoke the Hitchiti language, which was mutually intelligible with Mikasuki; both tribes were part of the loose...
- Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State ParkLake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State ParkLake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park is one of the most important archaeological sites in Florida, a former chiefdom and ceremonial center of the Fort Walton Culture...
- Lake Village, ArkansasLake Village, ArkansasLake Village is a city in Chicot County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 2,823 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Chicot County.Lake Village is named for its location on Lake Chicot, an oxbow lake formed from the Mississippi River...
- Mississippian cultureMississippian cultureThe Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
- Moundville Archaeological SiteMoundville Archaeological SiteMoundville Archaeological Site, also known as the Moundville Archaeological Park, is a Mississippian site on the Black Warrior River in Hale County, near the town of Tuscaloosa, Alabama...
- Natchez TraceNatchez TraceThe Natchez Trace, also known as the "Old Natchez Trace", is a historical path that extends roughly from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi rivers...
- Ocmulgee National MonumentOcmulgee National MonumentOcmulgee National Monument preserves traces of over ten millennia of Southeastern Native American culture, including major earthworks built more than 1,000 years ago by Mississippian culture peoples: the Great Temple and other ceremonial mounds, a burial mound, and defensive trenches...
- Pisgah PhasePisgah PhaseThe Pisgah Phase is an archaeological phase of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture in parts of Northeastern Tennessee, Western North Carolina and Northwestern South Carolina.-Location:...
- Southeastern Ceremonial ComplexSoutheastern Ceremonial ComplexThe Southeastern Ceremonial Complex is the name given to the regional stylistic similarity of artifacts, iconography, ceremonies, and mythology of the Mississippian culture that coincided with their adoption of maize agriculture and chiefdom-level complex social organization from...
- Timucua languageTimucua languageTimucua is a language isolate formerly spoken in northern and central Florida and southern Georgia by the Timucua people. Timucua was the primary language used in the area at the time of Spanish arrival in Florida. Linguistic and archaeological studies suggest that it may have been spoken from...
- WallsWalls, MississippiWalls, is a village located in Northern DeSoto County, Mississippi near the Mississippi River, part of the larger region known as "The Delta", and known for its rich, dark soil.-History:...
- YamaseeYamaseeThe Yamasee were a multiethnic confederation of Native Americans that lived in the coastal region of present-day northern coastal Georgia near the Savannah River and later in northeastern Florida.-History:...
- Yazoo tribeYazoo tribeThe Yazoo were a tribe of the Native American Tunica people historically located on the lower course of Yazoo River, Mississippi. It was closely connected to other Tunica peoples, especially the Tunica, Koroa, and possibly the Tioux....