Uzita
Encyclopedia
Chiefdom
A chiefdom is a political economy that organizes regional populations through a hierarchy of the chief.In anthropological theory, one model of human social development rooted in ideas of cultural evolution describes a chiefdom as a form of social organization more complex than a tribe or a band...
, of its chief town and of its chief. The chief town was near the mouth of the Little Manatee River
Little Manatee River
The Little Manatee River flows almost , from east of Fort Lonesome, Florida through southern Hillsborough County, Florida and northern Manatee County, Florida into Tampa Bay. It has a drainage basin of . It flows along the Little Manatee River State Park for part of its route...
on the south side of Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and estuary along the Gulf of Mexico on the west central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay."Tampa Bay" is not the name of any municipality...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. The territory of Uzita was said to extend from the Little Manatee River
Little Manatee River
The Little Manatee River flows almost , from east of Fort Lonesome, Florida through southern Hillsborough County, Florida and northern Manatee County, Florida into Tampa Bay. It has a drainage basin of . It flows along the Little Manatee River State Park for part of its route...
to Sarasota Bay
Sarasota Bay
Sarasota Bay is an estuary located off the west coast of Florida in the United States.The bay and its surrounding area appeared on the earliest maps of the area, being named Zarazote on one dating from the early 18th century...
. Uzita were part of the Safety Harbor culture. The people of Uzita were the first inhabitants of Florida encountered by both the Narváez expedition
Narváez expedition
The Narváez expedition was a Spanish attempt during the years 1527–1528 to colonize Spanish Florida. It was led by Pánfilo de Narváez, who was to rule as adelantado....
in 1528 and the de Soto expedition in 1539. The town of Uzita consisted the chief's house on a mound
Platform mound
A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity.-Eastern North America:The indigenous peoples of North America built substructure mounds for well over a thousand years starting in the Archaic period and continuing through the Woodland period...
, seven or eight other houses, and a "temple" (apparently a charnel house
Charnel house
A charnel house is a vault or building where human skeletal remains are stored. They are often built near churches for depositing bones that are unearthed while digging graves...
). The houses were made of wood and palm thatch
Thatching
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge , rushes, or heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates...
, and probably housed a large number of people each. The Uzitans used bows and arrows. The Spanish described the bows as being very long. Some arrows were sharpened reeds that could pierce a shield, or splinter and penetrate chain mail, while others had fish bone or stone points. The Uzitans practiced human sacrifice. Juan Ortíz, who had been sent on a small boat to search for the missing Narvaez expedition, was captured by the Uzitans. For several years the Uzitans had set him to guard the bodies in the charnel house from wild animals at night. Utiza, the chief, planned to roast Juan Ortíz over a grill, but the chief's daughter requested her father to not sacrifice Ortíz. When the chief later planned again to sacrifice Ortíz, the chief's daughter helped Ortíz to escape to the neighboring chiefdom of Mocoso
Mocoso
Mocoso 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...
. Uzita is not mentioned in Spanish records after the departure of the de Soto expedition. In the early 17th century the area where Uzita had been located was known as Pojoy.
External links
- De Soto National Memorial - Camp Uzita - accessed July 18, 2009