Pensacola people facts for kids
The Pensacola were a group of Native American people who lived in what is now western Florida Panhandle and eastern Alabama. They lived there for hundreds of years before Europeans arrived, until the early 1700s. They spoke a Muskogean language. The name of Pensacola Bay and the city of Pensacola comes from them. They stayed in the area until the mid-1700s, then joined other groups.
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What Was the Pensacola Culture Like?
The historical Pensacola people lived in a region that archaeologists call the Pensacola culture. This was a special part of the larger Mississippian culture. It existed from about 1100 to 1700 CE. This culture covered an area from Choctawhatchee Bay in Florida all the way to the eastern side of the Mississippi River Delta near Biloxi, Mississippi. Most of their sites were along Mobile Bay.
The Pensacola culture also reached inland, north into the southern Tombigbee and Alabama River valleys. It went as far as Selma, Alabama. Another culture, the Fort Walton culture, lived to the east in the Florida Panhandle during this time.
Bottle Creek Indian Mounds: A Special Place
Perhaps the most famous Pensacola culture site is Bottle Creek Indian Mounds. This is a large site located on a low, swampy island north of Mobile, Alabama. This site has at least eighteen large platform mounds. Five of these mounds are arranged around a central open area called a plaza.
People mainly used this site from 1250 to 1550. It was a very important religious and meeting place for the Pensacola culture. It might seem strange to have such a big center in a swampy area that's hard to reach on foot. However, it was easy to get to by dugout canoe. Canoes were the main way people traveled when they built Bottle Creek.
First Meetings with Europeans
The Pensacola people might have first met Europeans in 1528. This was when the Narváez expedition came through. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca wrote that the Native Americans near what is now Pensacola Bay were "large and well formed." They lived in permanent houses. Their leader wore a robe made of "civet-marten" skins, which de Vaca thought were the best. After seeming friendly at first, the Native Americans attacked the Spanish during the night.
In 1539, Diego Maldonado explored the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. He was working for Hernando de Soto. Maldonado found Pensacola Bay, which the Spanish called the Bay of Achuse. He found a village there and captured one or two people. He also took a "good blanket of sables." De Soto told Maldonado to meet him at the Bay of Achuse the next summer with supplies. Maldonado returned for three years, but de Soto never showed up.
In 1559, Tristán de Luna y Arellano led a trip to start a Spanish colony called Ochuse on Pensacola Bay. The Spanish had planned to get food from the Native Americans. But they found the area almost empty, with only a few people in fishing camps. The colony lost many people because of storms and sickness. Some tried to move to Santa Elena (in present-day Parris Island, South Carolina), but storms hurt them there too. The survivors moved to Cuba and Mexico City.
Where Did the Name "Pensacola" Come From?
The name "Pensacola" first appeared as Panzacola in 1657. It was the name of a village linked to a mission in the Apalachee Province. Pansacola was a common last name among the Apalachee people.
In 1685, the Spanish worried that the French were trying to start a colony on the Gulf of Mexico coast. For the next few years, the Spanish looked for this French colony. They also looked for a good place to start their own colony to protect their land. The name Panzacola was first used for Pensacola Bay in 1686. Juan Jordan de Reina entered the bay and found local Native Americans who called themselves and the bay Panzacola.
That same year, a letter said that Panzacola could be reached by canoe from San Marcos de Apalachee. It was about twelve leagues from the "Indians of Mobile". The word Panzacola meant "long-haired people" or "hair people" in the Pensacola language. This language was very similar to the Choctaw language.
Another trip in 1688 found large, successful villages of "gentle and docile" Native Americans. In 1693, two more trips, one from Vera Cruz in New Spain and one from Apalachee, found the area around Pensacola Bay almost empty. People thought this was because the Pensacola had been wiped out in a war with the Mobile people. The Spanish did find two small groups of Chacato people in the Pensacola Bay area that year. The Chacato were closely related to the Pensacola. Some historians believe the Pensacola had not been killed, but had moved inland and to the west.
The Final Years of the Pensacola People
A Spanish colony was started at Pensacola Bay in 1698. It was named Pensacola. The governor of Pensacola wanted Native Americans to live nearby. They could help provide food and defend the new colony. He met with a few Pensacola and Chacato people. He asked them to move their villages closer to Pensacola.
However, by 1707, the only Native Americans living near the Spanish fort were called Ocatazes. In 1725 or 1726, a village of Pensacola and Biloxis on the Pearl River was reported to have only about 40 men. In 1764, a village with Pensacola, Biloxi, Chacato, Capinan, Washa, Cawasha, and Pascagoula people had 261 men.
After 1764, most of the Pensacola people are thought to have joined the Choctaw tribe. Some may have gone to Louisiana with the Biloxi and joined the Tunica-Biloxi tribe. Others might have joined Creek groups that moved into the area.
Other "Pensacola Indians"
Sometimes, different groups of Native Americans moved near the Spanish fort at Pensacola. They were sometimes recorded as "Pensacola Indians." In 1704, 800 people who had fled the Apalachee massacre reached Pensacola. The governor of Pensacola tried to get them to stay. But most moved on to French Mobile.
Some Apalachee people moved back to Pensacola, and then to an area near San Marcos de Apalachee. By 1763, about 40 Apalachee families lived at Pensacola. That year, after the Seven Years' War ended and Britain defeated France, the Spanish moved more than 200 Yemassee and Apalachee people to Vera Cruz in Mexico. This happened before they gave Florida to the British.
