Mayaca (tribe)

Mayaca was the name used by the Spanish to refer to an Indian tribe in central Florida, to the principal village of that tribe and to the chief of that village in the 1560s. The Mayacas occupied an area in the upper St. Johns River valley just to the south of Lake George. According to Spanish accounts, the Mayaca language was related to that of the Ais, a tribe living along the Atlantic coast of Florida to the southeast of the Mayacas. The Mayacas were hunter-fisher-gatherers, and were not known to practice agriculture to any significant extent, unlike their neighbors to the north, the Freshwater, or "Agua Fresca", Timucua. (In general, agriculture had not been adopted by tribes living south of the Timucua at the time of first contact with European people.) The Mayaca shared a ceramics tradition with the Freshwater Timucua, rather than the Ais.

The Spanish first encountered the Mayaca in 1566 while attempting to ransom some Frenchmen held by the Indians. Several villages near the Atlantic coast were reported to owe allegiance to Mayaca. At that time Mayaca appears to have been allied with the Mocama, or "Agua Salada" Timucua chief Saturiwa (and later, with the Potano) against the Freshwater Timucua.

Spanish Franciscan friars first visited the Mayaca late in the 16th century. The chief of the Mayaca had been converted to Christianity by 1597, but a mission, San Salvador de Mayaca, was not established until later. That mission is not mentioned in Spanish records for most of the 17th century. Missionary activity resumed again by 1680, at Anacape (San Antonio de Anacape) and Mayaca. By this time, Chachises (or Salchiches), Malaos (or Malicas) and refugee Yamassees had become part of the population in Mayaca. By the 1690s missions had been established at Concepción de Atoyquime, San Joseph de Jororo and in Atisimmi, in what had become the Mayaca-Jororo Province, and some Spanish ranches operated in the area. Disturbances in 1696 and 1697 led to the murders of a friar and some Indian converts. Peace was restored, but in 1708 raids by Indians allied with the English in the Province of Carolina drove most of the Mayaca to seek refuge around St. Augustine. Some of the Mayacas may have moved south to Lake Okeechobee, which was named "Lake Mayaca" on maps in the 1820s. Port Mayaca, on the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee, is a remnant of that name.

Related tribes

Jororo

The Jororo or Hororo lived just to the south of the Mayaca. They first appear in the Spanish records in the 1680s, and spoke the Mayaca language. Like the Mayaca, the Jororo were hunter-fisher-gatherers. Their land was very wet, full of lakes and "brambles", and subject to frequent flooding.

urruque

The Surruque lived just to the east of the Mayaca, between the Mayaca and the Atlantic coast. There were marital ties between the chiefs of Mayaca and Surruque, and they probably spoke a related language. The Surruque were allies of the Ais. While the Spanish had dealings with the Surruque in the 17th century, they were never brought into the mission system.

References

*Hann, John H. 1993. "The Mayaca and Jororo and Missions to Them", in McEwan, Bonnie G. ed. "The Spanish Missions of "La Florida". University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-1232-5.