Calusa

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Native American people who lived along the southwestern coast of Florida and built a powerful chiefdom there before European contact
2. An indigenous group of southwest Florida known for their large coastal settlements, shell mounds, and complex society
3. The name of a pre-Columbian tribe that inhabited the Gulf Coast of Florida and resisted Spanish colonization for many years

Etymology: The name Calusa belonged to a people who dominated southwest Florida's coast and interior waterways, building a powerful chiefdom around Charlotte Harbor and the Ten Thousand Islands. Their name survives only in the records of European explorers and colonists, who wrote it down in Spanish spellings, so the form we use is an outsider's rendering of a name the people themselves may have pronounced differently. The meaning of the name is unsettled. Older writers often gave it as "fierce people," a gloss that suits the reputation the Calusa earned among the Spanish, but no firm linguistic link supports that translation. Scholars still debate which language the name came from and whether it was a self-name, an identity given by neighbors, or a place-based label.