The Indigenous people of the Everglades region arrived in the Florida peninsula of what is now the United States approximately 15,000 years ago, probably following large game. These Paleo-Indians found an arid landscape that supported plants and animals adapted to prairie and xeric scrub conditions. Large animals became extinct in Florida around 11,000 years ago. Climate changes 6,500 years ago brought a wetter landscape across much of eastern North America. Approximately 5,000 years ago, the climate shifted again to cause the regular flooding from Lake Okeechobee that became the Everglades ecosystems. Paleo-Indians across the continent adapted to the new conditions and became more sedentary, with the timing of the transition varying by region. Archaeologists call these cultures Archaic peoples, with the archaeological culture of the eastern side of the peninsula dubbed the Orange period. Groups became more specialized for their local environments than their ancestors, and created many tools and mounds with the resources they had.

From the Archaic peoples of the peninsula, two major tribes emerged in the area: the Calusa and the Tequesta. The earliest written descriptions of these people come from Spanish explorers who sought to convert and conquer them. Although they lived in complex societies, few traces of their existence remain today. The Calusa were more powerful in number and political structure. Their territory was centered around modern-day Fort Myers, and extended as far north as Tampa, as far east as Lake Okeechobee, and as far south as the Keys. The Tequesta lived on the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula around what is today Biscayne Bay and the Miami River. Both societies were well-adapted to live in the various ecosystems of the Everglades regions. They often traveled through the heart of the Everglades, though they rarely lived within it.

After more than 210 years of relations with the Spanish, both Indigenous societies lost cohesiveness. Official records indicate that survivors of war and disease were transported to Havana in the late 18th century. Isolated groups may have been assimilated into the Seminole, which formed in northern Florida when a band of Muscogee consolidated surviving members of precontact societies in Florida into their own to become a distinct tribe. Seminoles were forced into the Everglades by the U.S. military during the Seminole Wars from 1835 to 1842. The U.S. Army pursued the Seminoles into the region, which resulted in some of the first recorded explorations of much of the area. Seminoles continue to live in the Everglades region, and support themselves with casino gaming on six reservations located throughout the state.

Earliest peoples + Cultural Periods in Precontact South Florida Period Dates Paleo-Indian 10,000–7,000 BCE Archaic: Early Middle Late   7,000–5,000 BCE 5,000–3,000 BCE 3,000–1,500 BCE Transitional 1,500–500 BCE Glades I 500 BCE–800 CE Glades II 800–1200 Glades III 1200–1566 Historic 1566–1763 Humans first inhabited the peninsula of Florida approximately 15,000 years ago when it looked vastly different. The west coast extended about to the west of its current location. The landscape had large dunes and sweeping winds characteristic of an arid region, and pollen samples show foliage was limited to small stands of oak, and scrub bushes. As earth's glacial ice retreated, winds slowed and vegetation became more prevalent and varied. Archaeologists have found direct evidence that Paleoindians in Florida hunted mammoths, mastodons, Bison antiquus, and giant tortoises. The bones of other large and small animals, including ground sloths, tapirs, horses, camelids, deer, fish, turtles, shellfish, snakes, raccoons, opossums, and muskrats are associated with Paleoindian sites. Around 6,500 years ago, the climate of Florida began to change, and the land became much wetter. Paleo-Indians spent more time in camps and less time traveling in between sources of water.

The Paleo-Indians then slowly adapted and became the Archaic peoples of the Florida peninsula, most probably due to the extinction of big game. Archaic people were primarily hunter-gatherers who depended on smaller game and fish, and relied more than their predecessors on plants for food. They were able to adapt to the shifting climate and the resulting change of animal and plant populations. Florida experienced a prolonged drought at the onset of the Early Archaic era that lasted until the Middle Archaic period. Although the population decreased overall on the peninsula, the use of tools increased significantly during this time; artifacts have shown that these people used drills, knives, choppers, atlatls, and awls made from stone, antlers, and bone.

Southern Florida became very dry during the early Archaic, from 9000 to 7000 BCE. Known Paleo-Indian sites were abandoned During that time, and the population in the region was very sparse, if any. Starting in the Middle Archaic, around 6500 BCE, Florida became wetter, but southern Florida remained relatively dry. Lake Okeechobee had not formed, and with almost no surface runoff, there were no brackish estuaries along the coasts. During the Late Archaic period, the climate continued getting wetter, and by approximately 3000 BCE, the water table had risen. Pre-creamic archaeological sites from this period have been found near the coasts and in the Big Cypress Swamp, but there is no certain evidence of human presence in the Everglades proper, which was still developing and had not reached its pre-drainange (prior to 1905) extent.

Pottery

Fiber-tempered pottery of the Orange series appeared in northern Florida around 2000 or 1500 BCE. Late Orange series pottery shifted to a semi-fiber-tempered type, in which both fiber and sand were used as temper. Semi-fiber-tempered pottery began appearing in southern Florida sites at the end of the late Archaic. As the Archaic ended coastal estuaries became increasingly productive, leading to a cultural adaptation that primarily harvested food sources from coastal waters, with hunting of land animals and gathering of wild plants secondary.

Pottery making in southern Florida had shifted to using sand as tempering at the end of the Archaic (between 1000 and 500 BCE in southern Florida). Based primarily on differences in pottery styles, archaeologists have defined three cultures for the post-Archaic period for the region; the Belle Glade (or Okeechobee) culture, the Caloosahatchee culture, and the Glades culture. The Caloosahatchee culture area, which was inhabited by the Calusa people at the time of European contact, is not part of the Everglades. The Belle Glade culture area surrounds Lake Okeechobee, and includes the northern part of the Everglades, as well as the lower Kissimmee River valley. The Mayaimi people lived in that region at the time of European contact. The remainder of southern Florida, including the middle and lower Everglades, the Big Cypress Swamp, the Atlantic coast of Florida from what is now Martin County south to and including the Florida Keys, the Ten Thousand Islands, and the Gulf of Mexico coast north to just south of Estero Bay, are in the Glades culture area.

The Glades culture is divided into three periods based on evidence found in middens. In 1947, archaeologist John Goggin described the three periods after examining shell mounds. He excavated one on Matecumbe Key, another at Gordon Pass near modern-day Naples, and a third south of Lake Okeechobee near modern-day Belle Glade. The Glades I culture, lasting from 500 BCE to 800 CE, was apparently focused around Gordon Pass and is considered the least sophisticated due to the lack of artifacts. What has been found—primarily pottery—is gritty and plain.Goggin, John (October 1947). "A Preliminary Definition of Archaeological Areas and Periods in Florida", American Antiquity, 13 (2), pp. 114–127. With the advent of a well-established culture in 800 CE, the Glades II period is characterized by more ornate pottery, wide use of tools throughout the South Florida region, and the appearance of religious artifacts at burial sites. By 1200, the Glades III culture exhibited the height of their development. Pottery became ornate enough to be subdivided into types of decoration. More importantly, evidence of an expanding culture is revealed through the development of ceremonial ornaments made from shell, and the construction of large earthworks associated with burial rituals. From the Glades III culture developed two distinct tribes that lived in and near the Everglades: the Calusa and the Tequesta.

Mounds The cultures of southern Florida shared many features. One difference is in the construction and use of mounds. Many sites in the Belle Glade culture area, such as Fort Center, have elaborate earthworks consisting of mounds, ponds, borrow pits, ditches, canals, and embankments, often arranged in geometric shapes. Sites in the Caloosahatchee culture area include many structures, primarily of shell. Aside from large middens, constructed structures include platform mounds, causeways, and canals such as the Pine Island Canal. Many sites in the culture area, such as Mound Key and the Pineland site, developed into Shell works, elaborate constructions of shell consisting of some combination of mounds, borrow pits, canals, causeways, cisterns, crescents, sunken plazas, ponds, ramps, raised platforms, ridges, rings, walls, and "water courts".

Shell works, including large ones such as Dismal Key, Key Marco, and the Turner River Site, have been found in the Ten Thousand Island District of the Glades culture area, as well as many smaller, less elaborate Shell rings. On the other hand, Bob Carr has commented that "there are few constructed mounds in southern Florida". Constructed mounds in southeast Florida, the part of the Glades culture area along the Atlantic coast, were made of sand or limestone rock. Coastal transport of sand along the coast ends at Biscayne Bay, and there is little sand available south of the Miami River. Mounds between there and the Florida Keys were built with loose limestone rocks. A couple of possible circular ditches with a clear center, similar to ones at Fort Center and other Belle Glade sites, have been identified in Miami-Dade County.

First contact

The first known Europeans to meet the indigenous peoples of southern Florida were Juan Ponce de León and his crew in 1513, when they reached Biscayne Bay and visited the site of the main Tequesta town at the mouth of the Miami River. The Tequesta people retreated from their town when the Spanish approached. Ponce de León's fleet then sailed along the Florida Keys and up to the southwest coast of Florida, anchoring somewhere in the Calusa domain in order to take on firewood and fresh water. Over a three week period there were skirmishes between the Spanish and the Calusa, with casualties on both sides. The Spanish captured captured several Calusa men and women. One Calusa man could speak some Spanish, indicating some kind of earlier contact.

Calusa