Timucua Indians and the Missions of Spanish Florida

This presentation is one of a series of eight Ormond Beach Historical Society’s 2021-22 Speaker Series programs. Beginning in the 1560s, first Jesuit and then Franciscan friars founded more than 150 missions among native peoples from south Florida to the Chesapeake Bay. The largest number were in Timucua Indian towns in southern Georgia and northern Florida. By the time Spain relinquished La Florida to Great Britain in 1763 only two missions and less than one hundred Indians remained. What once had been a mission system impacting the lives of thousands of native people over many generations had been destroyed. With the removal of the Hispanic presence memories of the missions soon faded. Today, thanks to the research efforts of a host of historians and archaeologists, understanding of the mission system and the Timucua Indians have become a part of American history.

Jerald T. Milanich (University of Florida), is an author of more than twenty books describing the Indian societies of the Americas and their interactions with Europeans during the colonial and post-colonial periods, Curator Emeritus at the Florida Museum of Natural History, and contributing editor for Archaeology magazine.

This program is funded in part through a Florida Humanities Community Project Grant in partnership with the Ormond Beach