Author Description

"This is the first book-length study to use Spanish language sources in documenting the original Indian inhabitants of West Florida who, from the late sixteenth century to the 1740s, lived to the west and the north of the Apalachee. Previous authors who studied the forebears of Creeks and Seminoles from the Chattahoochee Valley have relied exclusively on English sources dating from the second half of the eighteenth century, with the exception of John R. Swanton, who had limited access to Spanish records for his classic works from 1922 to 1946. In this history of the region's Native Americans, Hann focuses on the small tribes of West Florida - Amacano, Chine, Chacato, Chisca, and Pansacola - and their first contacts with Spanish explorers, colonists, and missionaries. He also gives significant perspective to the forebears of the Lower Creeks, with an emphasis on the late seventeenth century, when Spanish documents recorded the important events of the interior regions of the Southeast."--BOOK JACKET.