The First Residents

The First Residents. Cascades Park. Native people inhabited the Tallahassee region for over 12,000 years before European contact. The earliest residents left evidence of seasonal camps, while later natives constructed large earthen mounds that served as civic and ceremonial centers for surrounding villages and farmsteads., Mississipien culture spread from the Mississippi Valley east through Georgia and south into Florida. It brought with it a social organization based on regional federations of villages associated with large scale ceremonial mound complexes. , By the time of Spanish exploration, the powerful chiefdoms of earlier periods had broken down into loose confederations. The Apalachee, in the area of Tallahassee, were the most populous of the native groups on the Florida peninsula., Anhaica, the largest Apalachee village in the region, is believed to have been adjacent to present-day Cascades Park. The village occupied the area that would become the 20th-century neighborhoods east of the park., (Captions) , Map illustrating Apalachicola settlements. Mission San Luis, Division of Historical Resources, Florida Department of State, Apalachee towns surrounded by fields of corn, beans, squash and pumpkins dotted the area. Mission San Luis, Division of Historical Resources, Florida Department of State. Original drawing by John La Castro., Ilustration of “Hawk Dancer” ceremonial breast plate found at Lake Jackson Mounds, 1976. Original artifact in the collection of the Division of Historical Resources, Florida Department of State. Original drawing by Toni Hepburn.