And So It (Our History) Begins!

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By Seth H. Bramson

As we told you (wrote, actually!) we have essentially concluded the discussion of the various South Florida local and Florida transportation history books which we have written, those in addition to more than 300 articles, including seven in refereed or juried publications. (My dear and beloved brother got Dad’s artistic talent as well as being a marvelous speaker but in addition Bennett has written the history of Basalt, Colorado [and what a great job he did for Arcadia on that one] while his daughter, our adored niece Dara, has had three books published and has just started her PhD program in gerontology at Tulane University Medical School in Nawlins.

Myrna and I are so proud of them! Myrna, of course, likes to say, when referring to me, that “my husband has only two talents, he can speak and he can write,” and while I can’t hammer a nail in a wall straight, I do give thirteen different talks on South Florida local and Florida transportation history, and unlike the nonsense coming from Miami’s walking fountain of MISinformation, everything that my audiences hear in each talk has been documented, with nothing made up and no silliness or hooey. More on that down the road apiece!)

As far as our history then, it is only fitting to “begin at the beginning.” The beginning (as noted last column) is, contrary to the nonsense which comes from people who have moved here from “up nawth” and know nothing about said history, goes back, as far as human habitation is concerned, further than any other place in North America.

Several years ago our famed local archaeologist, my friend, Robert Carr, was asked to do a “dig” at the Deering Estate, not Vizcaya, which was the James Deering estate, but, rather, his brother, Charles’ estate a good bit further south on Old Cutler Road. Bob dutifully complied and as some of you may know, archaeological “digs” go down in what are called “layers” and Bob went down, in layers, 10,000 years. Seriously.

It was in and during that dig that Bob found not “traces” but actual evidence of human habitation going back 10,000 years to a time when this entire area was a great savanna. In addition to human fossils, Robert turned up fossils or bone or skeletons of giant birds, giant sloths, a saber-toothed tiger and a mastodon, also seriously, hence you should now feel free to tell your friends from New Yawk, or Chi-caw-go or ehhhh-Philly or Bawlimerhon or any place else who want to tell you that “you have no history here, the place is too new” that, because the facts disprove those comments, they have no idea what they are talking about.

We move on in history now to the Paleo-Indian era and we learn that there were innumerable tribes throughout what would someday be named la Florida—the land of flowers–by the early Spanish explorers, possibly by Ponce de Leon himself.

The first of the tribes which inhabited South Florida appears to have been the Timucuan, who were followed by the Calusa, then the Tequesta and, finally, the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes. (There were also members of the Caribee tribe who were regular visitors to this area, coming over from various Caribbean islands. The Caribee were flesh eaters and they would make occasional excursions to the not-yet-named Florida mainland in search of their prey, said prey being human beings. When they caught members of other tribes they would bring those unfortunate individuals back to whichever island they had come from and, within a few days, enjoy him or her for lunch or dinner.)

It is, at this juncture, important to note that, just as with such homo-sapiens’ predecessors such as Neanderthals and Cro-magnon man (and others, of course), and the same as it is with the planets and heavenly bodies which we have named, the pre-Seminole and Miccosukee tribes likely had no names for themselves. The names (such as Calusa or Tequesta), just as with the planets, have been artificially given to them (pre-historic groups, paleo-Indian tribes and planetary bodies) in order that we can identify them.

Remember, if Zephrin Cochran ever does figure out how to go faster than the speed of light, using warp drive and allowing us to achieve inter-stellar space flight, there won’t be signs on any of the planets reading “Welcome to (for example) Alpha-Centurion” or any other place in the universe. We have made up those names!

One other item of importance regarding the South Florida tribes, and it certainly has now been proven to have been the case with our human predecessors: one group did not suddenly show up, go through centuries and then disappear with another group just as suddenly appearing to take the previous groups place. Didn’t happen, as we have, in the last some years, learned. So what did happen?

Evolution. It appears that each South Florida tribe, in turn, was replaced by the next tribe after inter-mingling and it was, as the great song went, a case of “only the strong survive.” As we know today, “the strong” were (and are) the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes and fortunately, for them and for us, it is they who have survived.

Trusting that you have enjoyed the very early times, we will, next column, move quickly into the 19th century and we will learn about the early settlers on both sides of Biscayne Bay. We won’t though (because there is so much to tell) go any further in the next edition than 1898. As previously stated, you can again be assured that you will be reading only documented truths, no fables, fairy tales or bubbemissehs. It will be in that next column that you will learn that Julia Tuttle did NOT send Mr. Flagler some orange blossoms and that that whole story is nothing but a bunch of hooey. Hope you will join us for another issue of truth and facts regarding South Florida history and we are looking forward to seeing you shortness.

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