William McGoun

Focusing on the Native Americans the Spanish called Tequesta and their ancestors, Ancient Miamians covers the 10,000 years from 8,000 B. C. to A. D. 1761, painting a vivid word portrait of a resident from each of six eras as they make tools, obtain food, deal with their fellow humans, and seek harmony with the forces that govern their lives. From first light to evening firelight, McGoun presents for the non-specialist a series of narratives depicting a single day in each of the lives of six typical men and women who once lived on the land around presentday Biscayne Bay. This concise and readable tale of the remarkable predecessors of Miami-Dade's current 2 million residents is the first such treatment of Florida's pre-European and early historic native people. Without violating archaeological fact, McGoun includes the major cultural periods and significant archaeological sites in the region, all in terms of day-to-day life rendered in engaging narrative. The story begins with the first settlers, who moved down the Florida peninsula more than 10 millennia ago, pursuing large animals that are now mostly extinct. It draws to a close with the 250 years that saw the Tequesta themselves become extinct, beginning with a time when ""the English and their friends just won't take 'Go away' for an answer, and they become such pests that finally even the Spaniards look good, or at least better."" Bibliographic summaries allow readers to extend the scope of their exploration beyond this fictiorialized reconstruction of prehistoric culture.

To many people in South Florida, an ""old-timer"" is someone who has lived there for more than five years. ""Prehistoric Peoples of South Florida"" considers the culture history of the real South Florida ""old-timers"" dating from 10,000 BC to the invasion by Europeans, and analyses the ways in which they adapted to their environment through time - or caused their environment to adapt to their needs. South Florida is a biological island, its plant communities circumscribed by the southern limits of frost. Its peoples were distinct from those to the north, and were less studied by scholars. In recent years the pace of research has increased, but there has been no attempt at synthesis since John M. Goggin wrote his still-unpublished manuscript on the Glades nearly half a century ago. ""Prehistoric Peoples of South Florida"" assembles the available knowledge and discusses competing theories, and does so in terms that are understandable to the general reader. McGoun outlines a cultural system that maintained an impressive community for 10,000 years - before being destroyed by two centuries of European contact.