From the press release archive
Science 2012-10-03 1 min read

Extinct Native American Tribe Featured in New Book by Nicholas W Fuller

Florida Author Writes Historical Fiction Novel for Children and Young Adults Featuring Florida's Lost Native Residents.
Published 2012-10-03 · Original archive entry · Explore research explainers

COCOA, FL, October 03, 2012

"There are only a few Native American Tribes that are truly extinct. The Timucua Tribe of Florida is one of them," said Nicholas W Fuller, author of Leader of The Tribe, a new novel that features Timucua Indians as the main characters.

In Pre-Columbian times, the Timucua Tribe dominated North and Central Florida. At it's peak, their tribal lands spanned from present day Jacksonville to Orlando, and the tribe consisted of 200,000 people and 35 chiefdoms.

Unfortunately the Timucuan people had no tolerance to European diseases. By 1600 the tribe was one quarter its previous size. By 1700, there were only one thousand Timucuans left. By the turn of the 19th century they were completely extinct.

Yet some of their sites are still visible today. North of Jacksonville there is a Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. All over Florida there are tremendous shell mounds, some of the remnants of Timucuan chiefdoms.

Nicholas chose to write about these people in his new book to inspire his readers to learn more about them. "I wanted to write about interesting characters and settings," he said, "But I'm also hoping by introducing readers to these things, they'll be inspired to learn more about them."

Nicholas W Fuller has been writing all of his life. He began writing his first novel while still in fifth grade - a science fiction story featuring an alien race inspired by his neighbors basset hounds. Leader of the Tribe is Nicholas' first novel.You can find his work on Amazon.com here: http://amzn.to/Qx0ire
From the original Press-News collection. Issuers of news releases are responsible for the accuracy of their content.