10/12/2026
Please join the LMCC as we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day! On this day (and every day), we honor the lasting bonds forged between the Indigenous and African communities in what eventually became St. Augustine, Florida.
Long before our city was founded, this land was home to the Timucua, whose ancestors lived along Florida’s rivers and coast for thousands of years. They fished the tidal marshes, gathered shellfish, grew corn, beans, and squash, and built thriving towns led by local chiefs. In 1565, the Spanish landed at the Timucua village of Seloy, part of the Saturiwa chiefdom. Colonization devastated Timucua communities over the next two centuries, but their influence remains a part of St. Augustine's culture and legacy.
In 1738, Africans who escaped slavery in the Carolinas built Fort Mose just north of town. This was the first legally recognized free Black settlement in what is now the United States. Its community included Indigenous families and allies. In the years that followed, many Black Floridians found freedom alongside the Seminole people. Among these communities were the people later known as Black Seminoles, demonstrating how Black Floridians and Indigenous groups not only coexisted, but they established enduring communities, working relationships, allyships, and families.
Today we celebrate the Indigenous and African roots that run through St. Augustine, and we are grateful to everyone in our community who kept, and continues to keep, these stories alive. To learn more, come visit us at the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center! Open 7 days a week, Tues-Sat 10:30 - 4:30 and Sun-Mon 1-4:30.
Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!
Image courtesy of the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory from Theodor de Bry’s Engravings of the Timucua.
