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Such a designation for an Indian mound in Pinellas Point would shield it from further development.
By ANDREW MEACHAM
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 1, 2002
ST. PETERSBURG -- A Tocobagan Indian mound near the city's southern tip is headed for recognition as a historic landmark.
The Historic Preservation Commission on Tuesday will hear why the mound bounded by Pinellas Point Drive and Mound Place S, between 20th Street and Bethel Way, should be protected. A group including City Council members and several department heads toured sites in July to see which might merit local landmark status, which shields sites from further development without a permit from the city.
Like many of the surrounding streets, the mound remains dappled in shadows even on the sunniest days. It slopes unevenly to the second-floor level of an adjacent house, if not higher.
Sandspurs cluster around the bottom, and the mound's main uses today appear in a couple of footpaths to the top, and fresh grooves of bicycle tires down the steeper north face.
But historians say for about 800 years, from 900 to 1700, Indians inhabited the West Coast of Florida from Manatee County to Safety Harbor. Indians created the Pinellas Point mound from shells, and it is believed to have been used mainly for ceremonial purposes. The name "Tocobaga" refers more to a loose confederation of clans than to a tribe, serving as a buffer between the Timucua to the north and the Calusa to the south, University of South Florida historian Ray Arsenault wrote in his book, St. Petersburg and the Florida Dream.
Much of the historical record centers on conflict between these Indians and Panfilo de Narvaez, the Spanish explorer and successor to Hernando DeSoto. Narvaez landed in or around Boca Ciega Bay in 1528. A subsequent confrontation between Narvaez's troops and Chief Hirrihigua in the village of Ucita shaped European and Indian relations for decades to come.
"The meeting went poorly, to say the least," historic preservation planner Rick Smith said.
The chief was wounded in the face by Narvaez's soldiers. When Hirrihigua's mother rushed to his aid, the Spaniards slaughtered her and fed the pieces of her body to their greyhounds, according to Arsenault's account.
Historians believe the Ucita site lies off of the Little Manatee River, near Ellenton, Smith said. A local legend places the Narvaez landing in what is now Jungle Prada. What appears to be consistent is a record of hostilities between Spaniards and local Indians.
A bronze marker on the north side of the Pinellas Point Indian mound, established in 1966 by the Boca Ciega chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, recounts the misfortunes of one Luis Cancer de Barbastros, a Dominican friar "dedicated to teaching religion to American Indians."
According to the account, de Barbastros was lured to the Pinellas Point mound on June 26, 1549, and clubbed to death by Calusa Indians. Riverview archaeologist David Burns, of the Central Gulf Coast Archaeological Society, said he was unfamiliar with the incident, but that it's unlikely Calusas roamed farther north than the Fort Myers-Naples area.
Arsenault's book states that a Fray Luis Cancer de Barbastro and another friar did in 1547 obtain royal permission to proselytize the Indians of Florida, and began their missionary work two years later. Both eventually were killed, Luis Cancer by clubbing, although the book has his death taking place on a beach.
The request for historic designation follows a recommendation in November by the Florida Historical Commission that another tract of city-owned land just south of Jungle Prada be listed on the National Register of Historic Places due to its pre-Columbian past and Indian artifacts.
Two other sites also will be recommended for local designation at Tuesday's 4 p.m. meeting, at council chambers in City Hall: a 1927 Mediterranean Revival house at 619 65th St. S; and the Robert McCutcheon house in Central Oak Park, 4727 Sixth Ave. N.