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16th-century beckons with feast, close-up view of history

By PAUL SWIDER
Published April 26, 2006

"We really want people to step back in time and feel the history," said Doris Anderson of Sacred Lands, a venue on the family's Park Street property where a real American Indian "midden," or mound, creates an authentic atmosphere. "A lot of people think this is a magical kingdom back here."

Anderson and her husband, Erik, will host a dinner Saturday featuring actors in costume, authentic food of the time, and presentations by those with expertise in the interactions of the Tocobaga and Spanish explorers.

"Florida has a very rich and diverse history from way before the times our history books teach our children," said E.J. Salcines, a Tampa appeals court judge and amateur historian who is addressing the event in his role as honorary vice consul of Spain for the west coast of Florida. "I commend this effort."

Salcines, whose parents both emigrated from Spain, said he will talk about the "Forgotten Century" of American history, the 1500s that formed the initial formative contact between Europeans and American Indians. Beginning with the 1528 expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez, who may have landed at the Sacred Lands site, to that of Hernando de Soto in 1539 and the founding of St. Augustine in 1565, the Spanish, Salcines said, had significant presence and interactions in the New World long before the Europeans landed at Plymouth.

Salcines said the Spanish brought to North America the horse, cow, pig and sheep, introducing them all through Florida. He said the Spanish explorers, fending off scurvy after their long sea journey, wandered Florida eating oranges and discarding the seeds, thereby also bringing that crop to the area. He said the first historical account about North America was written by Alvar Nunez, who wandered lost from the Tampa Bay area around the Gulf Coast for seven years before finding a Spanish mission in Mexico.

Nunez encountered indigenous people along the way and celebrating the lives and customs of those people is another aim of the Sacred Lands event. Author Mac Perry will share the knowledge he has culled from years of research for his most recent book, Indian Mounds You Can Visit.

"I live on an Indian mound," Perry said of his home near Tyrone Boulevard and Park Street. "They're all over the place."

Perry will speak about the language and habits of the Tocobaga, including how and why they built their mounds, what the people's lives were like, and how the women ran the villages. He will also discuss interactions with the Spanish, who were often killed but who also killed many American Indians. There was some peaceful contact as well, which the dinner will symbolize.

Anderson said the menu will include smoked fish, turkey, roast pork and vegetables the natives used for salads. There will also be sangria and cassina, a black tea made from yaupon holly, the only indigenous North American plant containing caffeine.

The evening will also include a tour of the mound and the Anderson property, which contains a museum with artifacts unearthed in two archeological digs. Anderson said there are still 16th-century pottery shards to be found on the 20-foot high mound, as well as carved deer-bone hairpins. The family has also found Spanish trade beads from the era.

"People will be able to actually walk where the villagers walked and explore the mound," Anderson said.

Storytellers will also relate the tale of Juan Ortiz, a Spanish explorer captured by the Tocobaga and, Anderson said, possibly the true subject of the Pocahontas story.

Paul Swider can be reached at 892-2271 or pswider@sptimes.com or by participating in itsyourtimes.com .

[Last modified April 26, 2006, 06:28:08]