Up until around 750 AD, two peoples lived at the mouth of the Miami River on Biscayne Bay. The Proto-Apalachete elite lived in large, round cone-shaped houses, identical to those that appeared on the Macon Plateau in the late 800s AD.
The Teskete (Tesquita in Spansh) continued to live in chickees, woven like baskets, at that location until Florida was ceded by Spain to Great Britain in 1763. Some Taskete remained in the interior of extreme South Florida then intermarried with Creeks from Northeast Georgia in the late 1700s.
Both the large round houses of the elite and basket-weave houses of the commoners appear at Hiawassee Island a relatively short time after the construction of large round houses ended at Okmulgee. The basket-weave houses may have also been at Okmulgee, but either their footprints were not recognized in the 1930s archaeological dig or they were in the large village on the opposite side of the Okmulgee River , where Downtown Macon is today.
In 1540 AD, Chroniclers of the Harnando de Soto Epxedition recorded the name of the town on Hiwassee Island, Tennessee as being Tasqui and their ethnic name as being Tasquite. Their name is Taskete in Itzate Creek, Tuskeki in Muskogee Creek and Tuskegee in English.
Excerpt from The Sea Peoples of the South Atlantic Coast
by Richard L. Thornton, Architect and City Planner
Special thanks goes to Archaeologist Robert Carr, President of the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy in Miami, Florida for providing me a photo of the archaeological site above, plus investigation reports from his projects in Miami. Exactly 20 years ago, Bob sent me a color photocopy of his plan of the Ortona Site next to Lake Okeechobee. It blew my mind. Almost immediately I realized that the so-called “Mississippian Culture” began in South Florida then matured at Ocmulgee.
I am still working on the computer model of the ancient Indigenous tow,n located where Downtown Miami is today. Below are some old drawings of Hiwassee Island, so you will better understand what I am talking about.
Birdseye view of Hiwassee Island during its original settlement,
Note the small houses in the background. The Tesketa houses in Miami were the same shape.
View of Hiwassee Island looking toward Snowbird Mountains in North Carolina
A very similar mound was built at the mouth of the Miami River on Biscayne Bay.
Tauske is how the Muskogee Creeks pronounced the people here.
The Americas Revealed 