At the time of first contact between Europeans and the indigenous peoples of Florida, southeastern Florida was the home of the Tequestas.

Although recent archaeological discoveries have expanded our knowledge of the Tequesta, they still remain shrouded in mystery. It seems that they were in some ways subservient to the Calusa culture of southwest Florida.

The archaeological information from the precolumbian period provides no evidence that the Tequesta were organized in as complex a fashion as the Calusa. There are no village sites with large mounds thought to be associated with a paramount chief like the Calusa's. Yet documents from the 1560s and later periods do indicate there was a head chief of the Tequesta, who resided in their main village and controlled several other villages and their leaders . . . .

But Tequesta political organization was only a dim reflection of that of the Calusa. The Tequesta chief ruled over a much smaller population and did not control outlying, non-Tequesta villages or chiefs. The Tequesta chief was forced to show allegiance to the Calusa chief, maintaining that alliance through exchange marriages of chiefly relatives. Even so, at least on one occasion the chief of the Tequesta was not above trying to instigate his own initiatives and challenge Calusa authority. When he failed he had to face the wrath of the Calusa chief

(excerpt from Jerald T. Milanich, Florida Indians and the Invasion of Europe, p. 54)