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The Calusa chief gave his sister to Menendez to establish friendship
Source: Situado and Sabana #82
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Menendez' s contract also charged him to establish Spanish sovereignty over the Indians: reduce them to obedience. As he travelled from port to port positioning his garrisons, he drew the chiefs into "amistades," or "friendships," for the purposes of trade and mutual defense. In southern Florida he feigned to accept a native consort, sister of the paramount chief of the Calusas. As James Merrell has pointed out, the exchange of people, like the exchange of goods, was an established means of confirming trust and friendship in the Southeast. Women were given in marriage and children in adoption; hostages in the guise of family, they enlarged the kinship web. (Bushnell SS)
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