![[Illustration by Merald Clark]](/anthro/sflarch/calusa_8/gifphoto/new_old.gif)
Let us glance through a time window at a Paleo-Indian group on a day in southwest Florida, 10,827 B.P. We will place them near a sinkhole spring now known as Mud Hole.
It is early spring. Biting flies and rising daytime temperatures in southern peninsular Florida have begun to cause herds of bison to seek more comfortable range. With other grazing beasts, they are travelling north. They will pause briefly at Mud Hole for water....
The band of Paleo-Indian people has arrived near Mud Hole before them, anticipating the seasonal movements of the herds. Such knowledge of animal movements would have been crucial to the Paleo-Indians. To miss a major hunting opportunity could mean serious deprivation, perhaps even starvation for the people.
Two men and their young sons have taken up positions at a lookout camp on a scrub-covered sand ridge. There they pass the time improving the edges on their weapons, exchanging tales of previous hunts, scanning the southern horizon for the first signs of the herds arrival. A strong breeze blows steadily out of the south-southwest....
from New Words, Old Songs by Charles E. Blanchard
Why "New Words, Old Songs"?
The New Words are the invaluable contributions of modern archaeological research. The Old Songs are the life ways of southwest Florida's ancient peoples.
-Chuck Blanchard