Many of the southeastern tribes depended for their food mainly on crops of corn, beans and pumpkins supplemented by game brought in by the hunters. But those tribes living in Florida and along the Gulf Coast did little farming and depended largely on fish and shellfish. Using nets, weirs and spears tipped with stingray spines and horseshoe crab tails Indian fishermen took a great variety of fish species.
The pelican was no doubt admired by these people for its graceful flight and skill as a fisherman. Images of pelicans have been recovered from several prehistoric sites in Florida. Some are carved of wood and painted, while others are carved of bone or rendered as ornaments on ceramic pots.
Throughout the Southeast, Native Americans conceived that animal spirits could take either their own animal form or a human form as they desired. That concept of transformation is presented visually here.