The Mocamas referred to their territory as heca utimile meaning “our land.” For twenty years the Mocamas waged an episodic war against the Spanish soldiers who sought to take over La Caroline (renamed San Mateo). Then, in 1587, the holata of Alimacani (Fort George Island) invited a Franciscan friar to live in the community.
Drawing on precontact strategies of participating in religious aspects of a foreign culture to enhance their power and to expand their networks, Holata Alimacani and other Mocama elites negotiated a political and spiritual alliance with the Spanish. As part of this spiritual diplomacy, Spanish officials offered gifts to Mocama elites in the form of clothing, glass beads, iron tools, metal weapons, and other European goods. For the Mocamas, these non-local objects served as visible symbols of elite power, much as they had hundreds of years earlier. Ultimately, Mocama leaders entered into this alliance in the belief it would preserve and perhaps elevate their high status within their community.
Catholic missionaries were guests in Mocama worlds. The town holata maintained complete secular control over the community. A resident friar focused on trying to gain religious influence and power, although it is still unclear what con - version actually meant to individual Mocamas. From his Alimacani home, a friar traveled to smaller nearby Mocama towns to spread the Catholic faith. In addition to his clerical role, the friar served as an ambassador between the Mocama and the Spanish colonial government in St. Augustine.
Mocama towns with Spanish friars remained Indigenous communities. They continued to include circular thatch-roofed houses and a large round council house where politics took place. Added to the traditional community layout in those towns with a friar was a mission core consisting of a rectangular church, and a friar’s house (convento), kitchen, and small garden— all built and maintained by Mocamas. Other nearby towns likely erected a small chapel for a visiting priest to say mass.
