Ais

Not much is known about the Ais who inhabited the Atlantic coast of Florida, south of Timucua. The Ais word for themselves is however known, Ais, which seems to be of the Chitimachan Language Family and means ‘people‘, a common endonym for many Native American ethnic groups in the Americas.

Drawing their livelihood mainly from maritime resources and hunting and gathering on land, the Ais never seem to have been as populous as the Timucua-speaking tribes who lived in agricultural societies. Their fate was the same as the Timucua, a cruel treatment by the hands of European powers, particularly the Spanish who invaded their lands, meant genocide and extermination. Today the Ais are extinct.

Uploaded 12.04.2021.