Mission San Luis
Starting in 1607, the Apalachee requested an improved relationship with the Spaniards. Apalachee chiefs specifically requested for friars to visit their territory and, although rejected by the Spanish, requested a permanent mission be built in 1612. The exact reasoning is unknown but the Apalachee likely saw the Spanish as a means of maintaining their power and gaining access to new materials. By this point the Spanish were well established within La Florida. The trade goods and resources they provided were much sought after and the military capability of the Spanish could not be denied.
Coinciding with their need for valuable foodstuffs and labor for St. Augustine, the Spanish fully acknowledged the Apalachee requests in 1633 with two friars dispatched to establish permanent missions. Several years later the friars welcomed a handful of Spanish soldiers to the territory as well. These soldiers were to lead Apalachee militia in patrols and raids. By converting the Apalachee to Catholicism, and introducing a military authority, the Spanish could incorporate them into the wider Spanish Empire.
After 23 years of trade, contact, and religious conversion, San Luis was relocated to a more defensible position. This was atop one of Tallahassee’s tallest hills and is where Mission San Luis is located today. Over the next 50 years, the Spanish presence would only increase, pulling authority away from the Apalachee chiefs and turning San Luis into a very European village. The Spanish built a familiar European grid-system close to the central plaza, as opposed to the Apalachee that lived in the surrounding area on their farmland.
Since its original inception, San Luis served as a type of capital for both the Apalachee people and Spanish authorities. San Luis served as the main seat for the Apalachee holata, contested only by those at Ivitachuco to the east. The Spanish Deputy Governor also lived at the Mission for a time, providing a physical reminder of Spanish political power.
Relations between the Apalachee and the Spanish soured as the years passed. While many tribal leaders were excused from providing labor through the repartimento, a system of labor imposed upon indigenous groups within territory claimed by the Spanish, the majority of Apalachee men were not. This required them to provide labor for Spanish plantations, the physical transport of goods to port in St. Marks or St. Augustine, and to assist in construction projects. These tasks would sometimes see the Apalachee pulled from their homes and farms for weeks if not months at a time, all for little or no compensation. The situation worsened for the Apalachee in later years as the Spanish called upon those in positions of power to provide labor, seized land and material for new Spanish homes, and failed to secure military victories against the English.
