Utina

Utina

One of Theodor de Bry's engravings, supposedly based on drawings by Jacques LeMoyne, depicting Chief Utina consulting his "sorcerer" before battle
Total population
Extinct as tribe
Regions with significant populations
North Florida along the middle St. Johns River
Languages
Timucua language, Agua Fresca dialect
Religion
Native
Related ethnic groups
Timucua

The Agua Dulce or Agua Fresca (Freshwater) were a Timucua group of northeastern Florida. They lived in the St. Johns River watershed north of Lake George, and spoke a dialect of the Timucua language also known as Agua Dulce.

In the 1560s Agua Dulce villages were organized into a chiefdom known as the Utina, one of the region's most powerful and prominent forces in the early days of European colonization in Florida. They had dealings with the French colony of Fort Caroline, and later allied with the Spanish of St. Augustine, who established several missions in their territory. However, the chiefdom declined significantly in the last decades of the 16th century, and their confederacy fragmented into at least three chiefdoms.

The main body of the tribe withdrew south along the St. Johns River, and were known as the Agua Dulce to the Spanish. A group of Christianized Agua Dulce migrated to the east towards St. Augustine, and became known as the Tocoy. The Acuera, who spoke a different dialect but appear to have been part of the Utina confederacy in the days of French settlement, also broke away and established their own chiefdom.

Agua Dulce or Agua Fresca (both meaning "Freshwater") was a Spanish term for Timucua living along the freshwater lower St. Johns River, as opposed to the Mocama or "Salt Water" who lived along the coast. The Utina chiefdom of the late 16th century is so called after its paramount chief at the time of contact with the Europeans, Olata Ouae Utina; other spellings of the name include "Outina". The name "Utina" does not appear to be a designation specific to this group; uti-na means "my land" in Timucuan. The Saturiwa, another Timucua chiefdom who were enemies of the Utina, called them "Thimogona" or "Tymangoua", which is possibly the origin of the name "Timucua". The French followed the Saturiwa in this usage but later, the Spanish used the word "Timucua" for a much wider area of northern Florida, which they incorporated into their mission system as the Timucua Province.