When I visit the Americas I stay on Mound Key at the mouth of Caloosahatchee River (River of the Calusa) and located in what will become the state of Florida. My home is near the sacred Temple atop this the artifical 125 acre island built by my friends and hosts of the tribe known as "Calusa"(kah LOOS ah). The mound is made entirely of shells and clay. Which also gives my hosts the nickname "Shell People". Life is good here, a seafood lovers paradise! The Calusa language indicate they may have traveled to Florida from the islands. Outstanding hunters and fishermen, they do little farming. As warriors they also gain tributes of food from surrounding smaller tribes.

Mound Key is the largest village of about forty coastal villages spread along the Florida Gulf Coast. The huge shell mounds surrounded with deep moats protect their villages. Burial mounds and a temple mound for ceremonies encircle the village. The home in which I stay as an honored guest is on stilts and the roof is woven of palmetto leaves. It is entirely water tight and quite comfortable despite it's lack of walls.

Leftover shells are used for tools, utensils, jewelry, and ornaments for shrines. My hosts travel by canoe, made of dugout cypress logs up to 4.57 meters(15ft)in length. They are excellent sailors....much like my own people in Scandinavia. The Calusa have dominated this area of southwest Florida since about 1450 BC. Calusa men are powerfully built, often four inches taller than their European counterparts, they have hip-length hair and wear only tanned breeches of deerskin fastened with intricatly designed belts to show their position in the tribe. The women dress in woven Spanish moss and palmetto leaf garments which are dipped in a liquid and then woven very finely together so that they almost look like linen to the eye.