BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — Historians in Hernando County are looking to document the very first village of the Seminole nation.
- Chocochatti sign located at intersection of Cortez Boulevard, U.S. 98
- Historians don't know much about area
- Grant funding secured for historians, Seminole Tribe to study
- More Hernando County headlines
It was in Brooksville, known as Chocochatti, and has never been fully mapped before.
Right near the intersection of Cortez Boulevard and U.S. 98 in Brooksville is the only Chocochatti sign indicating where the Seminoles called home hundreds of years ago.
"Chocochatti was actually the founding village of the Seminole nation," said David Letasi with the Historic Hernando Preservation Society.
And right now historians don't know much about the area.
"Chocochatti appears on a lot of war maps in the early historical documents, but we've never ever been able to track down the exact location of Chocochatti," Letasi said.
"We don't know if it's a series of little hammocks of villages and cabins, if it was a tight cluster with a palisade fence around it. There's just not enough evidence or documentation to determine what was actually here,” he added.
That's why Letasi said the Historic Hernando Preservation Society, along with architects and the Seminole Tribe of Florida want to study the area.
Military forces burned the village in the 1800s but, they're hoping to find some artifacts there to get a better idea of how the Seminoles used the area.
"Native American society and history is becoming very important to what was here culturally in Brooksville and it would be wonderful to see it actually preserved. It should be designated as a national historic site," Letasi explained.
They hope to begin the project next year.
Letasi said they've already secured grant funding for the project. He says it will take several years to complete.