In 1521, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León sailed his ship up the southwest coast of what is now Florida. He was looking to start a colony there, but when he and his men came ashore, Calusa warriors met them with shark-tooth war clubs and arrows and spears that were tipped with pointed bone and fish spines. An arrow landed in Ponce de León’s thigh, eventually killing him. That pretty much kept the Europeans from bothering the Calusa for the next two centuries, except for a brief period of cordial…
