Domain of the Calusa is an award-winning documentary about South Florida’s Calusa Indians: the native coastal Indians of southwest Florida. Filmed in 1995, it introduces a powerful, complex, and artistic Native American society with which few Americans are familiar, even in Florida.

The permanent education facility at Pineland became a reality in 1997, and you can now visit the Randell Research Center and Calusa Heritage Trail. To learn more about the Center and the Calusa People visit the Randell Research Center.

More about the film:

Archaeological sites left by the Calusa and their predecessors dot the southwest Florida coast, yet little has been known of these people until recently. Venture once again into the domain of the Calusa. Witness the intrigue and conflict as sixteenth-century Spanish ambition collides with the indomitable Calusa spirit. Follow anthropologist Frank Cushing to the steaming mangrove muck of Key Marco in 1896, as he excavates one of the most remarkable collections of Native American artifacts ever found. Join modern archaeologists, who are striving to restore the lost heritage of the mysterious Calusa as they learn lessons that may help today’s people.

Domain of the Calusa was named “Best Documentary” by the Louis Wolfson II Media History Center in 1996.