Legend or Myth?

This week I have been starting to look through the vertical files of the archive. This consists mostly, so far, of copies of primary documents rather than the actual physical primary document itself. In this one particular folder, I came across typescript letters to and from the State Director and the Local supervisor of the Federal Writing Project in Jacksonville Florida. The subject of the letters, dated 1938, was the legend of Chasco, Queen of the Calusas. I have always been interested in the Folklore of different cultures because what a group of people believe is one of the main driving force in there behavior. Calusa Indians were a tribe known as the "shell Indians" because they did not farm like most Indian tribes. Instead, they fished and utilized all types of shell fish. They died out in the late 1700s, however, their legend that the letters speak of have lived on as possible fact; until recently that is. The letters I found in the archives are addressing this so called "legend" and whether or not it is real. They go back and forth providing information the other has and while reading the letters, It was if I was in the conversation, figuring along with them the mystery behind this legend. One of the last letters stated, " I am sorry to have to disappoint you, but although this legend was handed down from father to son amount the early 'old-timers', this story is fiction so far as the characters are concerned". It is amazing how, by word of mouth and generations of stories handed down, history becomes legend and accepted as fact. It is a reminder of the power of a cultures folklore.