Did the extinct tribes that once inhabited Florida travel to Cuba before the arrival of Christopher Columbus to America?

This question remains unanswered due to a lack of archaeological evidence and reluctance of researchers to further investigate evidence.

One such piece of evidence exists in a cave known as Cueva del Muneco in Cayo Ensenachos, in the north of the Cuban province of Villa Clara.

An anthropomorphic petroglyph was discovered and some specialists consider that there are surprising similarities with masks made by the Calusa, one of the missing historical tribes of Florida.

Historical accounts indicate that it was a region long populated by Indians, at least until 1703. They were engaged in seafood trade with inhabitants of the nearby Villa de San Juan de los Remedios, where they also served as watchmen to warn the arrival of pirates and enemies of Spain.

When asked about the petroglyph of Cayo Ensenachos for the book Cuba and the Unites States: Early Contacts, American ethnographer and archaeologist William Marquardt, an expert on Calusa culture dismisses the resemblance of the objects as evidence of long-term cultural contact but considered it was possible that a Calusa vessel had traveled to Cuba, perhaps as an isolated incident.

Marquardt, a renowned academic, is right when he considers the evidence insufficient to end the controversy over the pre-Columbian contacts between the first inhabitants of Florida and those of Cuba and other islands of the Caribbean.

What is documented is that the final destination of the last pure Calusa was Guanabacoa, a village near Havana, where they were taken by Spaniards along with survivors of other so-called historical tribes when England took control of Florida in 1763.

Calusas, Tequestas and Timucuas, among others, were initially settled in the Indian village of Guanabacoa, near Havana. But they faced overcrowding and several of the immigrants were transferred to other parts of the island.

This opens the possibility of another explanation of the petroglyph of the Cueva del Muneco. Was this an authentic Calusa petroglyph,  was it created by other tribes using Calusa work as inspiration or it was a simple coincidence?  These are questions that still have no answer.

It is curious that although this evidence exists, it has not been investigated, so the Ensenachos key petroglyph remains one of the many enigmas of the first American settlers.

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