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4b 40 4V NF8 Form 1a•900 -a � (8m) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMa ,Appmy&1 lvv. 1024-W O B Section number _E_ Page —3-- Indian River Narrows Cultural Resource District evaded Menendez, living with local Indians, and they are believed to be the source of a number of French and European artifacts found near Cape Canaveral and southward (Armstrong 1996). The Indians who lived from Carpe Canaveral south along the Indian River lagoon were the Ais Indians. The Spanish called the whole of the Indian River, from Cape Canaveral south to the Ft. Pierce Inlet, tate "Rio de Ais" (Rouse 1981:34). Currently, the location of the main Ais settlement, the residence of the chief, is unknown. Rouse (1981:34) and Milanich (1995:66) believe that is was placed near the old Indian River inlet in St. Lucie County. Their placement of the Ais settlement and early Spanish place-names comes from Alvaro Mexia who traveled the Indian River from 5t. Augustine for the colonial governor, Pedro de Ybarra, in 1605 (Higgs 1981). However, as Lyon (1999) points out, the location of the `bar of Ays' is not clearly placed in Mexia's derroteso, and conflicting assignment of the name to various locations occurs at times throughout the historical record. Following a detailed reckoning of the movement of Spanish and French troops through the area between 1565 and 1566, lie places the main Ais settlement `at or near the Sebastian Inlet' (Lyon 1999.2). The culture of the Ais was significantly affected by contact with the French and Spanish explorers and by their proximity to the Gulf Stream's Bahama Channel, where European ships often wrecked. The Ais obtained European goods through trade or by salvaging the wrecks (Sauer 1971:220; Milanich 1995:66; Lyon 1967:5-6), Thus, many Native American archaeological sites, particularly near the coast, dating from the late fifteenth through the sixteenth centuries include European manufactured goods among the site assemblage (Smith 1956).