Acuera (Timucua: Acuero?, "Timekeeper")[1] was the name of both an indigenous town and a province or region in central Florida during the 16th and 17th centuries. The indigenous people of Acuera spoke a dialect of the Timucua language. In 1539 the town first encountered Europeans when it was raided by soldiers of Hernando de Soto's expedition. French colonists also knew this town during their brief tenure (1564–1565) in northern Florida.
Late in the 16th century, Acuera came under Spanish influence as it expanded its settlements. Two or three Spanish missions were founded in the Acuera province in the 17th century.
- ^ Willet Boyer, “Names of Power: An Analysis of Names from the Acuera Chiefdom of the Ocklawaha River Valley,” Southeastern Archaeology 50, no. 2 (October 2008).