MYSTERY CRYSTAL CROSS

AIRED: Season 4, Episode 7
THE DETECTIVE: Tukufu Zuberi
THE PLACE: Tallahassee, Florida

THE CASE:

The current chief of the Apalachee Tribe has a crystal cross that was discovered at an archeological dig of an old Spanish mission. He wants to know if it could possibly have been made centuries ago by his own ancestors.

About 15 years ago, archeologists at the Mission San Luis in Tallahassee, Florida made an astonishing discovery. In the process of excavating several hundred bodies at the site of this 17th century Spanish mission, they unearthed a beautiful and undamaged glass-like cross.

The current Chief of the Apalachee Tribe says his ancestors once lived near the mission, but fled when British forces raided in the early 1700s.

History Detectives journeys to Florida to examine the Spanish efforts to proselytize among native tribes and explore the fusing of native and Christian ideologies and symbols into a unique version of New World Catholicism.