ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A man in St. Petersburg is trying to preserve Native American history in the city.

David Anderson runs a tour in west St. Pete called Discover Florida Tours and wants city officials to recognize the history of the area that goes back thousands of years. Believe it or not, being surrounded by peacocks in a forest is a normal day for Anderson.

“I kind of want to break them up,” he said. “I don’t want peacock negativity on the news. Get out of here peacock.”

Anderson leads tours around where he grew up inside the Jungle Prada in west St. Pete located right on the water of Boca Ciega Bay.

While his tours include the beauty of peacocks and the plants surrounding them, his main goal is to promote the long history of this place and his city.

“We have 14,000 years of human history here and there’s no reason we should focus on the last few hundred,” Anderson said.

That’s why he started Discover Florida Tours. Since 2017, he’s been hosting tours around this part of St. Pete that was part of the Tocobaga Native American tribe from about the 900s to the 1500s.

“I find this history very important and I don’t think it’s being shared in enough places, so I’m here doing my mission and doing my purpose,” Anderson said.

It’s a purpose that goes way back for him and his family.

“My grandfather bought this property in 1940 and said things like this represents the history of Tampa Bay and it belongs to all of us,” he said.

And this property has meant so much to the generations of Andersons that have curated it and to the people that lived here so long ago that even history vaguely remembers them.

“It’s been in my family for three generations and it’s kind of part of who I am,” Anderson said.

And now, his goal is to make it a part of St. Pete’s collective well-known history.

Because, to him, they explain so much about the area and why certain things are the way they are.

“I just want people to be aware of the history of Tampa Bay and the people that lived here before us,” Anderson said.

That’s why when the city started its city hall on tour meetings where city officials, like Mayor Ken Welch, go to different parts of St. Pete to hear from the public, Anderson made it a point to attend and speak with the mayor himself.

“I want to be partners with the city, I think the city and I have aligned interests,” Anderson said.

And for him that would include more recognition and available material about the Tocabaga people and the history they left behind, like sacred mounds and landscapes that help make St. Pete what it is today.

“I wouldn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past of mistreating historical sites,” Anderson said.

His hope is that a normal day he experiences full of peacocks, plants and relics of the Tocobaga can become more well-known knowledge shared by anyone who calls this city home.

Anderson is hoping that more work will be done in preserving different Native American mounds around the state, including ones that are currently located on private property.

He says he will continue reaching out to the city to see if they will work to include more stories of the Bay area’s past.