Oconee was a tribal town of

Hitchiti Hitchiti ( ) was a tribal town in what is now the Southeast United States. It was one of several towns whose people spoke the Hitchiti language. It was first known as part of the Apalachicola Province, an association of tribal towns along the ...

-speaking

Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, Southeastern cultures, or Southeast Indians are an ethnographic classification for Native Americans who have traditionally inhabited the area now part of the Southeastern United States and the no ...

during the 17th and 18th centuries. First mentioned by the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

as part of the

Apalachicola Province Apalachicola Province was a group or association of towns located along the lower part of the Chattahoochee River in present-day Alabama and Georgia. The Spanish so called it because they perceived it as a political entity under the leadership of ...

on the

Chattahoochee River The Chattahoochee River () is a river in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern United States. It forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida and Georgia border. It ...

, Oconee moved with other towns of the province to central

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

between 1690 and 1692. In 1715, early in the

Yamasee War The Yamasee War (also spelled Yamassee or Yemassee) was a conflict fought in South Carolina from 1715 to 1717 between British settlers from the Province of Carolina and the Yamasee, who were supported by a number of allied Native Americans in ...

, Oconee and the other towns of the former Apalachicola Province moved back to the Chattahoochee River. Around 1750, part of the people of Oconee, under the leadership of

Ahaya Ahaya (c. 1710 – 1783) was the first recorded chief of the Alachua band of the Seminole tribe. European-Americans called him Cowkeeper, as he held a very large herd of cattle. Ahaya was the chief of a town of Oconee people near the Chattahooche ...

, moved to Florida, settling next to the Alachua Prairie. The members of the tribal town in Florida were joined by people from other Hitchiti-speaking towns and became

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

s. The remaining Oconee members stayed on the Chattahoochee River through the 18th century.

Name

Oconee is also written Aconnee, Ocone, and Oconi. "Oconee", "Ocone", and "Oconi" were also the names of a Timucua chiefdom in Southeastern Georgia, an Apalachee town in northern Florida, and a

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

town in western South Carolina.

On the Chattahoochee

Oconee was one of a number of towns in the Apalachicola Province on the Chattahoochee River in Alabama and Georgia in the first half of the 17th century. The towns were situated along of the river from the south of the falls at present-day Columbus to

Barbour County, Alabama Barbour County is a county in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,223. Its county seat is Clayton. Its largest city is Eufaula. Its name is in honor of James Barbour, who served ...

. A variant of the Lamar regional culture, with influences from the Fort Walton culture to the south, developed in the towns along the Chattahoochee River between 1300 and 1400. Oconee was in the southern part of Apalachicola Province, between Sabacola and the town of Apalachicola. The towns of the southern part of Apalachicola Province, including Oconee, spoke the Hitchiti language. The people of Oconee and other Hichiti towns on the Chatthoochee River are believed to have descended from earlier inhabitants of the area. From the 1630s until 1691, Oconee may have been located at the archaeological site 1RU34 in

Russell County, Alabama Russell County is a county in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 59,183. Its county seat is Phenix City. Its name is in honor of Colonel Gilbert C. Russell, who fought in the wars ...

. Oconee was located between the towns of Sabacola and Apalachicola in the late 17th century. In 1677 Oconee was one of the towns that the

Chisca The Chisca were a tribe of Native Americans living in present-day eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia in the 16th century. Their descendants, the Yuchi lived in present-day Alabama, Georgia, and Florida in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th ...

intended to wage war on. Although it was not regarded as a leading town in the province, the leading men of Apalachicola Province met at Oconee in June 1690.

Move to central Georgia

Spanish Florida Spanish Florida () was the first major European land-claim and attempted settlement-area in northern America during the European Age of Discovery. ''La Florida'' formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and th ...

and the English of the

Province of Carolina The Province of Carolina was a colony of the Kingdom of England (1663–1707) and later the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1712) that existed in North America and the Caribbean from 1663 until the Carolinas were partitioned into North and Sou ...

competed for influence in Apalachicola Province in the 1680s. In an effort to exclude English traders from Apalachicola Province, the Spanish built a

stockade A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Etymology ''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived f ...

garrisoned with Spanish soldiers and Apalachee militia in the northern part of the province in 1689. The next year the towns of Apalachicola Province began moving from the Chattahoochee River to the interior of Georgia, closer to their trading partners in Carolina. Spanish records state that Apalachicola Province was completely abandoned by the spring of 1692. Most of the towns from the Chattahoochee River that moved to central Georgia settled on what the Btitish called Ochese Creek or its tributaries. The British called the people of those towns "Ochese Creek Indians", later shortened to "Creek Indians". Ocheese Creek is now known as the

Ocmulgee River The Ocmulgee River () is a western tributary of the Altamaha River, approximately 255 mi (410 km) long, in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the westernmost major tributary of the Altamaha.Altamaha River The Altamaha River is a major river in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It flows generally eastward for from its Source (river or stream), origin at the confluence of the Oconee River and Ocmulgee River towards the Atlantic Oce ...

. The town of Oconee was established on another tributary of the Altamaha, now called the

Oconee River The Oconee River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map Accessed April 21, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its origin is in Hall County and it terminates where it join ...

. The town of Oconee during this period may have been at the archaeological site 9BL16, at the

fall line A fall line (or fall zone) is the area where an upland region and a coastal plain meet and is noticeable especially the place rivers cross it, with resulting rapids or waterfalls. The uplands are relatively hard crystalline basement rock, and the ...

of the Oconee River. Soon after the move to central Georgia, starting in 1691, the Apalachicola towns began raiding Spanish missions. After a particularly heavy raid in the Fall of 1694, Apalachees attacked four towns in central Georgia, including Oconee, in retaliation for those raids. One of the towns was caught by surprise, and a number of its people were captured by the Apalachees. The other towns had been abandoned and burned by the time the Apalachees reached them. It is not known which town was the one surprised by the Apalachees.

Return to Chattahoochee

In 1715, the towns that had moved to central Georgia from Apalachicola Province joined with other Native American peoples living in what is now Georgia and South Carolina in war against the Btitish in South Carolina, in what is known as the

. The British quickly defeated the Native American attackers. Many Yamassee fled to Spanish Florida, settling near

St. Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...

. The Ochese Creek towns moved west, with most of them returning to the Chattahoochee River., where they became known as the Lower Creeks or Lower Towns of the

Muscogee Confederacy The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek or just Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language; English: ), are a group of related Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsAyfitchiti separated Oconee from Apalachicola in 1738. Pedro de Olivera y Fullana, governor of Spanish Florida, sent Diego Peña, a retired lieutenant from the garrison in St, Augustine, to the towns on the Chattahoochee River three times between 1716 and 1718; in 1717 with an invitation to the towns to move into the former

Apalachee The Apalachee were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, specifically an Indigenous people of Florida, who lived in the Florida Panhandle until the early 18th century. They lived between the Aucilla River and Ochlockonee River,Bobby ...

and

Timucua The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The va ...

provinces of Spanish Florida. Several of the towns, including Oconee, agreed to move south (although Oconee stayed on the Chattahoochee). Starting in the 1720s, Oconee was a "point town", one of the Muscogee Confederation towns that usually sided with the British. Of 14 "Uchise" villages, only Ocone and two others remained anti-Spanish. When the British were seeking an alternative to Malatchi Brim, successor of Emperor Brim, as a representative of the Muscogee Confederation, they offered to appoint Wehoffkey of Oconee "to command the whole nation", but Wehoffkey turned them down. The people of what is now Georgia and the towns on the Chattahoochee, including Oconee, used Florida as a vast hunting ground. Most of the Native Americans in Florida after 1716 were probably from the Lower Towns. Spanish records mention "Uchizes from the village of Ocone" that were killed in 1738 in central Florida during warfare between alliances of Florida tribes.

James Oglethorpe Lieutenant-General James Edward Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) was a British Army officer, Tory politician and colonial administrator best known for founding the Province of Georgia in British North America. As a social refo ...

, the governor of the

Province of Georgia The Province of Georgia (also Georgia Colony) was one of the Southern Colonies in colonial-era British America. In 1775 it was the last of the Thirteen Colonies to support the American Revolution. The original land grant of the Province of G ...

, invaded Spanish Florida in 1740, laying siege to its capitol, St. Augustine.

, an Oconee chief, led 45 men to join the siege. Oconee was between Sabacola and Apalachee in mid-18th century. Late in the 18th century Ocone was on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River (in Georgia) opposite the mouth of Hatchechubbe Creek (which was called "Oconee Creek" at the time) near Cottonton, Alabama. At that time Oconee was approximately six miles south of the town of Apalachicola and six miles north of Sabacola. Several archaeological sites on the east (Georgia) side of the Chattahoochee River have been tentatively identified with Oconee, including 9SS3 and 9SW52. Other archaeological sites along the Chattahoochee associated with Ocone include 9SW3, 9SW4, and 9SW57. Sites 9SW5, 9SW6, and 9SW7 may be associated with either Oconee or Apalachicola.

Seminole branch

About 1750,

, later called "Cowkeeper" by the British, led a faction of Oconees into Florida in search of a new home. They settled on the edge of the Alachua Savanna. They were joined by Hitchiti-speakers from the towns of Sabacola, Tomathli, Apalachicola,

and

Chiaha Chiaha was a Native American chiefdom located in the lower French Broad River valley in modern East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. They lived in raised structures within boundaries of several stable villages. These overlooked the ...

. The first Oconee town was called "Alachua" or "Lockway". Ahaya's people later moved to a new town, Cuscowilla, described as one of the largest settlements of people from the Lower Towns in Florida. At the beginning of the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

, it was the largest Seminole town.

William Bartram William Bartram (April 20, 1739 – July 22, 1823) was an American naturalist, writer and explorer. Bartram was the author of an acclaimed book, now known by the shortened title Bartram's ''Travels'', which chronicled his explorations of the S ...

visited Cuscowilla in 1774. In the early 1770s, Jonathan Bryan of Georgia persuaded chiefs of the Lower Towns of the Muscogee Confederation to grant him lands in Florida, including the area around the Alachua Savanna occupied by the Alachua Seminoles. The scheme was thwarted, but strained the relationship between the Oconees in Florida and on the Chattahoochee. Indian Superintendent John Stuart reported that Ahaya was no longer connected with the Muscogee Confederation by 1774. Dissension between Oconees was one of the reasons Ahaya's band had moved to Florida. Ahaya's band was the first Hitchiti or Muscogee band in Florida to make a definite break with the Muscogee Confederacy.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Oconee Town
Historical Marker Database for a Cherokee town {{Coord, 34.8403, -83.0663, display=title Muscogee tribal towns Native American history of Alabama Native American history of Florida Native American history of Georgia (U.S. state) Native American history of South Carolina Former Native American populated places in the United States