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Oconee (tribal town)

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Ocone, Oconee, or Oconi was a tribal town of Hitchiti-speakers during the 17th and first part of the 18th centuries in the Southeastern United States. First mentioned by the Spanish as part of the Apalachicola Province on the Chattahoochee River, Ocone moved with other towns of the province to central Georgia between 1690 and 1692. While most of the Apalachicola towns settled on and around Ochese Creek (now known as the Okmulgee River, the town of Ocone settled on ... Creek (now known as the Oconee River). At the end of the Yemasee War, Ocone and the other towns of the former Apalachicola Province moved back to the Chattahoochee River. In the 1730s, the people of Oconee, under the leadership of their chief Ahaya, moved to Florida, settling next to the Alachua Prairie. They were joined by people from other Hitchiti-speaking towns, and were soon being called "Seminoles".

On the Chattahoochee

Ocone was one of a number of towns on the Chattahoochee River in Alabama and Georgia ln the first half of the 17th century. The towns were situated along 160 kilometres (100 mi) of the river from the south of the falls at present-day Columbus to Barbour County, Alabama. A variant of the Lamar regional culture, with influences from the Fort Walton culture to the south, developed in the towns along the Chattahoochee between 1300 and 1400.[1] Ocone was in the southern part of Apalcahicola Province, between Sabacola and the town of Apalachicola. The towns of the southern part of Apalachicola Province, including Ocone, spoke the Hitchiti language.[2]

In 1630s to 1691, archaeological site 1RU34 in Russell County, Alabama may have been Ocone.[3]

Spanish Florida and the English of the Province of Carolina competed for influence in Apalachicola Province. In an effort to exclude English traders from Apalachicola Province, in 1689 the Spanish built a stockade garrisoned with Spanish soldiers and Apalachee militia in the northern part of the province. 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. [4]

Most of the towns from the Chattahoochee River that moved to central Georgia settled on what the English called Ochese Creek (Uchise to the Spanish) or its tributaries. Ocheese Creek is now known as the Ocmulgee River, a tributary of the Altamaha River. The town of Ocone was established on another branch of the Altamaha, now called the Oconee River. [5]

Ocone at fall line zone of Oconee River (9BL16).[6]

Return to Chattahoochee

Oconee a "point town", one of the Creek towns that usually sided with the British after 1720.[7] When the British were seeking an alternative to Malatchi Brim, successor of Emperor Brim, as a representative of the Creeks, they offered to appoint Wehoffkey of Oconee "to command the whole nation", but Wehoffkey turned them down.[8]

Oconee said to be in Russell County, Alabama, on the west side of Chattahoochee from 1515 into the 1750s, possibly at archaeological sites 1RU20 and 1RU21. 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 have been tentatively identified with Oconee, including 9SS3 and 9SW52.[9]

Archaeological sites along Chattahoochee associated with Ocone included 9SW3, 9SW4, and 9SW57. Sites 9SW5, 9SW6, and 9SW7, which may be associated with Oconee or with Apalachicola.[10]

References

  1. ^ Hann 2006, p. 79; Worth 2000, pp. 267–268.
  2. ^ Worth 2000, p. 271.
  3. ^ Worth 2000, p. 273.
  4. ^ Bolton 1964, pp. 138–144; Hann 2006, pp. 116–120.
  5. ^ Worth 2000, pp. 278–282, 285.
  6. ^ Worth 2000, p. 285.
  7. ^ Hahn 2004, p. 269.
  8. ^ Hahn 2004, p. 208.
  9. ^ Foster 2007, pp. 65, 67, 111–112.
  10. ^ Worth 2000, p. 288.

Sources

  • Foster, H. Thomas II (2007). Archaeology of the Lower Muskogee Creek Indians, 1715-1836. The University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-1239-8.
  • Hahn, Steven C. (2004). The Invention of the Creek Nation, 1670–1763. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-2414-1.
  • Hann, John H. (2006). The Native American World Beyond Apalachee. University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-2982-5.
  • Worth, John E. (2000). "The Lower Creeks: Origin and History" (PDF). In McEwan (ed.). Indians of the Greater Southeast: Historical Archaeology and Ethnohistory (Bonnie G. ed.). University of Florida Press. pp. 265–298. ISBN 9-780-8130-2086-0.
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