Oconee People

The Hitchiti ( ) were a historic indigenous tribe in the Southeast United States. They formerly resided chiefly in a town of the same name on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River, four miles below Chiaha, in western present-day Georgia. The natives possessed a narrow strip of good land bordering on the river. The Hitchiti had a reputation of being honest and industrious.

Their autonym was possibly ''Atcik-hata'', while the Coushatta knew them as the ''At-pasha-shliha'', "mean people". Under pressure from European Americans, the Hitchiti moved into Florida. While some survived there, others signed a treaty for their land in exchange for lands in Indian Territory, and were forced west.

English "Hitchiti" was Spanish "Achito".

Location

The Hitchiti are often associated with an area in present-day Chattahoochee County. But at an earlier period, they occupied land on the lower course of the Ocmulgee River later developed.

After 1715 they moved to Henry County, Alabama, en route to their most well-known location of Chattahoochee County. By 1839, under Indian Removal, nearly all Hitchiti had been relocated to Native American reservations in Indian Territory (admitted as the state of Oklahoma in 1907.) There they gradually merged with the Muscogee/Creek and other tribes of the Creek Confederacy.

Some of their villages were Hihnje, location unknown; Hitchitoochee, on the Flint River below its junction with Kinchafoonee Creek; and Tuttallosee, on a creek of the same name, 20 miles west from Hitchitoochee.

Around 1800, Hitchiti was located on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River. Satellite settlements (''talofas'') of Hitchiti included Cheauhooche, near Hitchiti on Ihagi Creek west of the Chattahoochee River, Hitcheetoochee (Little Hitchiti), located on the Flint River, and Tuttallosee (Fowltown), located on the headwaters of Tuttalloseehatchee (Fowltown Creek). Tuttallosee, with a population of about 50 circa 1800, had recently built its own square ground, possibly indicating that it becoming a tribal town separate from Hitchiti.

Population

The population of the Hitchiti is not known with precision because it was usually recorded with those of the other confederate tribes. Only the number of males was usually recorded. In 1738 there were 60 males in the tribe; in 1750 only 15; 50 in 1760; 40 in 1761; and 90 in 1772. Sixty years later in 1832 the entire population, males and females, was estimated at 381.

History

Hitchiti lived in the region that became Georgia for hundreds of years prior to the arrival of Europeans. They were not nomadic and occupied most of southern Georgia. The Hitchiti were part of the Creek Confederacy, which occupied almost two-thirds of the current state of Georgia.

Hitchiti-speaking people lived along the Chattahoochee River since at least the early 17th century, and possibly long before then. They were joined by Muscogee-speaking people during the middle part of the 17th century. Late in the 17th century all of the towns on the Chattahoochee River moved to central Georgia, primarily to what is now called the Ocmugee River. After the Yemassee War in 1715, almost all of the towns moved back to the Chattahoochee River.

Archaeological site 9Sw50 in Georgia is named "Hitchiti". It is "an extensive village midden" on the east side of the Chattahoochee near the mouth of Hitchitee Creek, which has been identified as the site of Hitchiti in the 18th century, site 9Ce59 is a possible satellite settlement across Hitchitee Creek from the main Hitchiti site.

Many Native American relics have been found in Jones County. The western boundary of the county is the Ocmulgee River, one of the favored places of the Hitchiti tribe. Arrowheads may still be found there, and numerous Indian trails are visible (and usable) in the area.

In 1685 the Spanish found Achito (Hitchiti) in Apalachicola Province on the Chattahoochee River, between the town of Apalachicola to the south and Ocute to the north, with Osuchi next to the north.

The tribe is not often mentioned in historical records. It was first recorded in 1733, when two of its delegates were noted as accompanying the Lower Creek at Savannah.

When U.S. Indian agent Benjamin Hawkins visited the Hitchiti in 1799, he found "Hitchetee" on the Chattahoochee River between Paláchoocle (Apalachicola) to the south and Ceauhau (Chiahah) to the north with Oseoochee just to the north of it. Hawkins recorded that they had spread out into two branch settlements. The Hitchitudshi, or Little Hitchiti, lived on both sides of Flint River below the junction of Kinchafoonee Creek, which passes through a county once named after it. The Tutalosi lived on a branch of Kinchafoonee Creek, 20 miles west of the Hitchitudshi.

The language appears to have been used beyond the territorial limits of the tribe: it was spoken in Native American villages on the Chattahoochee River, such as Chiaha, Chiahudshi, Hitchiti, Oconee, Sawokli, Sawokliudshi, and Apalachicola, and in those on the Flint River, and also by the Miccosukee tribe of Florida. Traceable by local names in Hitchiti, the language was used by peoples over considerable portions of Georgia and Florida. Like Creek, this language has an archaic form called "women's talk," or female language.

Scholars believe that the Yamasee also spoke Hitchiti, but the evidence is not conclusive. Other evidence points toward their speaking a different language, perhaps one related to Guale.

The Hitchiti were absorbed into and became an integral part of the Creek Nation, though preserving to a large extent their own language and customs. Similarly, those Mikasuki speakers who joined the Lower Creek migrations to Florida maintained their culture.

For years the Miccosukee were considered to be part of the Seminole, which formed a new society from remnant peoples in Florida. In the 20th century, they gained independent state recognition in 1957, and federal recognition in 1962 as the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida.

Some sources list Hitchiti as an extant language in the 1990s.

The Native Americans of Georgia were officially removed from the state and forcibly resettled in Oklahoma by 1839. Few remained in the state of Georgia.

Remnants of the Hitchiti culture have been found all over the state of Georgia. A collection of Hitchiti artifacts was found in one location at one of their former villages. The collection includes a large copper disc which center is surrounded by Guntersville points, a variety of trade beads that indicate a deep involvement in fur trade with the English, two ear plugs, five worked silver circles typical of the silver work of the Seminole, a stone pendant, and a highly polished flaking tool.

References

Sources

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External links

Battle of Hitchity
historical marker

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Muskogean tribes
Native American tribes in Alabama
Extinct languages of North America
Native American tribes in Georgia (U.S. state)
People from Chattahoochee County, Georgia