The Burnt Village (9TP9) was an historic
Native American archaeological site located under West Point Reservoir in
Troup County, Georgia. The settlement, also known by the
Creek
A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet.
Creek may also refer to:
People
* Creek people, also known as Muscogee, Native Americans
...
name Okfuskenena, was a trading crossroads for natives west of the
Chattahoochee River
The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chatta ...
, and reportedly a center for raiding parties against American expansionist efforts in the late 18th century. The village was attacked on September 27, 1793, by a party of white men attempting to rout the Creek population from the state. Several Indians were killed, and the village was burnt to the ground, leading to its characteristic name.
From 1966 to 1969, Harold Huscher of the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
conducted excavations of the area before it was flooded by the West Point Reservoir in 1971. Though the location was lost to history, regional survey and later excavation located a small area that fit within the proper time period of the historic village. According to his data, the village contained a number of curved wooden "rotundas" or "council houses", suggesting a series of tribal meeting places within the relatively small town. Later work by Mark Williams of the
University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
suggests that Huscher's original theories were incorrect, as the actual recovered data was not consistent enough to suggest overall settlement patterning. Even with improper analysis by the original investigators, in modern reckoning Okfuskenena is considered the most completely and thoroughly excavated historic Creek town in the state of
Georgia.
Today, the site is unreachable at the bottom of
West Point Lake. However, continuing research by the University of Georgia researchers, including ceramic analysis and building distribution continues to provide a wealth of information about historic Creek society.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnt Village
Archaeological sites in Georgia (U.S. state)
Former Native American populated places in the United States