OCHESEE - Mother Town of the Muscogee

Ochesee
Mother Town of the Muscogee
Lamar Village Site
Ocmulgee National Monument
Macon, Georgia

Article and Model by Richard L. Thornton
Commissioned by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma
2005

It is here that the Muskogee believe their eastward migration stopped, and also here that the Muskogee met with their brothers the Hitchiti, Okonee, Okmulgee, Kusa, Yamasee, Tuckabachee, Koasati, Alabama and Tsoyaha (Yuchi) to form the People of One Fire or “Creek Confederacy.”

This ancient and sacred place of the Muskogee was occupied by mankind for thousands of years.  Some of the oldest pottery (2100 BC)  made in the Western Hemisphere has been found here.  Only some similar pottery made to the east on the Savannah River is older.   For thousands of years, it was a horseshoe bend in the Ocmulgee River Bottoms where people built seasonal villages to fish, hunt and collect freshwater mussels.  Around 2000 years ago or earlier,  there were permanent villages in the Ocmulgee Bottoms,  probably occupied by the Hitchiti branch of the Muskogean People.  During that era,  several important trails converged in the Ocmulgee Bottoms that linked this important trading center with all parts of North America. 

  Around the year 900 AD,  perhaps earlier,  newcomers settled on a high terrace,  one mile to the north of Ochesee and began construction of a large citadel town with many mounds.   These newcomers were probably originally from either Florida, Caribbean Islands or the Tabasco region of Mexico.  They brought with them a different culture that was never fully absorbed by the indigenous people of the region.  It is very likely that the Spiral Mound at Ochesee was begun by the foreigners.  It aligns perfectly with several large structures built by them. During the next 250 years some indigenous people settled in new sections of the citadel town, but construction stopped there entirely around the year 1150 AD.  By 1200 AD construction had begun on the temple mound at Ochesee,  so we know at least by then that the site had become an important place. The new people of Ochesee had the same culture as Muskogean Italwa (Etowah Mounds), 125 miles to the north, so we know they were ancestors of modern day Creek Indians.  Also,  a channel of the Ocmulgee River cut across the horseshoe bend to form an island, which was easy to defend,  but an excellent location for trade and regional festivals. 

  When Spain’s Hernando de Soto Expedition visited Ochesee in 1541 AD,  it was an important town and the capital (talwamiko) of a province.  The people living in the Okonee Province to the east spoke Hitchiti,  and told the Spanish invaders that Ochesee Province spoke a different dialect, which was probably true Muskogee.  The first Spanish colonial forts and missions in, what is now, the United States, were in Georgia,  but the Spanish Conquistadors were never able to conquer Ochesee and Okonee.  However,  about 90-95% of the Muskogean People were killed by Spanish weapons and diseases.  Some time in the early 1600s,  leaders of the survivors met at Ochesee to form “the People of One Fire” as a united nation to combat the Spanish invaders.  They destroyed one Spanish fort after another,  until the Spanish were gone from Georgia.  In the early 1700s, the People of One Fire formed an alliance with the newly arrived English to finally drive the Spanish out of the Southeast.  Because it is sacred land,  the Ocmulgee Bottoms were retained as reserve of the Creek Tribe even after they relinquished title to all other land in Georgia,  but eventually trespassers occupied the land and ignored the Creek Tribe’s claims.

The site of Ochesee,  known as the Lamar Village site to anthropologists,  is a tract of land that is part of Ocmulgee National Monument,  but not contiguous with the main portion of the park.  It is flooded much of the year, surrounded by privately owned land, and not accessible by the general public, except on special guided tours by park rangers.

THE MODEL
 Scale:  1 inch = 30 feet 
 
This scale model portrays Ochesee as it probably looked around 1500 AD.   Destructive European type farming methods over the past 200 years have caused many floods,  which have covered the town site with up to three feet of muck and altered the original landscape.  It is now located in a seasonal wetland several hundred feet from the main channel of the Ocmulgee River.

The 3,560 feet long wooden palisade protected a 22.6 acre town.  The palisade was constructed with 6”-12” tree trunks set 18“ into the ground.  Guard towers for watchmen and archers were spaced about 50-75 feet apart.  A fortified gate on the north side of the town was the main pedestrian entrance, while canoes could enter through a manmade canal on the south side.  The large rectangular mound probably supported a temple dedicated to the Creator, which was also used for Town Council meetings.  The Spiral Mound is the only one of its kind in North America.  It probably was located over an ancient sacred spot and considered an important religious shrine.