FDI - Oconee

FOUR DIRECTIONS INSTITUTE

Oconee

*Ethnie:*	OCONEE
*Language:*	Mikasuki
*Family:*	Eastern Muskogee
*Stock:*	Muskogee
*Phylum:*	Algic
*Macro-Culture:*	Eastern Woodlands
Speakers	None

The Oconee were sedentary hunter/farmer nation. One division lived along the Oconee River in north central Georgia. A second division apparently lived along the Georgia coast and became fused with the Apalachee before the end of the seventeenth century. Conflicts with Whites resulted in the remaining Oconee relocating to Florida early in the eighteenth century to ultimately form the nucleus of the Seminole Confederacy.

Aboriginal Locations: Subdivisions (Villages)

GA Coastal, Interior

Present Locations

Coastal tribe confederated into the Apalachee in FL who in turn later confederated into the Taensa in LA who in turn later joined the Chitimacha, and others of the coastal tribe removed to OK and later confederated into the Creek; Interior tribe formed the nucleus of Seminole in GA who later removed to FL, and later yet, most removed to OK.

Year	*History*
1675	200 Oconee at Apalachee Mission
1685	Interior tribe on the Chatahoochee
1695	Attacked by Florida Spanish
1716	Moved to east bank of Chatahoochee in Stewart County, GA and with the Sawokli formed the nucleus of the Seminole Confederacy providing the chief; the confederacy ultimately moved to FL

Year	Total GA Pop.	Source
1675	200	Oconee at Apalachee Mission
1700	500	NAHDB calculation
1738	500	50 warriors in other band per Swanton
1800	0	NAHDB calculation
1900	0	NAHDB calculation
2000	0	NAHDB calculation

Other speakers of the same language:

Apalachicola, Chiaha, Hitchiti, Miccosuki, Ocmulgee, Sawokli, Tamathli, Yamasee

Oconee Sites:

Alibamu Tribe of the Creek Confederacy http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/creek/alibamu.htm#Oconee

Bowlegs, Billy http://www.floridahistory.org/floridians/arch1/seminole/bowlegs.htm

Cowkeeper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowkeeper

Creek Indian Tribes http://www.aaanativearts.com/creek_tribes.htm

Miccosuki Language http://www.native-languages.org/mikasuki.htm

Mikasuki Language http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=mik

Mikasuki Linguistic Lineage http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=92336

Observations on the Seminole Indians - 1823 http://www.seminolenation-indianterritory.org/observations.htm

Oklahoma Seminole Towns of 1900 http://www.seminolenation-indianterritory.org/seminole_towns_of_1900.htm

Origin of the Seminole Indians http://digital.library.okstate.edu/Chronicles/v015/v015p102.html

Pioneer Church in the Oconee Territory http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/cgi-bin/item/0595797253