Ocute

Ocute, later known as La Tama for its southern capital of Altamaha and sometimes known to scholars as the Oconee Province, was a Late Mississippian paramount chiefdom in the U.S. state of Georgia, encountered by Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries. Centered in the Oconee River valley, the Mico (or "great cacique") of Ocute held sway over the immediate neighbors of Altama, Cofaqui, and Patofa, from its initial alliance formation in 1325 till its relocation to the Apalachicola and Yamasee Provinces by Westo slave raids in the 1660s. The Micoship of Ocute as first encountered by Hernando De Soto was likely formed as an alliance between two chiefdoms on the Oconee River, Cofaqui/Patofa and Altamaha/Ocute. The capital of the Oconee Province, the Shoulderbone Site, was founded around 1325, perfectly equidistant from Altamaha-Ocute (at the Shinholser site) and Cofaqui-Patofa (on the Dyar site).

This alliance was solidified by the arrival of refugees from the Savannah River, fleeing from the rising hegemon of Cofitachequi, who grew to encompass the majority of South Carolina and parts of North Carolina. Scholars have speculated the expansion of Ocute's sphere of influence to regions like Guale Mayor-Micoship (another Savannah River refugee destination) on the Georgia Coast, Tugaloo (last of the Savannah River chiefdoms), and Ichisi (on the Ocmulgee River). The wars between Ocute and her allies against Cofitachequi virtually emptied out the Savannah, Saluda and Broad River basins, creating a buffer zone known as the Despoblado of Ocute (translated variously as wilderness or desert).

By the time of the De Soto Expedition, Ocute was regularly organizing raids and defences against Cofitachequi. After being provided with a couple thousand laborors by the Mico of Ocute, De Soto collaborated with Lord Patofa, whose territory lay on the northern edge of the Oconee River, to attack Cofitachequi.

The province remained a significant regional power into the 17th century, although Altamaha eclipsed Ocute as the primary center, leading the Spanish to refer to the paramountcy as La Tama. In the 1660s, La Tama fragmented due to slave raids by the English-allied Westo people. Some fragments of Ocute proper would relocate to the Apalachicola Province on the Chattahoochee River, one of the founding provinces of the Muscogee Confederation. However, the majority likely relocated to their coastal allies and reemerge as the Yamasee. Altamaha, Ocute, Ichisi, and possibly Toa would reorganize themselves into the Lower Yamasee towns of Okatee, Chechessee, and Euhaw, still headed by Altamaha. The Yamasee would serve as a powerful mercenary force of the English Carolinas, until their quarrel and subsequent end in the Yamasee War.

The towns of the Apalachicola Province moved from the Chattahoochee River to the area in the early 1690s, settling primarily around Ochese Creek, today known as the Ocmulgee River (after one of those towns). Another of the towns, Oconee, settled on what is now known as the Oconee River. All of those towns returned to the Chattahoochee River in 1715.