Apalachicola Province was a group or association of towns located along the lower part of the Chattahoochee River in present-day Alabama and Georgia.
All of the Apalachicola towns moved to central Georgia at the end of the 17th century, where the English called them "Ochese Creek Indians".
The cultural continuity of archaeological sites into historical times suggests that the towns along the Chattahoochee River spoke the Hichiti language in the late prehistoric period.
[2] A chiefdom of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture had existed in the lower Chattahoochee River valley in the 16th century.
The de Soto expedition in the 1540s did not enter the Chattahoochee Valley, but appears to have severely disrupted the population of that chiefdom, causing many deaths there due to epidemics of European and African diseases introduced by the Spaniards.
Some archaeologists state that only two population centers survived along the Chattahoochee in the late 16th century, situated on opposite sides of the river south of the falls at Columbus.
While some archaeologists believe that some sites along the Chattahoochee remained stable population centers, and became sites of later population expansion, other archaeologists believe that there were significant influxes of other people into the Chattahoochee Valley, changing the material culture of the area, and that similar processes occurred in the Tallahassee Hills region of Florida (the historic Apalachee Province).
Later the same year the bishop of Cuba produced a list of potential targets for missions, which included Coweta ("Cueta" to the Spanish) in the northern part of Apalachee Province.
The chief of Sabacola may have converted to Christianinity, and was recognized by the Spanish at one point as the "grand cacique" of Apalachicola Province.
Possibly in response to the English encroachment, the Spanish began courting the Apalachicolas, inviting them to move their towns closer to Apalachee Province so that missions could be established in them.
Fearing attacks from the Chisca in western Florida, who were at war with the Apalachee, the residents of Sabacola el Menor moved north up the Chattahoochee River some time around 1677.
Threats from Cabrera led to at least the Christianized residents of Sabacola moving south to a point west of the Flint River just above where it joins the Chattahoochee.
[14] In the 1680s, the Spanish were using Uchise to refer to people living around Ochese Creek (now the Ocmulgee river) in central Georgia.
Coweta and Kasihta did not initially return to the former sites of their towns, and became openly hostile towards the Spanish, ceasing trade with them.
In 1690 the towns of Cueta (Coweta) and Casista (Cusseta) moved to the interior of Georgia, closer to their trading partners in Carolina.
The Muskogee- (and Koasati-) speaking towns, Coweta, Kasihta, Tuskegee, and Koloni, were located on the north side of the cluster, near where the Towaliga River joins the Ocmulgee.
The Uchisi may have been descendants of the Ichisi people, encountered in the area 150 years earlier by the de Soto expedition, who may have still been living along Ochese Creek when the towns from Apalachicola Province moved there.
Males became increasingly involved in hunting deer for hides and raiding other Native American peoples for captives to sell to the English.
This was a large (up to 50 metres (160 ft) across) round structure with wattle and daub walls with a central fireplace, which could be used as a meeting place during cold weather.
As the people of the towns on Ochese Creek became more involved in the deerskin trade with the English early in the 18th century, adults spent much of the winter living in the woods hunting deer.
The mission of San Juan de Guacara, where the Spanish trail connecting St. Augustine to Apalachee Province crossed the Suwannee River, and other places were attacked in August 1691.
In the winter of 1698–1699, 24 men from Tasquique (Tuskegee) headed to Apalachee with buffalo skins, leather shirts, and bezoar stones as trade goods.
That force was met on the trail near the Flint River by just over 400 warriors, primarily from the Muscogee- and Hitchiti-speaking towns, but including Chiscas and Westos.
Spanish holdings in the interior of Florida were quickly reduced to the Mission San Francisco de Potano near present-day Gainesville, the recently created settlement of Apalachee refugees at Abosaya near Payne's Prairie, and the mission at Salamototo, serving the ferry crossing of the St. Johns River on the trail to St. Augustine.
The Spanish governor estimated that 10,000 to 12,000 Christian natives had been captured and sold to the English as slaves, and only 300 or so remained in the vicinity of St. Augustine.
In 1705, the English entered into an alliance with several of the towns in the Ochese Creek area, including Coweta, Kasihta, Okmulgee, and Kealedji, and others, such as Tukabatchi, Uchises, Oakfusees, and Alabamas.
It described the Savannah River Apalachicola as living in two villages and having a population of 214 people: 64 men, 71 women, 42 boys, and 37 girls.
[32][page needed] In the Yamasee War of 1715, the Apalachicola joined in the Native American attacks on South Carolina.
The towns on the Chattahoochee River, which the Spanish called Apalachicola Province, formed a political complex, centered on Coweta.
Foster lists a number of archaeological sites in Russell County, Alabama that may have been occupied by Apalachicola at various times.