Sabacola (or Sawokli)[a] was a Native American tribal town in what is now the Southeastern United States of America during the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries.
Usually regarded as belonging to Apalachicola Province, Sabacola had poorly understood connections to the Apalachee people.
Gatschet refers to Sáwokli, or Sá-ukli, describing it as a Lower Creek town on the west bank of the Chatahuchi river.
Juan Ysfane was the osinudo, or "beloved son", of the town of Sabacola el Grande, and Esfane and Isfane were recorded as names of Apalachee individuals.
Attendees at the dedication included the cacique mayor ("great chief") of the town of Sabocola el Grande.
Several Spanish soldiers and a number of Apalachee archers were sent to protect the missionary, who had reached Santa Cruz de Sabacola.
[6] In 1676, the Spanish realized that Chiscas living in western Florida, west of the Apalachicola River, were responsible for a number of raids in Apalachee Province in which Christian natives had been killed.
The people of Santa Cruz de Sabacola el Menor moved north to join the Apalachicola towns later that year, possibly in fear of retaliation from the Chisca.
(The earlier site of Sabacola el Grande, which had been at the southern end of the Apalachicola towns in Barbour County, Alabama, was reported to have been abandoned by 1685.)
The arrival of 23 new friars in Florida may have made feasible new missionary efforts, and in late 1679, three missionaries, including the friar who had been at Santa Cruz de Sabacola before it moved north, were sent to Apalachicola to minister to the Christian Sabacolas and to convert the Apalachicolas as a counter to the growing English influence in the Chattahoochee valley.
Threats from Cabrera led to at least the Christianized residents of the town moving south to a point west of the Flint River just above where it joins the Chattahoochee.
In 1686 Marcos Delgado was sent by Governor Cabrera to discover if the French had established a colony in the vicinity of Mobile Bay.
Some of the towns moved to the Ochese Creek (later Okmulgee River) area in central Georgia in 1690, with the rest following by the end of 1691, including Sabacola Chuba, which was reported to be uninhabited by 1692.
By 1694, Sabacolas were participating with other "Uchises" (the Spanish name for the people who had settled in the Ochese Creek area) in raids on missions in Apalachee Province.
The Spanish governor, Pedro de Olivera y Fullana, ordered a retired lieutenant, Diego Peña, to return to the Chattahoochee with Chislacasliche, with orders to determine which chiefs wished to ally with the Spanish, to get such chiefs to travel to St. Augustine to submit themselves to the governor and to try to convince the towns to move into the old Apalachee Province.
The town of Sabacola was probably then at the McClendon site (1Ru28), south of the mouth of Hatcheechubbee Creek in Russell County, Alabama.
Sabacola was one of the towns Peña stated in October 1717 were expected to move to the mouth of the Wakulla River and the vicinity of San Marcos.
Some people called Sabacolas were evacuated from San Marco to Havana in 1763, when Spain ceded Florida to Britain.