Ocute

Ocute was a powerful chiefdom in the Oconee River valley, amid the wooded hills of Georgia. Its towns belonged to the late Mississippian tradition, with cultivated fields and earthwork centres. The chief's authority extended over neighbouring communities, including Altamaha and Cofaqui, whose own local leaders governed their towns and the surrounding smaller settlements.

In 1540 Hernando de Soto's expedition entered the Oconee valley and visited Ocute on its search for wealth farther east. The Spaniards continued through Cofaqui and across a sparsely settled region toward Cofitachequi. By the seventeenth century the chiefdom was known to the Spanish as La Tama, after Altamaha. Its people eventually left the interior under pressure from slave raids, joining communities on the coast and farther west.