Reprise: Tomochichi of the Yamassee Creek

Some Native leaders felt that the only way to deal with oncoming White settlers was to fight them.  However, many preferred to extend hospitality in an effort at co-existence and co-operation.

Tomochichi (c 1644-1739) was born a Creek.  For reason not known now, he was exiled with some 200 followers and settled on a site now occupied by the town of Savannah, Georgia.  Native societies were in turmoil at this time, the main issue being how to deal with advancing White settlement.  The Yamassee, who also experienced their own destructive internal conflicts over this issue, were just as divided as the Creeks and many Yamassee came to live in Tomochichi's town.  The combination of Creeks and Yamassees are sometimes termed Yamacraw, though Creek histories do not acknowledge the term.

Tomochichi was an older man, possibly in his nineties, when James Oglethorpe and his first group of colonists reached the area in 1733.  He decided to allow them to settle near his village, recognizing the opportunities for trade that the proximity of the colonists would allow.  Tomochichi himself did not know English, so both he and the colonists relied on a mixed-race Creek woman named Mary Musgrove to translate for them.  With her help and Tomochichi's influence, Oglethorpe quickly made contacts with various Creek leaders, facilitating the arrival of more settlers in Georgia.  Tomochichi believed in education so that his people could co-exist with Whites and allowed children from his town to attend school.  He also welcomed Methodist missionaries, though there is no record of his having converted.

At his death, he is said to have reminded those gathered around him to bear in mind the goodness of the King of England, whom he believed responsible for the benefits he felt his people were receiving, and to maintain allegiances and alliances with the British, which the Creek historically maintained up until the War of 1812.  Tomochichi's gravesite was built over by a monument to the founder of the Central Georgia Railroad in 1889.  A member of the founder's family realized the disrespect and had a new marker and plaque installed at the site.  The federal courthouse in in Savannah is named for Tomochichi, who became a prominent figure in Georgia history.