Cofitachequi im ​​frühen 16. Jahrhundert: Letzter der Mississippier

Cofitachequi, was a Mississippian paramount chiefdom in the U.S. state of South Carolina, encountered by Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries. Centered in the Wateree River valley, the Mico (or „emperor“[1]) of Cofitachequi held sway over the immediate neighbors on the Wateree and Broad Rivers, and at its peak in the 1500s extended influence into the North Carolina piedmont and the Pee Dee River.

While always based in the Wateree River valley around Camden, South Carolina, the main capital of Cofitachequi shifted over the years, likely initially starting at the Belmont Neck, one of the earliest Mississippian temple mounds in South Carolina just a mile southwest of Canosi (the 16th century capital of Cofitachequi).

By the 1250, Belmont Neck had been completely abandoned and the capital shifted to Talimeco (the Adamson site). At Talimeco, Cofitachequi rose to be a middling regional power, and by 1400 competing with contemporaries like Sarati and Guatari (descendants of the Town Creek Mound)[2][3], and most importantly Ocute. Scholars have speculated the Ocute’s anti-Cofitachequi alliance stretched as far as 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).

When the Spanish first arrived on the coast they heard news of large kingdoms with pearls and a mighty king who dominated the coast; this was Cofitachequi. By the time of the De Soto Expedition in 1540, Ocute was fairly regularly organizing defences against Cofitachequi raids. 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.

De Soto’s rampage in Cofitachequi spelled the start of the end of Cofitachequi’s paramount rule. When Spanish conquistador Juan Pardo came in 1566, Cofitachequi was much diminished, usurped by its subordinates of Orista, Joara, Guatari and Ylasi in regional power, happy to make friends with the Spaniards. After just 2 years of fort building and alliance making with the Spanish however, the Spanish forts were all destroyed in one fell swoop, likely due to misconduct by Spanish officers and poor organization.

Slave raids by northern alliances like the Iroquoian Westos, Yuchi, and Occaneechi decimated the region in the 17th century, though a short English expedition still noted that Cofitachequi held some level of regional power to the coast, possibly from the power vacuum caused by the Spanish after their departure. After 1670 Cofitachequi wasn’t mentioned again, and its descendants likely fled to the emerging Catawba Confederacy, created out of Cofitachequi’s former subjects in the north.