Achese apparently became the most important town in what archaeologists label the Lamar Culture. The Lamar Culture is named after the Lamar Village, which is the name given the site by archaeologists. Lamar Culture towns built smaller mounds that previous phases of the Creek Indian culture. The mounds were oval and faced west. The principal temple mounds of earlier towns were usually pentagonal and extremely large, some of the largest built in North America. By not devoting so much labor into mound-building, the Lamar Culture people were able to grow more food and obtain more game or fish. It was a very prosperous time in the region.
Horrific plagues swept through the Southeast in the wake of the early Spanish explorations. Archaeologists have determined that by 1600, many towns visited by the de Soto Expedition had been abandoned, or at least stopped construction of temple mounds. Achese continued to be occupied for several more generations.
Around 1600, when Spain began constructing chains of roads, missions, forts and haciendas that penetrated into what is now Georgia, the remnants of several, once powerful, Native American provinces met at Achese to develop a united military obstacle to Spanish aggression. Until that time each of the Native American provinces had considered themselves as distinct ethnic groups. With the loss of so many people, however, they were unable to resist the Spanish individually.
In time, the loose alliance of remnant provinces, evolved into a confederated government with a central council. The regional alliance of towns with similar cultural traditions and monotheistic religions became known as “the People of One Fire.” This was the beginning of the Creek Tribe. The Muskogee language was adopted as the parliamentary and trade language of the multi-lingual alliance.
By uniting their forces, the members of the alliance were eventually successful in blocking Spanish expansion, then driving the Spanish out of South Carolina, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. By 1710 there were very few Spanish or their Apalachee Indian allies, left in the Florida Panhandle.
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