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Hitchiti ( ) was a tribal town in what is now the Southeast United States. It was one of several towns whose people spoke the Hitchiti language. It was first known as part of the Apalachicola Province, an association of tribal towns along the Chattahoochee River. Shortly after 1690, the towns of Apalachicola Province moved to the central part of present-day Georgia, with Hitchiti joining most of those towns along Ochese Creek (now named the Ocmulgee River). In 1715, most of the towns on Ochese Creek, including Hitchiti, moved back to the Chattahoochee River, where the town remained until its people were forced to move to Indian Territory as part of the Trail of Tears.
A major change in ceramic types at sites along the Chattahoochee occurred between 1550 and 1650. There is also evidence of a large drop in the population in the area. The de Soto expedition in the 1540s did not enter the Chattahoochee Valley, but appears to have caused many deaths there due to epidemics of European and African diseases introduced by the Spaniards. Some archaeologists state that only two population centers survived along the Chattahoochee in the late 16th century, situated on opposite sides of the river south of the falls at Columbus. Both sites had large , and may have served as ceremonial centers. While some archaeologists believe that some sites along the Chattahoochee remained stable population centers, and became sites of later population expansion, other archaeologists believe that there were significant influxes of other people into the Chattahoochee Valley, changing the material culture of the area.
Muscogee language-speaking people from the Coosa chiefdom and Tallapoosas areas in Alabama may have moved into the Chattahoochee valley during the middle part of the 17th century. Folklore of the Lower Towns of the Muscogee Confederacy supports an interpretation of Muscogee-speaking immigrants joining a Hitchiti-speaking resident population, with the Chattahoochee River area including both Hitchiti- and Muscogee-speaking towns by the later 16th century. Speakers of the Koasati language, Apalachee people, and people known as Chisca or Yuchi also settled in the Chattahoochee towns in the later 17th century.
John Worth placed the town of Hitchiti on the eastern (Georgia) side of the Chattahoochee River in the late 17th century, possibly at archaeological site 9Ce1 in Chattahoochee County, Georgia. That site was just south of the Muscogee-speaking towns of Coweta, Cusseta, and Kolomi.
Benjamin Hawkins, United States Indian agent assigned to the Muscogee (Creek) Confederacy, visited the Hitchiti in 1799. Hawkins noted that the town of Hitchiti possessed "a narrow strip of good land" bordering on the river approximately four miles south of Chiaha (Chehaw). Hawkins reported that the people of Hitchiti were poor and "indolent", but friendly to whites. He also reported that there had been no substantiated charges of horse-stealing made against them. On the other hand, Gatschet reported that the Hitchiti had a reputation of being honest and industrious.
Hawkins found "Hitchetee" on the Chattahoochee River between "Paláchoocle" (Apalachicola) to the south and "Ceauhau" (Chiahah) to the north with Oseoochee just to the north of it. Archaeological site 9Sw50 (in Stewart County, Georgia) is named "Hitchiti". It is "an extensive village midden" on the east side of the Chattahoochee near the mouth of Hitchitee Creek, which has been identified as the site of Hitchiti in the later 18th century. Site 9Ce59 (in Chattahoochee County, Georgia) is a possible satellite settlement across Hitchitee Creek from the main Hitchiti site.
At the end of the 18th century, Hitchiti had several satellite settlements ( talofas), including Hitcheetoochee (Little Hitchiti), located on the Flint River, and Tuttallosee (Fowltown), located on the headwaters of Tuttalloseehatchee (Fowltown Creek), about 20 miles west of Hitcheetoochee. Tuttallosee, with a population of about 50 circa 1800, had recently built its own square ground, possibly indicating that it was becoming a tribal town separate from Hitchiti. Cheauhoochee, about ten miles south of Hitchiti on Ihagi Creek west of the Chattahoochee River may also have been a satellite settlement of Hitchiti. Swanton also listed Hihaje as a satellite settlement of Hitchiti, but did not identify a location.
A census of the towns of the Muscogee (Creek) Confederacy, known as the Parsons and Abbott Roll, was taken in 1833. The towns of Hitchiti and Hihaje are listed in that census.
In 1937, the tribal town of "Hichiti", located northeast of Henryetta, Oklahoma was reported to no longer be maintaining a sacred fire. The former members of Hichiti became associated with the tribal town of Kasihta, which still maintained a square ground near Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Hitchita, Oklahoma is named after Hichiti. reprinted in
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