Tobesofkee Creek

Tobesofkee Creek
Country	United States
Physical characteristics
Main source	Georgia

Tobesofkee Creek is a 58.9-mile-long (94.8 km) river in Georgia. It originates near Barnesville and flows roughly southeast across Lamar, Monroe, and Bibb counties to join the Ocmulgee River south of the city of Macon. A dam on this stream forms Lake Tobesofkee.

After 1670 the Lower Creek Trading Path, which linked Creek towns on the Chattahoochee River to the English colonial town of Charlestown, crossed Tobesofkee Creek. The river has been called by several names in the Muskogee language, spoken by Creek Indians. The earliest recorded name is Togosohatchee. In 1776 William Bartram recorded the river's name as Tobosochte.

The meaning of the name Tobesofkee is unclear, although it appears to contain the word sofkee, a hominy dish that is considered the forerunner of grits. The name was first recorded in the 1790s by Benjamin Hawkins, the United States agent to the Creek Indians, who spelled it variously as Tobosaufkee, Tobe saufe ke, and Tobesauke.

In his 1905 study of U.S. place names, Henry Gannett derived the stream's name (which he spelled "Tobesofka") from the supposed fact that "an Indian lost a dish of meal while crossing it." William A. Read later translated the name as meaning "sofkee stirrer," from atapa (tool for stirring) and safki (corn gruel). Historian John Goff criticized Gannett's interpretation as "open to doubt" and concluded that, with the available historical sources, "it would be mere speculation to attempt to translate Tobesofkee."

Apparently, throughout the many decades, when Caucasian academicians sought to propose a meaning for Tobesofkee, no one thought of asking the Creek Indians. The Georgia Creek Indian word, topv-safke, refers to a hut that was commonly erected in most Creek villages and towns. Within the small building was a hearth and a large pot filled with sofkey, a form of corn hominy grits mixed with meats, vegetables and flavorings. Visitors, travelers and hunters could arrive at the community at any time of day or night and satisfy their hunger, free of charge. It was essentially a "hospitality booth" that was an integral part of Georgia Creek Indian traditions. There is no letter B in the Creek alphabet. The Creek "P" sound was often interpreted by English and French speakers as their letter B.

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