While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Natchez. Meaning unknown (the z should not be pronounced).
Also called:
Ani'-Na'tsl, Cherokee name.
Sunset Indians, given by Swan (in Schoolcraft (1851-57)).
Theloel or Thecoel, name used by the Natchez but seemingly derived from
that of a town.
Connections. The Natchez were the largest of three tribes speaking closely related dialects, the other two being Taensa and Avoyel, and this group
was remotely related to the great Muskhogean family.
Iberville gives the following list of Natchez villages: "
Natches,
Pochougoula,
Ousagoucoulas,
Cogoucoulas,
Yatanocas,
Ymacachas,
Thoucoue,
Tougoulas, and
Achougoulas."
This list was obtained through the medium of the Mobilian
trade language and part of the names are undoubtedly translated into it.
Thus we find the Mobilian and Choctaw word for people, okla, "ougoula," or
"oucoula," in
five of these. The term Tougoulas probably designates the town of the Tiou, an adopted tribe, and one of the others is perhaps a designation
for the adopted tribe of Grigra. Later writers usually speak of
but five settlements,
including that of the Grigra. One of these, the town of the "walnuts," is
evidently the Ousagoucoulas of Iberville's informants, meaning, in
reality, the town of the Hickories. The Great Village was probably the
town called Naches or
Natchez, and Pochougoula, the Flour Village, but the others mentioned,
Jenzenaque or Jensenac and the White Apple or Apple Village cannot be
identified. A White-earth village is mentioned by one writer, probably
intended for the White Apple village. The Natchez among the Cherokee lived
for a time at a
town called Guhlaniyi.
History. Undoubtedly tribes of the Natchez group were encountered by De
Soto and his companions in 1541-43, and it is highly probable that the
chief Quigaltanqui, who figures so prominently in the pursuit of the
Spaniards when they took to the Mississippi, was leader of the tribe in
question or of one of its divisions. The name Natchez appears first,
however, in the narratives of La Salle's descent of the Mississippi in
1682. Relations between the French and Natchez were at first hostile, but
peace was soon made and in 1699 a missionary visited the latter with a
view to permanent residence. The next year Iberville, who had stopped
short of the Natchez in his earlier ascent of the Mississippi, opened
negotiations with the Natchez chief. A missionary was left among them at
this time and the mission was maintained until 1706. In 1713 a trading
post was established. The next year four Canadians, on their way north,
were killed by some Natchez Indians and this resulted in a war which
Bienville promptly ended. Immediately afterward a stockaded fort was built
on a lofty bluff by the Mississippi and named Fort Rosalie. Several
concessions were granted in the neighborhood and settlers flowed in until
this was one of the most flourishing parts of the new colony. Between 1722
and 1724 there were slight disturbances in the good relations which had
prevailed between the settlers and Indians, but they were soon smoothed
over and harmony prevailed until a new commandant named Chépart, who seems
to have been utterly unfit for his position, was sent to take command of
Fort Rosalie. In consequence of his mismanagement a conspiracy was formed
against the French and on November 28, 1729, the Indians rose and
destroyed both post and settlement, about 200 whites being slain. Next
year the French and their Choctaw allies attacked the forts into which the
Natchez had retired and liberated most of their captives but accomplished
little else, and one night their enemies escaped across the Mississippi,
where they established themselves in other forts in the marshy regions of
northeastern Louisiana. There they were again attacked and about 400 were induced to surrender, but the
greater
part escaped during a stormy night and withdrew to the Chickasaw,
who had been secretly aiding them. Later they divided into two
bands, one of which settled among the Upper Creeks while the other
went to live with the Cherokee. Afterward each followed the fate of
their hosts and moved west of the Mississippi with them. Those who
had lived with the Creeks established themselves not far from Eufaula,
Okla., where the last who was able to speak the old tongue died about
1890. The Cherokee Natchez preserved their language longer, and a few are
able to converse in it at the present day (1925).
Population. Mooney's (1928) estimate of Natchez population in 1650 is
4,500; my own, as of 1698, 3,500. In 1731, after the losses suffered by
them during their war with the French, Perrier estimated that they had 300
warriors. In 1735, 180 warriors were reported among the Chickasaw alone.
During the latter half of the eighteenth century estimates of the warriors
in the Creek band of Natchez vary from 20 to 150, and in 1836 Gallatin
conjectures that its numbers over all were 300, which is probably above
the fact. There are no figures whatever for the Cherokee band of Natchez.
Connection in which they have become noted. The Natchez have
become famous in a number of ways:
(1) because they were the largest and
strongest tribe on the lower Mississippi when Louisiana was settled by the
French,
(2) on account of their monarchical government and the peculiar
institution of the Sun caste,
(3) on account of the custom of destroying
relatives and companions of a dead member of the Sun caste to accompany
him or her into the world of spirits,
(4) for the massacre of the French
post at Natchez and the bitter war which succeeded it,
(5) from the name
of the city of Natchez, Miss., adopted from them. The name is also borne
by post villages in Monroe County, Ala.; and Natchitoches Parish, La.; and
a post hamlet in
Martin County, Ind.
