Napochi Tribe: If connected with Choctaw Napissa, as seems not unlikely, the name means “those who see,” or “those who look out,” probably equivalent to “frontiersmen.”
Napochi Connection. They belonged to the southern division of the Muskhogean proper, and were seemingly nearest to the Choctaw.
Napochi Location. Along Black Warrior River.
Napochi History. The tribe appears first in the account of an attempt to colonize the Gulf States in 1559 under Don Tristan de Luna, part of his forces being sent inland from Pensacola Bay came to Coosa in 1560 and assisted its people against the Napochi, whom they claimed to have reduced to “allegiance” to the former. After this the Napochi seem to have left the Black Warrior River, and we know nothing certain of their fate, but the name was preserved down to very recent times among the Creeks as a war name, and it is probable that they are the Napissa spoken of by Iberville in 1699, as having recently joined the Chickasaw. Possibly the Acolapissa of Pearl River and the Quinipissa of Louisiana were parts of the same tribe.
Napochi Population. Unknown.
Connection in which they have become noted. The only claim the Napochi have to distinction is their possible connection with the remarkable group of mounds at Moundville, Hale County, Alabama.
