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Natchez Indian Tribe History
Natchez. A
well-known tribe that formerly lived on and about St Catherine's Creek,
east and south of the present city of Natchez, Miss. The name, belongings
to a single town, was extended to the tribe and entire group of towns,
which included also peoples of alien blood who had been conquered by the
Natchez or had taken refuge with them. Iberville, on his ascent of the
Mississippi in 1699, names, in the Choctaw language, the following 8
towns, exclusive of Natchez proper: Achougoulas, Cogoucoula, Ousagoncoula,
Pochougoula, Thoucoue, Tougoulas, Yatanocas, and Ymacachas. Of these,
Tougoulas and perhaps Thoucoue are the Tioux towns. It is probably safe to
infer that the 9 towns, including Natchez, represented the entire group,
and that the Corn, Gray, Jenezenaque, White Apple, and White Earth
villages are only other names for some of the above, with which it is now
impossible to identify them. The Tioux and Grigras were two nations under
the protection of the Natchez; both were of alien blood. Du Pratz alludes
to a tradition that the Taensa and Chitimacha were formerly united with
the Natchez, but left them, though the latter had always recognized them
as brothers. The Taeusa were, indeed, probably an offshoot of the Natchez,
but the Chitimacha were of a distinct linguistic family.
It is difficult to form an estimate of the numerical
strength of this tribe, as the figures given vary widely. It is probable
that in 1682, when first visited by the French, they numbered about 6,000,
and were able to put from 1,000 to 1,200 warriors in the field.
The Natchez engaged in three wars with the French, in
1716, 1722, and 1729. The last, which proved fatal to their nation, was
caused by the attempt of the French governor, Chopart, to occupy the site
of their principal village as a plantation, and it opened with a general
massacre of the French at Fort Rosalie, established in 1716. The French,
in retaliation, attacked the Natchez villages with a strong force of
Choctaw allies, and in 1730 the Natchez abandoned their villages, into
three bodies. A small section remained not far from their former home, and
a second body fled to Sicily island, near Washita river, where they were
attacked early in 1731 by the French, many of there killed, and about 450
captured and sold into slavery in Santo Domingo. The third and most
numerous division was received by the Chickasaw and built a village near
them in north Mississippi, called by Adair, Nanne Hamgeh; in 1735 these
refugees numbered 180 warriors, or a total of about 700. In the year last
named a body of Natchez refugees settled in South Carolina by permission
of the colonial government, but some years later moved up to the Cherokee
country, where they still kept their distinct town and language up to
about the year 1800. The principal body of refugees, however, had settled
on Tallahassee creek, an affluent of Coosa river.
Hawkins in 1799 estimated their gun-men at about 50.
They occupied the whole of one town called Natchez and part of Abikudshi.
The Natchez were therefore not exterminated by the French, as has
frequently been stated, but after suffering severe losses the remainder
scattered far and wide among alien tribes. A few survivors, who speak
their own language, still exist in Indian Territory, living with the
Cherokee, and in the councils of the Creeks until recently had one
representative.
Though the accounts of the Natchez that have come down
to us appear to be highly colored, it is evident that this tribe, and
doubtless others on the lower Mississippi, occupied a somewhat anomalous
position among the Indians. They seem to have been a strictly sedentary
people, depending for their livelihood chiefly upon agriculture. They had
developed considerable skill in the arts, and wove a textile fabric from
the inner bark of the mulberry which they employed for clothing. They made
excellent pottery and raised mounds of earth upon which to erect their
dwellings and temples. They were also one of the eastern tribes that
practiced head flattening. In the main the Natchez appear to have been
peaceable, though like other tribes, they were involved in frequent
quarrels with their neighbors. All accounts agree in attributing to them
an extreme forma of sun worship and a highly developed ritual. Moreover,
the position and function of chief among them differed markedly from that
among other tribes, as their head chief seems to have had absolute power
over the property and lives of his subjects. On his death his wives were
expected to surrender their lives, and parents offered their children as
sacrifices. The nation was divided into two exogamic classes, nobility and
commoners or michmichgupi, the former being again divided into
suns, nobles proper, and esteemed men. Children of women of these three
had the rank of their mother, but children of common women fell one grade
below that of their father. There were various ways, however, by which a
man could raise himself from one grade to another at least as far as the
middle grade of nobles. While the commoners consisted partially of subject
tribes, the great majority appear to have been as pure Natchez as the
nobility. In spite of great lexical divergence, there is little doubt that
the Natchez language is a Muskhogean dialect.
Grigras. A French nickname
and the only known name of a small tribe all ready incorporated with the
Natchez confederacy in 1720; it was applied because of the frequent
occurrences of grigra in their language and ethnic relations, but
unless affiliated with the Tonica, the tribe was evidently distinct from
every other, since, as indicated by the sound grigra, their
language possessed an r.
The books presented are for their
historical value only and are not the
opinions of the Webmasters of the site.
Handbook
of American Indians, 1906
Index of Tribes or Nations
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