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Pascagoula Indian Tribe History
Pascagoula
(Choctaw: 'bread people', from paska 'bread,' okla
'people'). A small tribe of Indians formerly living on Pascagoula river in
south Mississippi, in intimate connection with the
Biloxi, but now extinct as a
separate division. As no vocabulary of their language has been preserved,
nor their own tribal name, their ethnic relations are conjectural; but
from their intimate connection from 1699 to the 19th century with the
Biloxi, it is possible that they were Siouan.
The first mention of them is that of Iberville in 1699
(Margry, Dec., iv, 193, 1880), who refers to the village of the Bilocchy
(Biloxi), Pascoboula (Pascagoula), and Moctobi, to reach which from Biloxi
bay took 21 days. There were really three villages, and a little farther
on (ibid., 195), he speaks of the three as being on Pascagoula river, a
short distance apart. As the three together, according to Sauvole (ibid.,
451), did not contain more than 20 cabins, the estimate of 100 families is
ample. About 1764, in company with the Biloxi and several other tribes,
they determined to leave the neighborhood of Mobile, and in 1784 were
found settled on the east side of the Mississippi, 10 miles above the
village of the Tunica. Together with the neighboring Biloxi they were
estimated at 20 warriors, probably about 75 souls. Before 1791, however,
they had moved up Red river and settled at the confluence of that stream
with Bayou Rigolet du Bon Dieu. The name of their chief at that time was
Du Blanc. About 1795 they sold their lands here to Miller and Fulton, and
followed the Biloxi to Bayou Boeuf, settling between them and the
Choctaw. Later they sold these
lands to the same parties, the sale being confirmed by the United States
in 1805, but probably continued to reside in the neighborhood, where they
died off or became incorporated with the Biloxi and Choctaw. Morse in 1822
enumerated three distinct bands of Pascagoula, two on Red river and a
third on a branch of the Neches, aggregating 240 souls; but probably some
mistake was made, as the Biloxi are given as numbering only 70.
Index of Tribes or Nations
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