Natchez people
Encyclopedia
The Natchez are a Native American
people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area, near the present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi
. They spoke a language isolate that has no known close relatives, although it may be very distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek Confederacy.
The Natchez are noted for being the only Mississippian culture
with complex chiefdom
characteristics to have survived long into the period after the European colonization
of America began. Others had generally declined a century or two before European encounter. The Natchez are also noted for having had an unusual social system of nobility classes and exogamous marriage
practices. It was a strongly matrilineal society with descent reckoned along female lines, and the leadership passed from the chief, named "Great Sun", to his sister's son which ensured the chiefdom stay within one clan.Ethnologists
have not reached consensus on how the Natchez social system originally functioned, and the topic is somewhat controversial.
Around 1730, after several wars with the French
, the Natchez were defeated and dispersed. Most survivors were sold by the French into slavery
in the West Indies; others took refuge with other tribes, such as the Muskogean Chickasaw
and Creek
, and the Iroquoian-speaking Cherokee
. Today, most Natchez families and communities are found in Oklahoma
, where the Natchez Nation is a treaty tribe. Members are also enrolled in the federally recognized Cherokee
and Muscogee (Creek)
nations. Two Natchez communities are recognized by the state of South Carolina
.
The historic Natchez were preceded in this area by what archaeologists call the indigenous
Plaquemine culture
, part of the larger, prehistoric Mississippian culture
, which extended throughout the lower Mississippi Valley and its tributaries. Its peoples were noted for their hierarchical communities, building complex earthworks
, platform mound
architecture; and intensive cultivation of maize
. Archaeological evidence indicates that people of the Plaquemine culture, an elaboration of the Coles Creek culture
, had lived in the Natchez Bluffs region since at least as long ago as 700 CE
. The Natchez Bluffs are located along the east side of the Mississippi River
in present-day Mississippi
. During the late prehistoric era, around 1500, Plaquemine-culture people occupied territory from the Big Black River in the north to about the Homochitto River
in the south. The Plaquemine people built many platform mounds, including Emerald Mound
, the second largest pre-Columbian
structure in North America north of Mexico
. Emerald Mound was an important ceremonial center.
The Natchez used Emerald Mound in their time, but they abandoned the site before 1700. Their center of power shifted to the Grand Village of the Natchez
. The Grand Village has three platform mounds.
By 1700, the Natchez occupied a territory that covered only an area roughly between Fairchilds Creek and South Fork Coles Creek in the north to St. Catherine's Creek in the south. This area is approximately that of the northern half of present-day Adams County, Mississippi
.
. In 1542 de Soto's expedition encountered a powerful nation which they called the "province of Quigualtam". Scholars have classified this as an Emerald Phase (1500 - 1680)
precursor of the historic Natchez chiefdom
. The encounter was brief and violent, and the Spanish barely escaped with their lives. No further European contact with the indigenous people in this area occurred for more than 140 years, by which time the Natchez culture had arisen.
The French explored the lower Mississippi River in the late 17th century. Initial French-Natchez encounters were mixed. In 1682 René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
led an expedition down the Mississippi River. The Natchez received the party well, but when the French returned upriver, they were met by a hostile force of about 1,500 Natchez warriors and hurried away. At the time of the next French visit in the 1690s, the Natchez were welcoming and friendly. When Iberville
visited the Natchez in 1700, he was given a three-day-long calumet peace ceremony and feast.
French Catholic
missionaries from Canada
began to settle among the Natchez in 1698. On the coast of the Gulf of Mexico
, French colonists established Biloxi
in 1699 and Mobile
in 1702. Early French Louisiana
was governed by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville
and his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville
, among others. Both brothers played a major role in French-Natchez relations.
During the early 18th century, according to French sources, the Natchez lived in six to nine village districts with a population estimated at 4,000-6,000 people, and with the ability to muster 1,500 warriors. There were three village districts in the lower St. Catherine's Creek area, called Tioux, Flour, and the Grand Village of the Natchez. Three other village districts were located to the northeast, along upper St. Catherine's Creek and Fairchild's Creek, called White Apple (or White Earth), Grigra, and Jenzenaque (or Hickories).
The Natchez chief
s were called Suns, and the paramount chief
was called the Great Sun (Natchez: uwahšiL li∙kip). When the French arrived, the Natchez were ruled by the Great Sun and his brother, the Tattooed Serpent. The Great Sun had supreme authority over civil affairs, and the Tattooed Serpent oversaw political issues of war and peace, and diplomacy with other nations. Both lived at the Grand Village of the Natchez. Lesser chiefs, mostly from the Sun royal family, presided at other Natchez villages.
The Natchez performed ritual human sacrifice
upon the death of a Sun. When a male Sun died, his wives were expected to accompany him by performing ritual suicide. Great honor was associated with such sacrifice, and sometimes many Natchez chose to follow a Sun into death. For example, at the death of the Tattooed Serpent in 1725, two of his wives, one of his sisters (nicknamed La Glorieuse by the French), his first warrior
, his doctor, his head servant and the servant's wife, his nurse, and a craftsman of war clubs, all chose to die with him.
Mothers sometimes sacrificed infants in such ceremonies, an act which conferred honor and special status to the mother. Relatives of adults who chose ritual suicide were likewise honored and rose in status. The practice of ritual suicide and infanticide
upon the death of a chief existed among other Native Americans living along the lower Mississippi River, such as the Taensa
.
During the 18th century, the English and French colonies in the American southeast had a power struggle. The English colony of South Carolina
had established a large trading network among the southeastern Native Americans. By 1700 it stretched west as far as the Mississippi River
. The Chickasaw
Indians, who lived north of the Natchez, were regularly visited by English traders and were well supplied with English trade goods. The most lucrative trade with the English involved Indian slaves. For decades the Chickasaw conducted slave raids over a wide region. Chickasaw raiders were often joined by Natchez and Yazoo
warriors. The warriors raided over great distances to capture slaves from enemy tribes. For example, in 1713 a party of Chickasaw, Natchez, and Yazoo raiders attacked the Chaoüachas living near the mouth of the Mississippi River. The grand chief of the Chaoüachas was killed; his wife and ten others were carried off as slaves to be sold to the English.
English traders in the southeast had been operating for decades before the French arrived, but the French rapidly developed a rival trading network. Most Indian groups sought trade with as many Europeans as possible, encouraging competition and price reductions. Many tribes developed internal pro-English and pro-French factions. The Natchez appear to have developed such factions. By the 1710s the Natchez had a steady trade with the French and at least some contact with English traders.
The pro-French faction was led by the Grand Village of the Natchez and included the villages of Flour and Tioux. These villages were in the southwestern part of Natchez territory near the Mississippi River and French contact. The pro-English faction's villages lay to the northeast, closer to the Chickasaw and English contact, and further from the Mississippi River. The pro-English villages included White Apple, Jenzenaque, and Grigra. The Great Sun and Tattooed Serpent leaders lived in the Grand Village of the Natchez and were generally friendly toward the French. When violence broke out between the Natchez and the French, the village of White Apple was usually the main source of hostility.
The French regularly described the Natchez as ruled with absolute, despotic authority by the Great Sun and Tattooed Serpent. The existence of two opposing factions was well known and documented. The Great Sun and Tattooed Serpent repeatedly pointed out their difficulty in controlling the hostile Natchez. It is likely that the White Apple faction functioned at least semi-independently. Whatever power the family of the Great Sun and Tattooed Serpent did have over outlying villages was reduced in the late 1720s when both died. They were succeeded by relatively young, inexperienced leaders. While the new Great Sun was technically the paramount chief of the Natchez, the chief of White Apple became the eldest Sun chief and had more political clout than the Great Sun. The French continued to hold the Great Sun responsible for the conduct of all Natchez villages. They insisted on dealing with the Natchez as a unified nation ruled from its capital, the Grand Village of the Natchez.
During the 1710s and 1720s, French presence and settlement in Natchez territory increased from a handful of traders and missionaries to nearly 1,000 settlers (mostly French colonists and African slaves), who cultivated several large tobacco
plantations, and maintained the military post of Fort Rosalie. At first the Natchez welcomed the French settlers and assigned them land grants.
The last of these wars was the largest, in which the Natchez destroyed the French settlements in their territory. In retaliation, the French eventually killed or deported most of the Natchez people. Overshadowing the first three in scale and importance, the 1729 rebellion is sometimes simply called the Natchez War. All four conflicts involved the two opposing factions within the Natchez nation. The Great Sun's faction was generally friendly toward the French. Violence usually began in or was triggered by events among the Natchez of White Apple. In all but the last war, peace was regained largely due to the efforts of Tattooed Serpent of the Grand Village of the Natchez.
The First Natchez War of 1716 was precipitated by Natchez raiders from White Apple murdering four French traders. Bienville, seeking to resolve the conflict, called a meeting of chiefs at the Grand Village of the Natchez. The assembled chiefs proclaimed their innocence and implicated the war chiefs of White Apple. The Choctaw
assisted the French in fighting the 1716 Natchez War. After the 1716 Natchez War, the French built Fort Rosalie
near the Grand Village of the Natchez. The present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi
had its origin in the 1716 establishment of Fort Rosalie.
War broke out again in 1722 and 1723. Called the Second and Third Natchez wars by the French, they were essentially two phases of a single conflict. It began in White Apple, where an argument over a debt resulted in a French trader's killing one of the Natchez villagers. The French commander of Fort Rosalie reprimanded the murderer. Unsatisfied with that response, Natchez warriors of White Apple retaliated by attacking nearby French settlements. Tattooed Serpent's diplomatic efforts helped restore peace. But within a year, Bienville led a French army into Natchez territory, intent on punishing the warriors of White Apple. Bienville demanded the surrender of a White Apple chief as recompense for the earlier Natchez attacks. Under pressure from the French and other Natchez villages, White Apple turned the chief over to the French.
. This turned out to be the final affront to the Natchez, and they were unwilling to yield to the French demand. The chiefs of White Apple sent emissaries to potential allies, including the Yazoo, Koroa
, Illinois
, Chickasaw, and Choctaw. They also sent messages to the African slaves of nearby French plantations, inviting them to join the Natchez in rising up to drive out the French.
On November 28, 1729, the Natchez attacked. Before the day was over, they had destroyed the entire French colony at Natchez, including Fort Rosalie. Warriors killed more than 200 colonists, mostly French men, and they took captive more than 300 women, children, and slaves.
In January of 1730, the French attempted to besiege the main fort of the Natchez, but they were driven off. Two days later a force of about 500 Choctaw attacked and captured the fort, killed at least 100 Natchez, and recovered about 50 French captives and 50-100 African slaves. French leaders were delighted, but surprised when the Choctaw demanded ransoms for the captives.
War continued until January of 1731, when the French captured a Natchez fort on the west side of the Mississippi. Between 75 and 250 Natchez warriors escaped and found refuge among the Chickasaw. The young Great Sun and about 100 of his followers were captured, subsequently enslaved, and shipped to work French plantations in the Caribbean
.
The Natchez Rebellion expanded into a larger regional conflict with many repercussions. The Yazoo and Koroa Indians allied with the Natchez and suffered the same fate in defeat. The Tunica
were initially reluctant to fight on either side. In the summer of 1730, a large group of Natchez asked for refuge with the Tunica, which was given. During the night, the Natchez turned on their hosts, killing 20 and plundering the town. In return, the Tunica attacked Natchez refugees throughout the 1730s and into the 1740s.
The Chickasaw tried to remain neutral, but when groups of Natchez began seeking refuge in 1730, the Chickasaw allied with the refugees against the French. By 1731 the Chickasaw had accepted many refugees. When in 1731 the French demanded the surrender of Natchez living among them, the Chickasaw refused. French-Chickasaw relations rapidly deteriorated, resulting in the Chickasaw Wars
. Some of the Natchez warriors who had found refuge among the Chickasaw joined them in fighting the French. The Natchez Wars and the Chickasaw Wars were also related to French attempts to gain free passage along the Mississippi River. During the 1736 campaign against the Chickasaw, the French demanded again that the Natchez among them be turned over. The Chickasaw, compromising, turned over several Natchez, along with some French prisoners of war.
During the 1730s and 1740s, as the French-Natchez conflict developed into a French-Chickasaw war, the Choctaw fell into internal discord. The rift between pro-French and pro-English factions within the Choctaw nation reached the point of violence and civil war.
Louisiana's Africans, both slave and free blacks, were also affected by the Indian wars. The Natchez had encouraged African slaves to join them in rebellion. Most did not, but some did. In January of 1730 a group of African slaves fought off a Choctaw attack, giving the Natchez time to regroup in their forts. More slaves fought for the French, however, as did some free blacks or people of color (gens de couleur libres). Because of the free blacks' contributions during the Natchez War, the French allowed them to join Louisiana's militias, which gave them more connections into the colonial society, where they achieved an independent social status between the French colonists and slaves. Many worked as highly skilled artisans; others became educated; they established businesses and acquired property.
, or with English colonists. Most of the latter two Natchez groups ended up with the Cherokee
, due to patterns of subsequent conflicts. Natchez who lived among the Upper Creeks fled with them after the Red Stick War
ended in 1814. They also took refuge with the Cherokee in North Carolina.
The Cherokee Natchez settled mostly along the Hiwassee River
in North Carolina. The main Natchez town, dating to about 1755, was located near present-day Murphy, North Carolina
. Around 1740 a group of Natchez refugees settled along a creek near the confluence of the Tellico River
and the Little Tennessee River
. The creek became known as Notchy Creek after the Natchez. The settlement was called Natchey Town or Natsi-yi (Cherokee for "Natchez Place"). It was the birthplace of the Cherokee leader Dragging Canoe
, whose mother was Natchez. In later years Dragging Canoe's Cherokee father, Attacullaculla
, lived in Natchey Town. Most of the Natchez living with the Cherokee accompanied them in 1830 on the forced removal
of the Trail of Tears
to Oklahoma.
A few remained in North Carolina. Their descendants are part of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
.
s in Oklahoma. The nation developed a constitution in 2003, which confirms its long-held traditions of self-government. Approximately 6,000 Natchez are members of the nation. Membership is based on matrilineal descent from people listed on the Dawes Rolls
or the updated records of 1973. The nation allows citizens to have more than one tribal affiliation, asking only for work or donations to support the nation.
Natchez families are also found as members among the balance of the Five Civilized Tribes
. They are represented as corporations within the Seminole
and Chickasaw
tribes.
Small Natchez communities and settlements may be found in and throughout the Southeast and as far north as North Carolina. There are two state-recognized Natchez communities in South Carolina
, each of which have independent governments: the Eastern Band Natchez, formerly Natchez-PeeDee; and the Edisto (Four Holes Indian Organization – Natchez-Kusso.)
The current leadership of the Natchez Nation consists of a Peace Chief (called the "Great Sun"), a War Chief and four primary Clan Mothers. Other Natchez Sun leaders have included K.T. "Hutke" Fields (Principal Peace Chief / Great Sun, 1996), Eliza Sumpka (Primary Clan Mother), William Harjo LoneFight
, Robert M. Riviera (Principal War Chief, 1997), Watt Sam, Archie Sam, White Tobacco Sam and others.
is generally believed by scholars to be a language isolate
. Its two last fluent speakers were Watt Sam and Nancy Raven. The Natchez nation is now working to revive it as a spoken language among its people.
marriage. Members of the highest ranking class, called Suns, are thought to have been required to marry only members of the lowest commoner class, called Stinkards or commoners. The Natchez descent system has received a great deal of attention. Scholars debate how the system functioned before the 1730 diaspora. The topic has attracted controversy.
Primary source documentation on the pre-1730 Natchez kinship and descent system come from a relatively small number of French colonists who recorded information about Natchez social life between about 1700 and 1730. Although fragmentary and ambiguous, the French accounts are the only historic documents of Natchez society before 1730. Natchez oral traditions have also been studied. The first modern ethnographic study was done by John R. Swanton
in 1911. Swanton's interpretations and conclusions are still generally accepted and widely cited. Later researchers have addressed various problems with Swanton's interpretation. Some researchers have proposed modifications of Swanton's model, while others have rejected most of it.
In Swanton's interpretation, social status
among the Natchez was divided into two major categories, commoners and nobility. The nobility was further divided into three classes
(or caste
s) called Suns, Nobles, and Honored People. Noble exogamy was practiced, meaning that members of the noble classes could marry only commoners. A person's social status and class were determined matrilineally
. That is, the children of female Suns, Nobles, or Honoreds kept the status of their mothers. However, the children of male Suns and Nobles did not become commoners, as noble exogamy and matrilineal descent would appear to dictate, but rather inherited one class below their fathers. In other words, children of male Suns became Nobles, while children of male Nobles became Honored, according to Swanton.
Many later researchers have focused on the so-called "Natchez Paradox" that Swanton's model is said to engender. The paradox is that if the rules described were followed strictly, over time the commoner class would become depleted, while the lower nobility classes would grow ever larger.
Three general changes to Swanton's interpretation have been proposed to address the Natchez Paradox.
First, a type of asymmetrical descent may have been practiced in which only male children of male nobility inherited the social class one step below their fathers, while female children of male nobles inherited their mothers' commoner status in matrilineal fashion. Related to this is the idea that the Honored category was not a social class but rather an honorific title
given to commoner men and was not hereditary
.
Second, the assimilation of foreign people, such as groups of Timucua
, could have at least delayed the Natchez Paradox's effects. Researchers who argue for this idea often couple it with the proposal that the Natchez system of noble exogamy in the early 18th century was a relatively recent development in their society. According to this argument, during the relatively chaotic 16th and 17th centuries, the Natchez were able to maintain their old social system by adapting it to new conditions. They assimilated foreigners as commoners and made a new requirement of noble exogamy.
Third, the social classes described by Swanton were not classes or castes, as the terms are generally used in English, but exogamous ranked clan
s or moieties, with patterns of descent common to most Native peoples of the American southeast. Tribes such as the Chickasaw, Creek, Timucua, Caddo
, and Apalachee
were organized into ranked clans, with the requirement that one cannot marry within one's clan. Related to this theory is the idea that Honored status was not a class or a clan, but a title. Sun status, likewise, may not have been a class but rather a term for the royal family. If true, Natchez society would have been a moiety of just two groups, commoners and nobles. The requirement of exogamy may have applied to Suns only, rather than the entire nobility.
Some researchers argue that the prohibition against Suns' marrying Suns was largely a matter of incest taboo
. In the early 18th century, all the Suns of a given generation appear to have been related within three degrees of consanguinity
(siblings, first cousins, and second cousins). The custom of Suns' marrying commoners rather than Nobles may have been a preference rather than a requirement. Finally, while Swanton's interpretation claims that Nobles were also required to marry commoners, later researchers have questioned this idea. They have noted in particular a mistranslation of the primary sources and a misreading by Swanton. In other words, it could be that only Suns were required to marry exogamously, and this requirement may have been mainly a result of the taboo against incest.
Lorenz further reinterprets Swanton's model by proposing that the entire system was not based on classes, castes, or clans, but rather degrees of genealogical separation from the ruling Sun matriline. Lorenz's interpretation does not include asymmetrical descent or noble exogamy. Rather, a person was a Sun if he or she was within three degrees of matrilateral separation from the ruling matriline's eldest female Sun (called the "White Woman"). Nobles were those people who were four, five, or six degrees removed from the White Woman, while people seven degrees or more removed were commoners. In this system, the male children of male ruling Suns would naturally descend one "class" per generation, and would be required to marry outside the "class" to avoid incest. The only exception was the case of a male child of a male Noble, who acquired the Honored title by birth.
Many researchers agree that the Honored group was not a noble class but rather a title of prestige given to commoner men for acts of valor in war, or to commoner women who sacrificed their babies upon the death of a Sun. In addition, people of Honored status could be promoted to Nobles for meritorious deeds.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area, near the present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez is the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. With a total population of 18,464 , it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality within Adams County...
. They spoke a language isolate that has no known close relatives, although it may be very distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek Confederacy.
The Natchez are noted for being the only Mississippian culture
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
with complex chiefdom
Chiefdom
A chiefdom is a political economy that organizes regional populations through a hierarchy of the chief.In anthropological theory, one model of human social development rooted in ideas of cultural evolution describes a chiefdom as a form of social organization more complex than a tribe or a band...
characteristics to have survived long into the period after the European colonization
European colonization of the Americas
The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492. The first Europeans to reach the Americas were the Vikings during the 11th century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement in present day Newfoundland...
of America began. Others had generally declined a century or two before European encounter. The Natchez are also noted for having had an unusual social system of nobility classes and exogamous marriage
Exogamy
Exogamy is a social arrangement where marriage is allowed only outside of a social group. The social groups define the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. In social studies, exogamy is viewed as a combination of two related aspects:...
practices. It was a strongly matrilineal society with descent reckoned along female lines, and the leadership passed from the chief, named "Great Sun", to his sister's son which ensured the chiefdom stay within one clan.Ethnologists
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
have not reached consensus on how the Natchez social system originally functioned, and the topic is somewhat controversial.
Around 1730, after several wars with the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the Natchez were defeated and dispersed. Most survivors were sold by the French into slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in the West Indies; others took refuge with other tribes, such as the Muskogean Chickasaw
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
and Creek
Creek people
The Muscogee , also known as the Creek or Creeks, are a Native American people traditionally from the southeastern United States. Mvskoke is their name in traditional spelling. The modern Muscogee live primarily in Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida...
, and the Iroquoian-speaking Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
. Today, most Natchez families and communities are found in Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, where the Natchez Nation is a treaty tribe. Members are also enrolled in the federally recognized Cherokee
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century, and includes people descended from members of the old Cherokee Nation who relocated voluntarily from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who...
and Muscogee (Creek)
Muscogee (Creek) Nation
The Muscogee Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Muscogee people, also known as the Creek, based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. They are regarded as one of the historical Five Civilized Tribes and call themselves Este Mvskokvlke...
nations. Two Natchez communities are recognized by the state of South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
.
Prehistoric
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
Plaquemine culture
Plaquemine culture
The Plaquemine culture was an archaeological culture in the lower Mississippi River Valley in western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana. Good examples of this culture are the Medora Site in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, and the Anna, Emerald Mound, Winterville and Holly Bluff sites located...
, part of the larger, prehistoric Mississippian culture
Mississippian culture
The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....
, which extended throughout the lower Mississippi Valley and its tributaries. Its peoples were noted for their hierarchical communities, building complex earthworks
Earthworks (archaeology)
In archaeology, earthwork is a general term to describe artificial changes in land level. Earthworks are often known colloquially as 'lumps and bumps'. Earthworks can themselves be archaeological features or they can show features beneath the surface...
, platform mound
Platform mound
A platform mound is any earthwork or mound intended to support a structure or activity.-Eastern North America:The indigenous peoples of North America built substructure mounds for well over a thousand years starting in the Archaic period and continuing through the Woodland period...
architecture; and intensive cultivation of maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
. Archaeological evidence indicates that people of the Plaquemine culture, an elaboration of the Coles Creek culture
Coles Creek culture
Coles Creek culture is a Late Woodland archaeological culture in the Lower Mississippi valley in the southern United States. It followed the Troyville culture. The period marks a significant change in the cultural history of the area...
, had lived in the Natchez Bluffs region since at least as long ago as 700 CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
. The Natchez Bluffs are located along the east side of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
in present-day Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. During the late prehistoric era, around 1500, Plaquemine-culture people occupied territory from the Big Black River in the north to about the Homochitto River
Homochitto River
The Homochitto River is a river in the U.S. state of Mississippi. It flows from its source in southwest Mississippi for about west and south, emptying into the Mississippi River between Natchez and Woodville.-Course:...
in the south. The Plaquemine people built many platform mounds, including Emerald Mound
Emerald Mound Site
The Emerald Mound Site , also known as the Selzertown site, is a Plaquemine culture Mississippian period archaeological site located on the Natchez Trace Parkway near Stanton, Mississippi, United States. The site dates from the period between 1200 and 1730 CE...
, the second largest pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
structure in North America north of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Emerald Mound was an important ceremonial center.
The Natchez used Emerald Mound in their time, but they abandoned the site before 1700. Their center of power shifted to the Grand Village of the Natchez
Grand Village of the Natchez
Grand Village of the Natchez, also known as the Fatherland Site, is a site encompassing a prehistoric indigenous village and earthwork mounds in present-day south Natchez, Mississippi. The village complex was constructed starting about 1200 CE by members of the prehistoric Plaquemine culture....
. The Grand Village has three platform mounds.
By 1700, the Natchez occupied a territory that covered only an area roughly between Fairchilds Creek and South Fork Coles Creek in the north to St. Catherine's Creek in the south. This area is approximately that of the northern half of present-day Adams County, Mississippi
Adams County, Mississippi
As of the census of 2000, there were 34,340 people, 13,677 households, and 9,409 families residing in the county. The population density was 75 people per square mile . There were 15,175 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile...
.
Protohistoric
The earliest European account of the Natchez comes from the Spanish expedition of Hernando de SotoHernando de Soto (explorer)
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who, while leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States, was the first European documented to have crossed the Mississippi River....
. In 1542 de Soto's expedition encountered a powerful nation which they called the "province of Quigualtam". Scholars have classified this as an Emerald Phase (1500 - 1680)
Emerald Mound Site
The Emerald Mound Site , also known as the Selzertown site, is a Plaquemine culture Mississippian period archaeological site located on the Natchez Trace Parkway near Stanton, Mississippi, United States. The site dates from the period between 1200 and 1730 CE...
precursor of the historic Natchez chiefdom
Chiefdom
A chiefdom is a political economy that organizes regional populations through a hierarchy of the chief.In anthropological theory, one model of human social development rooted in ideas of cultural evolution describes a chiefdom as a form of social organization more complex than a tribe or a band...
. The encounter was brief and violent, and the Spanish barely escaped with their lives. No further European contact with the indigenous people in this area occurred for more than 140 years, by which time the Natchez culture had arisen.
French contact era
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de LaSalle was a French explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico...
led an expedition down the Mississippi River. The Natchez received the party well, but when the French returned upriver, they were met by a hostile force of about 1,500 Natchez warriors and hurried away. At the time of the next French visit in the 1690s, the Natchez were welcoming and friendly. When Iberville
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville pronounced as described in note] Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville pronounced as described in note] Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville pronounced as described in note] (16 July 1661 – 9 July 1702 (probable)was a soldier, ship captain, explorer, colonial administrator, knight of...
visited the Natchez in 1700, he was given a three-day-long calumet peace ceremony and feast.
French Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
missionaries from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
began to settle among the Natchez in 1698. On the coast of the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
, French colonists established Biloxi
Biloxi, Mississippi
Biloxi is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, in the United States. The 2010 census recorded the population as 44,054. Along with Gulfport, Biloxi is a county seat of Harrison County....
in 1699 and Mobile
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
in 1702. Early French Louisiana
Louisiana (New France)
Louisiana or French Louisiana was an administrative district of New France. Under French control from 1682–1763 and 1800–03, the area was named in honor of Louis XIV, by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle...
was governed by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville pronounced as described in note] Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville pronounced as described in note] Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville pronounced as described in note] (16 July 1661 – 9 July 1702 (probable)was a soldier, ship captain, explorer, colonial administrator, knight of...
and his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienvillepronounce] was a colonizer, born in Montreal, Quebec and an early, repeated governor of French Louisiana, appointed 4 separate times during 1701-1743. He was a younger brother of explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville...
, among others. Both brothers played a major role in French-Natchez relations.
During the early 18th century, according to French sources, the Natchez lived in six to nine village districts with a population estimated at 4,000-6,000 people, and with the ability to muster 1,500 warriors. There were three village districts in the lower St. Catherine's Creek area, called Tioux, Flour, and the Grand Village of the Natchez. Three other village districts were located to the northeast, along upper St. Catherine's Creek and Fairchild's Creek, called White Apple (or White Earth), Grigra, and Jenzenaque (or Hickories).
The Natchez chief
Tribal chief
A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.In the case of ...
s were called Suns, and the paramount chief
Paramount chief
A paramount chief is the highest-level traditional chief or political leader in a regional or local polity or country typically administered politically with a chief-based system. This definition is used occasionally in anthropological and archaeological theory to refer to the rulers of multiple...
was called the Great Sun (Natchez: uwahšiL li∙kip). When the French arrived, the Natchez were ruled by the Great Sun and his brother, the Tattooed Serpent. The Great Sun had supreme authority over civil affairs, and the Tattooed Serpent oversaw political issues of war and peace, and diplomacy with other nations. Both lived at the Grand Village of the Natchez. Lesser chiefs, mostly from the Sun royal family, presided at other Natchez villages.
The Natchez performed ritual human sacrifice
Human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...
upon the death of a Sun. When a male Sun died, his wives were expected to accompany him by performing ritual suicide. Great honor was associated with such sacrifice, and sometimes many Natchez chose to follow a Sun into death. For example, at the death of the Tattooed Serpent in 1725, two of his wives, one of his sisters (nicknamed La Glorieuse by the French), his first warrior
Warrior
A warrior is a person skilled in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based society that recognizes a separate warrior class.-Warrior classes in tribal culture:...
, his doctor, his head servant and the servant's wife, his nurse, and a craftsman of war clubs, all chose to die with him.
Mothers sometimes sacrificed infants in such ceremonies, an act which conferred honor and special status to the mother. Relatives of adults who chose ritual suicide were likewise honored and rose in status. The practice of ritual suicide and infanticide
Infanticide
Infanticide or infant homicide is the killing of a human infant. Neonaticide, a killing within 24 hours of a baby's birth, is most commonly done by the mother.In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible...
upon the death of a chief existed among other Native Americans living along the lower Mississippi River, such as the Taensa
Taensa
The Taensa were a people of northeastern Louisiana. They lived on Lake Saint Joseph west of the Mississippi River, between the Yazoo River and Saint Catherine Creek...
.
During the 18th century, the English and French colonies in the American southeast had a power struggle. The English colony of South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
had established a large trading network among the southeastern Native Americans. By 1700 it stretched west as far as the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. The Chickasaw
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
Indians, who lived north of the Natchez, were regularly visited by English traders and were well supplied with English trade goods. The most lucrative trade with the English involved Indian slaves. For decades the Chickasaw conducted slave raids over a wide region. Chickasaw raiders were often joined by Natchez and Yazoo
Yazoo tribe
The Yazoo were a tribe of the Native American Tunica people historically located on the lower course of Yazoo River, Mississippi. It was closely connected to other Tunica peoples, especially the Tunica, Koroa, and possibly the Tioux....
warriors. The warriors raided over great distances to capture slaves from enemy tribes. For example, in 1713 a party of Chickasaw, Natchez, and Yazoo raiders attacked the Chaoüachas living near the mouth of the Mississippi River. The grand chief of the Chaoüachas was killed; his wife and ten others were carried off as slaves to be sold to the English.
English traders in the southeast had been operating for decades before the French arrived, but the French rapidly developed a rival trading network. Most Indian groups sought trade with as many Europeans as possible, encouraging competition and price reductions. Many tribes developed internal pro-English and pro-French factions. The Natchez appear to have developed such factions. By the 1710s the Natchez had a steady trade with the French and at least some contact with English traders.
The pro-French faction was led by the Grand Village of the Natchez and included the villages of Flour and Tioux. These villages were in the southwestern part of Natchez territory near the Mississippi River and French contact. The pro-English faction's villages lay to the northeast, closer to the Chickasaw and English contact, and further from the Mississippi River. The pro-English villages included White Apple, Jenzenaque, and Grigra. The Great Sun and Tattooed Serpent leaders lived in the Grand Village of the Natchez and were generally friendly toward the French. When violence broke out between the Natchez and the French, the village of White Apple was usually the main source of hostility.
The French regularly described the Natchez as ruled with absolute, despotic authority by the Great Sun and Tattooed Serpent. The existence of two opposing factions was well known and documented. The Great Sun and Tattooed Serpent repeatedly pointed out their difficulty in controlling the hostile Natchez. It is likely that the White Apple faction functioned at least semi-independently. Whatever power the family of the Great Sun and Tattooed Serpent did have over outlying villages was reduced in the late 1720s when both died. They were succeeded by relatively young, inexperienced leaders. While the new Great Sun was technically the paramount chief of the Natchez, the chief of White Apple became the eldest Sun chief and had more political clout than the Great Sun. The French continued to hold the Great Sun responsible for the conduct of all Natchez villages. They insisted on dealing with the Natchez as a unified nation ruled from its capital, the Grand Village of the Natchez.
During the 1710s and 1720s, French presence and settlement in Natchez territory increased from a handful of traders and missionaries to nearly 1,000 settlers (mostly French colonists and African slaves), who cultivated several large tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
plantations, and maintained the military post of Fort Rosalie. At first the Natchez welcomed the French settlers and assigned them land grants.
Conflicts with the French
In the 1710s and 1720s, war broke out four times between the French and the Natchez. The French called these the First Natchez War (1716), the Second Natchez War (1722), the Third Natchez War (1723), and the Natchez Rebellion of 1729.The last of these wars was the largest, in which the Natchez destroyed the French settlements in their territory. In retaliation, the French eventually killed or deported most of the Natchez people. Overshadowing the first three in scale and importance, the 1729 rebellion is sometimes simply called the Natchez War. All four conflicts involved the two opposing factions within the Natchez nation. The Great Sun's faction was generally friendly toward the French. Violence usually began in or was triggered by events among the Natchez of White Apple. In all but the last war, peace was regained largely due to the efforts of Tattooed Serpent of the Grand Village of the Natchez.
The First Natchez War of 1716 was precipitated by Natchez raiders from White Apple murdering four French traders. Bienville, seeking to resolve the conflict, called a meeting of chiefs at the Grand Village of the Natchez. The assembled chiefs proclaimed their innocence and implicated the war chiefs of White Apple. The Choctaw
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
assisted the French in fighting the 1716 Natchez War. After the 1716 Natchez War, the French built Fort Rosalie
Fort Rosalie
Fort Rosalie was a French fort built in 1716 in the territory of the Natchez Native Americans. The present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi developed at this site. As part of the peace terms that ended the Natchez War of 1716, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville required the Natchez to...
near the Grand Village of the Natchez. The present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez, Mississippi
Natchez is the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. With a total population of 18,464 , it is the largest community and the only incorporated municipality within Adams County...
had its origin in the 1716 establishment of Fort Rosalie.
War broke out again in 1722 and 1723. Called the Second and Third Natchez wars by the French, they were essentially two phases of a single conflict. It began in White Apple, where an argument over a debt resulted in a French trader's killing one of the Natchez villagers. The French commander of Fort Rosalie reprimanded the murderer. Unsatisfied with that response, Natchez warriors of White Apple retaliated by attacking nearby French settlements. Tattooed Serpent's diplomatic efforts helped restore peace. But within a year, Bienville led a French army into Natchez territory, intent on punishing the warriors of White Apple. Bienville demanded the surrender of a White Apple chief as recompense for the earlier Natchez attacks. Under pressure from the French and other Natchez villages, White Apple turned the chief over to the French.
Natchez Rebellion of 1729 (1729–1731)
In November 1729, the French commander Sieur de Chépart ordered the Natchez to vacate the village of White Apple so that he could use its land for a new tobacco plantationPlantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
. This turned out to be the final affront to the Natchez, and they were unwilling to yield to the French demand. The chiefs of White Apple sent emissaries to potential allies, including the Yazoo, Koroa
Koroa
The Koroa were one of the groups of indigenous people who lived in the Mississippi Valley prior to the European settlement of the region. They lived in the northwest of present-day Mississippi in the Yazoo River basin. They were believed to speak a dialect of Tunica.The Koroa may be the tribe...
, Illinois
Illiniwek
The Illinois Confederation, sometimes referred to as the Illiniwek or Illini, were a group of twelve to thirteen Native American tribes in the upper Mississippi River valley of North America...
, Chickasaw, and Choctaw. They also sent messages to the African slaves of nearby French plantations, inviting them to join the Natchez in rising up to drive out the French.
On November 28, 1729, the Natchez attacked. Before the day was over, they had destroyed the entire French colony at Natchez, including Fort Rosalie. Warriors killed more than 200 colonists, mostly French men, and they took captive more than 300 women, children, and slaves.
In January of 1730, the French attempted to besiege the main fort of the Natchez, but they were driven off. Two days later a force of about 500 Choctaw attacked and captured the fort, killed at least 100 Natchez, and recovered about 50 French captives and 50-100 African slaves. French leaders were delighted, but surprised when the Choctaw demanded ransoms for the captives.
War continued until January of 1731, when the French captured a Natchez fort on the west side of the Mississippi. Between 75 and 250 Natchez warriors escaped and found refuge among the Chickasaw. The young Great Sun and about 100 of his followers were captured, subsequently enslaved, and shipped to work French plantations in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
.
The Natchez Rebellion expanded into a larger regional conflict with many repercussions. The Yazoo and Koroa Indians allied with the Natchez and suffered the same fate in defeat. The Tunica
Tunica
Tunica may refer to:* The latin word for tunic, a type of clothing typical in the ancient world* In anatomy, tunica refers to a structure comprising a blood vessel; types include Tunica albuginea and Tunica vasculosa...
were initially reluctant to fight on either side. In the summer of 1730, a large group of Natchez asked for refuge with the Tunica, which was given. During the night, the Natchez turned on their hosts, killing 20 and plundering the town. In return, the Tunica attacked Natchez refugees throughout the 1730s and into the 1740s.
The Chickasaw tried to remain neutral, but when groups of Natchez began seeking refuge in 1730, the Chickasaw allied with the refugees against the French. By 1731 the Chickasaw had accepted many refugees. When in 1731 the French demanded the surrender of Natchez living among them, the Chickasaw refused. French-Chickasaw relations rapidly deteriorated, resulting in the Chickasaw Wars
Chickasaw Wars
The Chickasaw Wars were fought in the 18th century between the Chickasaw allied with the British against the French and their allies the Choctaws and Illini. The Province of Louisiana extended from Illinois to New Orleans, and the French fought to secure their communications along the Mississippi...
. Some of the Natchez warriors who had found refuge among the Chickasaw joined them in fighting the French. The Natchez Wars and the Chickasaw Wars were also related to French attempts to gain free passage along the Mississippi River. During the 1736 campaign against the Chickasaw, the French demanded again that the Natchez among them be turned over. The Chickasaw, compromising, turned over several Natchez, along with some French prisoners of war.
During the 1730s and 1740s, as the French-Natchez conflict developed into a French-Chickasaw war, the Choctaw fell into internal discord. The rift between pro-French and pro-English factions within the Choctaw nation reached the point of violence and civil war.
Louisiana's Africans, both slave and free blacks, were also affected by the Indian wars. The Natchez had encouraged African slaves to join them in rebellion. Most did not, but some did. In January of 1730 a group of African slaves fought off a Choctaw attack, giving the Natchez time to regroup in their forts. More slaves fought for the French, however, as did some free blacks or people of color (gens de couleur libres). Because of the free blacks' contributions during the Natchez War, the French allowed them to join Louisiana's militias, which gave them more connections into the colonial society, where they achieved an independent social status between the French colonists and slaves. Many worked as highly skilled artisans; others became educated; they established businesses and acquired property.
Natchez after 1730
After the war of 1729–1731, Natchez society was in flux and the people scattered. Most survivors eventually settled among the Creek (Muscogee), ChickasawChickasaw
The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
, or with English colonists. Most of the latter two Natchez groups ended up with the Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
, due to patterns of subsequent conflicts. Natchez who lived among the Upper Creeks fled with them after the Red Stick War
Red Sticks
Red Sticks is the English term for a traditionalist faction of Creek Indians who led a resistance movement which culminated in the outbreak of the Creek War in 1813....
ended in 1814. They also took refuge with the Cherokee in North Carolina.
The Cherokee Natchez settled mostly along the Hiwassee River
Hiwassee River
The Hiwassee River has its headwaters on the north slope of Rocky Mountain in Towns County in northern Georgia and flows northward into North Carolina before turning westward into Tennessee, flowing into the Tennessee River a few miles west of State Route 58 in Meigs County, Tennessee...
in North Carolina. The main Natchez town, dating to about 1755, was located near present-day Murphy, North Carolina
Murphy, North Carolina
-Household Income:The median income for a household in the town was $24,952, and the median income for a family was $35,234. Males had a median income of $30,395 versus $16,908 for females. The per capita income for the town was $16,926...
. Around 1740 a group of Natchez refugees settled along a creek near the confluence of the Tellico River
Tellico River
The Tellico River rises in the westernmost mountains of North Carolina, but it flows mainly through Monroe County, Tennessee. It is a major tributary of the Little Tennessee River and the namesake of Tellico Reservoir, a reservoir created by Tellico Dam, which impounds the lower reaches of the...
and the Little Tennessee River
Little Tennessee River
The Little Tennessee River is a tributary of the Tennessee River, approximately 135 miles long, in the Appalachian Mountains in the southeastern United States.-Geography:...
. The creek became known as Notchy Creek after the Natchez. The settlement was called Natchey Town or Natsi-yi (Cherokee for "Natchez Place"). It was the birthplace of the Cherokee leader Dragging Canoe
Dragging Canoe
Tsiyu Gansini , "He is dragging his canoe", known to whites as Dragging Canoe, was a Cherokee war chief who led a band of Cherokee against colonists and United States settlers...
, whose mother was Natchez. In later years Dragging Canoe's Cherokee father, Attacullaculla
Attacullaculla
Attakullakulla or Atagulkalu , adopted as an infant into the Cherokee tribe, became their First Beloved Man, serving from 1761 to around 1775...
, lived in Natchey Town. Most of the Natchez living with the Cherokee accompanied them in 1830 on the forced removal
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...
of the Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830...
to Oklahoma.
A few remained in North Carolina. Their descendants are part of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians , is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the United States of America, who are descended from Cherokee who remained in the Eastern United States while others moved, or were forced to relocate, to the west in the 19th century. The history of the...
.
Contemporary nation
Today the primary settlements of the Natchez Nation (Nvce or Nahchee), a treaty tribe, are within the southern halves of the Muscogee and Cherokee NationCherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century, and includes people descended from members of the old Cherokee Nation who relocated voluntarily from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who...
s in Oklahoma. The nation developed a constitution in 2003, which confirms its long-held traditions of self-government. Approximately 6,000 Natchez are members of the nation. Membership is based on matrilineal descent from people listed on the Dawes Rolls
Dawes Rolls
The Dawes Rolls were created by the Dawes Commission. The Commission, authorized by United States Congress in 1893, was required to negotiate with the Five Civilized Tribes to convince them to agree to an allotment plan and dissolution of the reservation system...
or the updated records of 1973. The nation allows citizens to have more than one tribal affiliation, asking only for work or donations to support the nation.
Natchez families are also found as members among the balance of the Five Civilized Tribes
Five Civilized Tribes
The Five Civilized Tribes were the five Native American nations—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole—that were considered civilized by Anglo-European settlers during the colonial and early federal period because they adopted many of the colonists' customs and had generally good...
. They are represented as corporations within the Seminole
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...
and Chickasaw
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
tribes.
Small Natchez communities and settlements may be found in and throughout the Southeast and as far north as North Carolina. There are two state-recognized Natchez communities in South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, each of which have independent governments: the Eastern Band Natchez, formerly Natchez-PeeDee; and the Edisto (Four Holes Indian Organization – Natchez-Kusso.)
The current leadership of the Natchez Nation consists of a Peace Chief (called the "Great Sun"), a War Chief and four primary Clan Mothers. Other Natchez Sun leaders have included K.T. "Hutke" Fields (Principal Peace Chief / Great Sun, 1996), Eliza Sumpka (Primary Clan Mother), William Harjo LoneFight
William Harjo LoneFight
Dr. William Harjo LoneFight, , is President and CEO of American Native Services, a consulting firm in Bismarck, North Dakota.An alumnus of Dartmouth College, Oklahoma City University, and Stanford University, LoneFight has served on the Board of Directors of the American Indian College Fund,...
, Robert M. Riviera (Principal War Chief, 1997), Watt Sam, Archie Sam, White Tobacco Sam and others.
Language
The Natchez languageNatchez language
Natchez was a language of Louisiana. Its two last fluent speakers, Watt Sam and Nancy Raven, died in the late 1930s. The Natchez nation is now working to revive it as a spoken language.-Classification:...
is generally believed by scholars to be a language isolate
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
. Its two last fluent speakers were Watt Sam and Nancy Raven. The Natchez nation is now working to revive it as a spoken language among its people.
Descent system
The Natchez are noted for having an unusual social system of noble classes and exogamousExogamy
Exogamy is a social arrangement where marriage is allowed only outside of a social group. The social groups define the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. In social studies, exogamy is viewed as a combination of two related aspects:...
marriage. Members of the highest ranking class, called Suns, are thought to have been required to marry only members of the lowest commoner class, called Stinkards or commoners. The Natchez descent system has received a great deal of attention. Scholars debate how the system functioned before the 1730 diaspora. The topic has attracted controversy.
Primary source documentation on the pre-1730 Natchez kinship and descent system come from a relatively small number of French colonists who recorded information about Natchez social life between about 1700 and 1730. Although fragmentary and ambiguous, the French accounts are the only historic documents of Natchez society before 1730. Natchez oral traditions have also been studied. The first modern ethnographic study was done by John R. Swanton
John R. Swanton
John Reed Swanton was an American anthropologist and linguist who worked with Native American peoples throughout the United States. Swanton achieved recognition in the fields of ethnology and ethnohistory...
in 1911. Swanton's interpretations and conclusions are still generally accepted and widely cited. Later researchers have addressed various problems with Swanton's interpretation. Some researchers have proposed modifications of Swanton's model, while others have rejected most of it.
In Swanton's interpretation, social status
Social status
In sociology or anthropology, social status is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society . It may also refer to a rank or position that one holds in a group, for example son or daughter, playmate, pupil, etc....
among the Natchez was divided into two major categories, commoners and nobility. The nobility was further divided into three classes
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
(or caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
s) called Suns, Nobles, and Honored People. Noble exogamy was practiced, meaning that members of the noble classes could marry only commoners. A person's social status and class were determined matrilineally
Matrilineality
Matrilineality is a system in which descent is traced through the mother and maternal ancestors. Matrilineality is also a societal system in which one belongs to one's matriline or mother's lineage, which can involve the inheritance of property and/or titles.A matriline is a line of descent from a...
. That is, the children of female Suns, Nobles, or Honoreds kept the status of their mothers. However, the children of male Suns and Nobles did not become commoners, as noble exogamy and matrilineal descent would appear to dictate, but rather inherited one class below their fathers. In other words, children of male Suns became Nobles, while children of male Nobles became Honored, according to Swanton.
Many later researchers have focused on the so-called "Natchez Paradox" that Swanton's model is said to engender. The paradox is that if the rules described were followed strictly, over time the commoner class would become depleted, while the lower nobility classes would grow ever larger.
Three general changes to Swanton's interpretation have been proposed to address the Natchez Paradox.
First, a type of asymmetrical descent may have been practiced in which only male children of male nobility inherited the social class one step below their fathers, while female children of male nobles inherited their mothers' commoner status in matrilineal fashion. Related to this is the idea that the Honored category was not a social class but rather an honorific title
Title of honor
An honorary title or title of honor is a title bestowed upon individuals or organizations as an award in recognition of their merits.Sometimes the title bears the same or nearly the same name as a title of authority, but the person bestowed does not have to carry any duties, possibly except for...
given to commoner men and was not hereditary
Heredity
Heredity is the passing of traits to offspring . This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Through heredity, variations exhibited by individuals can accumulate and cause some species to evolve...
.
Second, the assimilation of foreign people, such as groups of Timucua
Timucua
The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The various groups of Timucua spoke several dialects of the...
, could have at least delayed the Natchez Paradox's effects. Researchers who argue for this idea often couple it with the proposal that the Natchez system of noble exogamy in the early 18th century was a relatively recent development in their society. According to this argument, during the relatively chaotic 16th and 17th centuries, the Natchez were able to maintain their old social system by adapting it to new conditions. They assimilated foreigners as commoners and made a new requirement of noble exogamy.
Third, the social classes described by Swanton were not classes or castes, as the terms are generally used in English, but exogamous ranked clan
Clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...
s or moieties, with patterns of descent common to most Native peoples of the American southeast. Tribes such as the Chickasaw, Creek, Timucua, Caddo
Caddo
The Caddo Nation is a confederacy of several Southeastern Native American tribes, who traditionally inhabited much of what is now East Texas, northern Louisiana and portions of southern Arkansas and Oklahoma. Today the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma is a cohesive tribe with its capital at Binger, Oklahoma...
, and Apalachee
Apalachee
The Apalachee are a Native American people who historically lived in the Florida Panhandle, and now live primarily in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Their historical territory was known to the Spanish colonists as the Apalachee Province...
were organized into ranked clans, with the requirement that one cannot marry within one's clan. Related to this theory is the idea that Honored status was not a class or a clan, but a title. Sun status, likewise, may not have been a class but rather a term for the royal family. If true, Natchez society would have been a moiety of just two groups, commoners and nobles. The requirement of exogamy may have applied to Suns only, rather than the entire nobility.
Some researchers argue that the prohibition against Suns' marrying Suns was largely a matter of incest taboo
Incest taboo
An Incest taboo is any cultural rule or norm that prohibits practices of sexual relations between relatives. All human cultures have norms regarding who is considered suitable and unsuitable sexual and/or marriage partners, and usually certain close relatives are excluded as possible partners...
. In the early 18th century, all the Suns of a given generation appear to have been related within three degrees of consanguinity
Consanguinity
Consanguinity refers to the property of being from the same kinship as another person. In that respect, consanguinity is the quality of being descended from the same ancestor as another person...
(siblings, first cousins, and second cousins). The custom of Suns' marrying commoners rather than Nobles may have been a preference rather than a requirement. Finally, while Swanton's interpretation claims that Nobles were also required to marry commoners, later researchers have questioned this idea. They have noted in particular a mistranslation of the primary sources and a misreading by Swanton. In other words, it could be that only Suns were required to marry exogamously, and this requirement may have been mainly a result of the taboo against incest.
Lorenz further reinterprets Swanton's model by proposing that the entire system was not based on classes, castes, or clans, but rather degrees of genealogical separation from the ruling Sun matriline. Lorenz's interpretation does not include asymmetrical descent or noble exogamy. Rather, a person was a Sun if he or she was within three degrees of matrilateral separation from the ruling matriline's eldest female Sun (called the "White Woman"). Nobles were those people who were four, five, or six degrees removed from the White Woman, while people seven degrees or more removed were commoners. In this system, the male children of male ruling Suns would naturally descend one "class" per generation, and would be required to marry outside the "class" to avoid incest. The only exception was the case of a male child of a male Noble, who acquired the Honored title by birth.
Many researchers agree that the Honored group was not a noble class but rather a title of prestige given to commoner men for acts of valor in war, or to commoner women who sacrificed their babies upon the death of a Sun. In addition, people of Honored status could be promoted to Nobles for meritorious deeds.
See also
- AvoyelAvoyelThe Avoyel or Avoyelles was a small Natchez-speaking tribe who inhabited land near the mouth of the Red River in the area of present-day Marksville, Louisiana. The indigenous name for this tribe is Tamoucougoula. The word Avoyel is of French derivation and means either "Flint People" or "the...
- Bras PiquéBras PiquéBras Piqué was the mother of a Great Sun of the Natchez people in the early-18th century, who, friendly to the French, attempted — or later claimed she had attempted — to warn them of plans by her tribe to attack them by surprise...
- Southeastern Ceremonial ComplexSoutheastern Ceremonial ComplexThe Southeastern Ceremonial Complex is the name given to the regional stylistic similarity of artifacts, iconography, ceremonies, and mythology of the Mississippian culture that coincided with their adoption of maize agriculture and chiefdom-level complex social organization from...
- Mound builder (people)
- History of the Tunica people
- List of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition
External links
- Natchez Nation, website of the Natchez Nation in Oklahoma.
- George Sabo III, "The Natchez Indians", Indians of Arkansas Internet Project, University of Arkansas
- The Natchez Indians, Mississippi History Now
- Charles Gayarré, History of Louisiana, 1867; available at University of Chicago.
- Natchez Wars at the Concordia Sentinel