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121-668: The Natchez revolt , or the Natchez massacre , was an attack by the Natchez Native American people on French colonists near present-day Natchez, Mississippi , on November 28, 1729. The Natchez and French had lived alongside each other in the Louisiana colony for more than a decade prior to the incident, mostly conducting peaceful trade and occasionally intermarrying. After a period of deteriorating relations and warring, Natchez leaders were provoked to revolt when

242-697: A 1713 raiding party of Chickasaw, Natchez, and Yazoo raiders attacked the Chaouachas , an Indian tribe living near the mouth of the Mississippi River. The grand chief of the Chaouachas was killed; his wife and ten others were carried off to Carolina where they were sold into slavery. Although Carolinian merchants had been operating in the American Southeast for decades, French merchants rapidly established economic networks throughout

363-568: A Choctaw attack, giving the Natchez time to regroup in their forts. In June 1731, a group of enslaved Bambara , inspired by the Natchez revolt, attempted to organize a slave uprising , but French authorities disputed the Samba rebellion before they could act. More slaves fought for the French, however, as did some free people of color ( gens de couleur libres ). Because of the contributions of

484-405: 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. In August 1726, Étienne Perier arrived as the new governor of Louisiana with orders to further develop

605-404: A French historian who wrote that Chépart's demand marked the first time that a French colonial leader had simply claimed Natchez land as his own, without prior negotiation. When the Natchez began to protest the seizure of their land for the plantation, Chépart said he would burn down the temple that contained their ancestors' graves. In response to this threat, the Natchez seemed to promise to cede

726-569: A few in the modern Choctaw Nation on their respective reservations in Oklahoma; nearly half of the state. There are significant numbers of Natchez citizens within the federally recognized tribe of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation; approximately 12,000. The Natchez were constituent members of the historic Creek Confederacy and signatories on the 1790 Treaty of New York , 1796 Treaty of Colerain , and 1814 Treaty of Fort Jackson . During this time,

847-416: A handful of traders and missionaries to hundreds of settlers (some 400 French colonists and 200 enslaved Africans ). They cultivated several large tobacco plantations , and maintained a military post at Fort Rosalie. French colonists often intermarried with Natchez women. At first the Natchez welcomed the French settlers and assigned them land grants, although historians have noted it was unlikely they had

968-484: A house on the bluff, guarded by several warriors, from where they could see the events. According to Dumont de Montigny's account of the attack, women seen defending their husbands from the violence, or trying to avenge them, were taken captive or killed. One woman's unborn baby was reportedly torn from her before she herself was killed. A year after the event, the tally of dead was put at 138 men, 35 women, and 56 children, or approximately 230 overall. Some scholars argue that

1089-562: 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

1210-525: A massacre of the Chaouacha people – who had played no role in the revolt – and wiped out their entire village. The French and their Choctaw allies then retaliated against the Natchez villages, capturing hundreds of Natchez and selling them into slavery, although many managed to escape to the north and take refuge among the Chickasaw people . The Natchez waged low-intensity warfare against the French over

1331-527: A meeting with the Choctaw planned for the first two days of December in New Orleans, contending that it was to be the occasion for an attack. Perier in this way defended his actions as governor by insinuating that the results of the massacre could have been worse if not for his prompt action. However, historians Gordon Sayre and Arnaud Balvay have pointed out that Jean-Baptiste Delaye, a militia commander in

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1452-632: A military road westward toward Chickasaw villages. After waiting for months in the winter of 1739–40, the French never mounted an attack and retreated back to New Orleans. After having suffered the attacks against the Chickasaw, the remaining Natchez moved on to live among the Cherokee and Creek people. By that time the Natchez, reduced to scattered refugees, had ceased to exist as a political entity. The Natchez revolt figured as an event of monumental significance in French historiography and literature of

1573-583: 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 clans 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

1694-548: A powerful chiefdom located on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River. Native sources called it " Quigualtam ," after the paramount chief's name. Various scholars have debated if this chiefdom was the Emerald Phase (1500–1680) of the Natchez chiefdom which was in its ascendancy at the time. The encounter was brief and violent; the natives attacked and chased the Spanish with their canoes. No further European contact with

1815-472: 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

1936-500: A stinkard — a member of the lowest caste in the tribe's hierarchy. The Natchez kept two Frenchmen alive, a carter named Mayeux who was made to carry all the goods of the French to the Great Village, and a tailor named Le Beau who was employed by the Natchez to refit the colonists' clothing to new owners. They set fire to the fort, the store, and all the homesteads, burning them to the ground. Just as Governor Bienville had done with

2057-474: A strike on the French at Fort Rosalie, borrowing firearms from some French colonists with promises to go hunting and to share the game with the guns' owners. Some French men and women overheard the Natchez planning such an attack. According to Le Page du Pratz, it was the Natchez female chief Tattooed Arm who attempted to alert the French of an upcoming attack led by her rivals at White Apple. When colonists told Chépart, he disregarded them and placed some in irons on

2178-702: Is based on a relatively small number of French colonists who recorded information about Natchez social life between about 1700 and 1730. Fragmentary and ambiguous, the French accounts are the only historic accounts 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

2299-561: Is generally considered a language isolate . As originally proposed by John Swanton in the early 20th century, some scholars believe that it may be related to the Muskogean languages . Its two last fluent speakers, Watt Sam and Nancy Raven , died in 1944 and 1957 respectively. In the 21st century, the Natchez nation is working to revive it as a spoken language among its people. The Natchez are noted for having an unusual social system of noble classes and exogamous marriage. Members of

2420-416: 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. Paramount chief Too Many Requests If you report this error to

2541-673: The Cherokee . The 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 small 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

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2662-545: The Grand Village , was led by the paramount chief Great Sun (Natchez: ʔuwahʃiːɫ liːkip ) and the war chief Tattooed Serpent ( Serpent Piqué in the French sources, Natchez Obalalkabiche ), both of whom were interested in pursuing an alliance with the French. The first conflict between the French and the Natchez took place in 1716, when the governor of Louisiana , Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac , passed through Natchez territory and neglected to renew

2783-661: The Mississippi River . The Chickasaw tribe, who lived north of the Natchez, were frequently visited by Carolinian traders, thus giving them access to a source of firearms and alcohol. One of the most lucrative trades with Carolinian merchants involved trading in Indian slaves . For decades, the Chickasaw conducted slave raids over a wide region in the American Southeast, often being joined by allied Natchez and Yazoo warriors. These raiding parties moved over great distances to capture slaves from hostile tribes. In one instance,

2904-745: The Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma and Sac & Fox Nation . Small Natchez communities and settlements may be found in and throughout the Southeast and as far north as North Carolina. There are three state-recognized Natchez communities in South Carolina , each of which have independent governments: the Eastern Band Natchez, formerly Natchez-PeeDee; the Edisto Natchez-Kusso (Four Holes Indian Organization); and

3025-611: The Spanish Empire or other newcomers from across the ocean. The Natchez are also noted for having had an unusual social system of nobility classes and exogamous marriage practices. It was a strongly matrilineal kinship society, with descent reckoned along female lines. The paramount chief named the Great Sun was always the son of the Female Sun, whose daughter would be the mother of the next Great Sun. This ensured that

3146-714: The bayous along the Black River. A subsequent expedition was led by Perier in January 1731 to dislodge the Natchez, capturing many of the Natchez and their leaders, including Saint Cosme, who was the new Great Sun, and his mother, the Female Sun Tattooed Arm. At the time, the Natchez had regrouped to the west, settling in the Ouachita River drainage basin and establishing a fort near present-day Sicily Island, Louisiana . On January 21, Perier with

3267-570: The indigenous Plaquemine culture , part of the larger, prehistoric Mississippian culture , which extended throughout the lower Mississippi Valley and its tributaries. Its largest center was at Cahokia in present-day Illinois near the confluence of the Illinois, Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Its peoples are noted for their hierarchical communities, building complex earthworks and platform mound architecture, and intensively cultivating maize . Archaeological evidence indicates that people of

3388-504: 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, Tattooed Serpent , both hereditary positions. 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

3509-643: The 1796 Treaty of Colerain . They remain a constituent tribe of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The attack on Fort Rosalie destroyed some of the Louisiana colony's most productive farms and endangered shipments of food and trade goods on the Mississippi River . As a result, the French state returned control of Louisiana from the Company of the Indies to the crown in 1731, as the company had been having trouble running

3630-412: The 18th and 19th centuries. In France, the massacre and its aftermath was described in numerous historical works and inspired several works of fiction. Eighteenth-century historians generally attributed the Natchez uprising to oppression by Commandant Chépart. In the French sources, one important discussion has centered on the question of whether the Natchez planned a simultaneous attack on the French with

3751-543: 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,

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3872-482: 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

3993-458: 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 1730 a group of African slaves fought off

4114-428: The Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Yazoo to join in the attack on the French. In his 2008 book on the Natchez revolt, Arnaud Balvay wrote that more likely than not, the conspiracy claim was false because of incoherence in primary sources. In contrast to the French tradition, the Natchez and their conflicts with the French have been mostly forgotten in contemporary American historiography. Historian Gordon Sayre attributes this to

4235-535: The Company of the Indies had given up control of the colony to Louis XV because it had been costly and difficult to manage even before the rebellion. The French continued to press for the destruction of the Natchez who now lived among the Chickasaw, traditional allies of the British — this sparked the Chickasaw Wars . The Chickasaw at first agreed to drive out the Natchez from among them, but they did not keep good on

4356-535: The French against the Natchez, the Choctaw objected to Perier's attack on the Chaouacha and encouraged other small tribes in the region to relocate away from the French to lands under Choctaw protection. More serious retaliation against the Natchez began late in December 1729 and January 1730, with expeditions led by Jean-Paul Le Sueur and Henri de Louboëy. The two commanders besieged the Natchez in forts built near

4477-399: The French colonial commandant, Sieur de Chépart, demanded land from a Natchez village for his own plantation near Fort Rosalie . The Natchez plotted their attack over several days and managed to conceal their plans from most of the French; colonists who overheard and warned Chépart of an attack were considered untruthful and were punished. In a coordinated attack on the fort and the homesteads,

4598-645: The French demands. 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 led by Indian chief the Great Sun, attacked and destroyed the entire French settlement at Fort Rosalie, killing between 229 and 285 colonists and taking about 450 women and children captive. After

4719-491: 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

4840-453: The French retaliations following the massacre, wrote in a 1730 unpublished narrative that Perier's claims were groundless, and that the Tioux, Yazoo, and other nations were not complicit and had no foreknowledge of the attack. Another document in French, of anonymous authorship, asserted that the Natchez revolt was a British plan to destroy a new French tobacco business in Louisiana. To describe

4961-472: 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

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5082-419: The French, Tattooed Serpent died in 1725, another blow to the relations between the Natchez and the colonists. In August 1726, the arrival of the new governor, Étienne Perier , sparked new tensions. Perier broke with Bienville's policy of diplomatic engagement with neighboring tribes, including the Natchez, and refused to recognize Native American ownership of their traditional lands. To oversee Fort Rosalie and

5203-441: The Grand Village of the Natchez and including the villages of Flour and Tioux , openly supported the French. Others, including White Apple , Jenzenaque , and Grigra , maintained their distance from the French and entertained the possibility of seeking alliances elsewhere. 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

5324-640: The Great Sun died in 1728 and was succeeded by his inexperienced nephew, the pro-British villages became more powerful than the pro-French villages centered at Natchez. In 1728, Chépart, the commandant of Fort Rosalie, was brought to New Orleans and put on trial before the Superior Council for abuse of power. Chépart was saved from punishment, according to Horatio Bardwell Cushman , by "the interference of influential friends," and Governor Perier pardoned Chépart, restoring him to his command. Chépart returned to Fort Rosalie and continued to oppress and abuse

5445-563: The Indians. Looking to further his and Perier's business ambitions, Chépart told the Natchez in spring 1729 that he wished to seize land for a plantation in the center of White Apple, where the Natchez had a temple of their people's graves, planting a missionary cross on the land to indicate he was acting on Perier's orders. By this point, most of the colonists disapproved of Chépart's actions, including Jean-François-Benjamin Dumont de Montigny ,

5566-602: The Muskogean Chickasaw and Creek , and the Iroquoian -speaking Cherokee . Today, most Natchez families and communities are found in Oklahoma , where Natchez members are enrolled in the federally recognized Cherokee and Muscogee (Creek) nations in Oklahoma. Two Natchez communities are recognized by the state of South Carolina . The historic Natchez were preceded in this area by what archaeologists call

5687-503: The Natchez Massacre as the defining moment in the history of the Louisiana colony, a position consistent with the views of other 18th-century historians, such as Le Page du Pratz and Dumont de Montigny. The 19th-century Louisiana historian Charles Gayarré also embellished the story of a conspiracy behind the Natchez revolt, composing in his book a lengthy speech by the Great Sun in which the leader exhorted his warriors to invite

5808-508: 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 maintained their traditional social system by adapting it to new conditions. They assimilated foreigners as commoners and made

5929-429: The Natchez alike. Perier and Chépart entered a partnership to develop a large plantation on Natchez land. In November 1729, Chépart announced the complete removal of the Natchez from their land in the near future and ordered them to vacate the village of White Apple so that he could use its land for a new tobacco plantation . This turned out to be the final affront to the Natchez, and they were unwilling to yield to

6050-437: The Natchez and French were settled through negotiations between Louisiana governor Bienville and Natchez war chief Tattooed Serpent. In 1723, Bienville was informed that some Natchez had harassed villagers, and he razed the Natchez village of White Apple and enslaved several villagers, only to discover that the alleged harassment had been faked by the colonists to frame the Natchez. One of the later skirmishes in 1724 consisted of

6171-541: 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,

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6292-436: The Natchez and the French, the village of White Apple was usually the main source of tensions, as in the Natchez revolt. The French colonial authorities regularly described the Natchez as being 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

6413-469: The Natchez attack on Fort Rosalie, Perier decided that the complete destruction of the Natchez people was required to ensure the prosperity and safety of the colony. He forbade the entry of a delegation of Choctaw people into the city, for fear that they were using the pretext of a friendly visit to launch an attack, but he secured the neutrality with the Choctaws and then he engaged in the prosecution of

6534-414: The Natchez by surprise, the Natchez negotiated a peace treaty and freed French captives, but the French planned an attack on the Natchez fort the following day. The Natchez then brought gifts to Louboëy, but left their fort that night and escaped across the Mississippi River, taking enslaved Africans with them. The next day, Louboëy and his men burned down the abandoned Grand Village fort as the Natchez hid in

6655-804: The Natchez enjoyed signatory status and membership within the Creek Confederacy and established their town near the Coosa River in Talladega County, Alabama . Today the primary settlements of the Natchez Nation ( Nvce or Nahchee ), a treaty tribe, are within the southern halves of the Muscogee and Cherokee Nations in Oklahoma. The nation developed a constitution in 2003, which confirms its long-held traditions of self-government. Approximately 197,000 Natchez are members of

6776-546: The Natchez in 1700, he was given a three-day-long peace ceremony, which involved the smoking of a ceremonial pipe and a 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

6897-554: The Natchez killed almost all of the Frenchmen, while sparing most of the women and enslaved Africans. Approximately 230 colonists were killed overall, and the fort and homes were burned to the ground. When the French in New Orleans , the colonial capital, heard the news of the massacre, they feared a general Indian uprising and were concerned that the Natchez might have conspired with other tribes. They first responded by ordering

7018-476: The Natchez managed to regroup and make one last attack on the French at Fort St. Jean Baptiste in October 1731. With reinforcements from Spain and Native American allies, the French under the fort's commander Louis Juchereau de St. Denis mounted a counter attack and defeated the Natchez. The Natchez revolt expanded into a larger regional conflict with many repercussions. The Yazoo and Koroa Indians allied with

7139-436: 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 . The earliest European account of the Natchez may be from the journals of the Spanish expedition of Hernando de Soto . In 1542 de Soto's expedition encountered

7260-484: The Natchez received the explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville in peace and allowed a French missionary to settle among them. At this time, the Natchez were at war with the Chickasaw people, who had received guns from their British allies, and the Natchez expected to benefit similarly from their relationship with the French. Nonetheless, the British presence in the territory led the Natchez to split into pro-British and pro-French factions. The central village, called Natchez or

7381-466: The Natchez settlement, Perier appointed the Sieur de Chépart, who was described by as "rapacious, haughty, and tyrannical," abusing soldiers, settlers, and the Natchez alike. Perier and Chépart entered a partnership to develop a large plantation on Natchez land. According to archaeologist Karl Lorenz, who excavated several Natchez settlements, another factor that complicated relations between the Natchez and

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7502-428: The Natchez settlement. Perier broke with Bienville's policy of diplomatic engagement with the Natchez and other tribes, and refused to recognize Native American ownership of their traditional lands. To oversee Fort Rosalie and the Natchez settlement, Perier appointed the Sieur de Chépart (also known as Etcheparre and Chopart), who was described by as "rapacious, haughty, and tyrannical", abusing soldiers, settlers, and

7623-456: The Natchez spared the enslaved Africans due to a general sense of affinity between the Natchez and the Africans; some slaves even joined the Natchez, while others took the chance to escape to freedom. A group of Yazoo people who were accompanying Commandant du Codère remained neutral during the conflict but were inspired by the Natchez revolt. When they returned to Fort St. Pierre, they destroyed

7744-423: The Natchez was divided into two major categories, commoners and nobility. The nobility was further divided into three classes (or castes ) 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 were born into

7865-539: The Natchez) and Perier for the massacre at Fort Rosalie and the subsequent Natchez war. To answer for his actions and the instability in the colony, Louis XV , the French king, ordered Perier back to France in 1732. Perier's replacement was his predecessor, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, whom the French state thought to be more experienced at dealing with the Native Americans of the region. A year earlier,

7986-566: The PeeDee Indian Tribe of South Carolina. 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 Jane Sumpka (Primary Clan Mother), William Harjo LoneFight, Robert M. Riviera (Principal War Chief, 1997), Watt Sam , Archie Sam, White Tobacco Sam, Creek Sam and others. The Natchez language

8107-734: 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

8228-513: 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

8349-440: The alliance by smoking the peace calumet . The Natchez reacted to this slight by killing four French traders. Cadillac sent his lieutenant Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville to punish the Natchez. He deceived the Natchez leaders by inviting them to attend a parley, where they were ambushed and captured; he then forced the Natchez to exchange their leaders for the culprits who had attacked the French. A number of random Natchez from

8470-417: The attack on Fort Rosalie, Perier decided that the complete destruction of the Natchez was required to ensure the prosperity and safety of the French colony. He secured the neutrality of the Choctaw and engaged in the prosecution of the war of extermination against the Natchez. The Natchez seized and occupied Fort Rosalie. Retaliation by the French and allied Choctaw forced the Natchez to evacuate, leaving

8591-560: The base of most Louisiana Creoles of color , they chiefly spoke French and practiced Catholicism, while sometimes retaining ties to voodou and African practices. After the war of 1729–1731, Natchez society was in flux and the people scattered. Most survivors eventually settled among the Creek (Muscogee), Chickasaw , or with British colonists in the Thirteen Colonies . Most of the latter two Natchez groups ended up integrating with

8712-418: The chiefdom stayed under the control of the single Sun lineage. Ethnologists have not reached consensus on how the Natchez social system originally functioned, and the topic is somewhat controversial . In 1731, after several wars with the French , the Natchez were defeated. Most of the captured survivors were shipped to Saint-Domingue and sold by into slavery ; others took refuge with other tribes, such as

8833-456: The colonists was the fact that the French did not understand the Natchez's political structure. The French assumed that the Great Sun, the chief of the Grand Village, held sway over all other Natchez villages. In truth, each village was semi-autonomous and the Great Sun's power only extended to the villages of Flour and Tioux (with which the Grand Village was allied) and not to the three pro-British villages of White Apple, Jenzenaque and Grigra. When

8954-419: The colony. Louisiana governor Étienne Perier was held responsible for the massacre and its aftermath, and he was recalled to France in 1732. While descending the Mississippi River in 1682, Robert de La Salle became the first Frenchman to encounter the Natchez and declared them an ally. The Natchez were sedentary and lived in nine semi-autonomous villages; the French considered them the most civilized tribe of

9075-451: The conspiracy remained conjectural. François-René de Chateaubriand depicted the massacre in his 1827 epic Les Natchez , incorporating his earlier best-selling novellas Atala and René into a longer narrative that greatly embellished the history of the French and the Natchez in Louisiana. In Chateaubriand's work, the grand conspiracy behind the massacre implausibly included native tribes from all across North America. Chateaubriand saw

9196-483: The conspiring tribes in order to count down the number of days remaining until the strike. The undetected destruction of a couple of the sticks in the Natchez Grand Village derailed the count, although the reason for the lost sticks differed in each historian's account. The other nations called off their participation in the plot because of the Natchez' premature attack, and therefore the very existence of

9317-498: The death of a chief existed among other Native Americans living along the lower Mississippi River, such as the Taensa . During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, French colonists in the American Southeast initiated a power struggle with those living in the colony of Carolina . Traders from Carolina had established a large trading network among the indigenous peoples of the American Southeast, and by 1700 it stretched west as far as

9438-403: The defeat, the Natchez managed to regroup and make one last attack on the French at Fort St. Jean Baptiste in October 1731. With reinforcements from Spain and Native American allies, the French under the fort's commander Louis Juchereau de St. Denis mounted a counter attack and defeated the Natchez. Many Louisiana colonists — Dumont de Montigny in particular — blamed Chépart (who was killed by

9559-431: The details of the attack and its background, Dumont de Montigny and Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz , the leading 18th-century historians of Louisiana, drew on information collected from French women taken captive during the massacre. They explained that the Natchez had conspired with other nations but had attacked a few days earlier than the date agreed upon and that they had used a system of bundles of sticks held by each of

9680-402: 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 if the people were 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

9801-497: The element of surprise for the French as the Natchez had already scattered. At first, the Natchez were well prepared for French retaliatory strikes, having stocked up several cannons as well as the firearms that they had used in the massacre two months earlier. The Natchez captured by the Choctaw and Tunica allies of the French were given over to the governor and sold into slavery, and some were publicly tortured to death in New Orleans. In late February 1730, with Louboëy seeking to catch

9922-463: The events were "simply too horrific" to recount. The Natchez had prepared by seizing the galley of the Company of the Indies anchored on the river so that no Frenchmen could board it and attempt to escape. They had also stationed warriors on the other side of the river to intercept those who might flee in that direction. The commandant at the Yazoo trading post of Fort St. Pierre , Monsieur du Codère,

10043-493: The executed Indians in 1717 and 1723, the Natchez beheaded the dead Frenchmen and brought the severed heads for the Great Sun to view. News of the Fort Rosalie attack reached New Orleans in early December, and the colonists there began to panic. The city depended upon grain and other supplies from the Illinois settlement, and shipments up and down the Mississippi River would be threatened by the loss of Fort Rosalie. After

10164-502: The fact that both the French and the Natchez were defeated in colonial wars before the birth of the United States. Natchez people The Natchez are noted for being the only Mississippian culture with complex chiefdom characteristics to have survived long into the period of European colonization . Other Mississippian societies in the southeast had generally experienced important transformations shortly after contact with

10285-875: The federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians . Some Cherokee-Natchez were permitted to remain in South Carolina as settlers along with the Kusso, Eastern Band Natchez and the PeeDee. (The state of South Carolina recognized the Natchez-Kusso tribe, Eastern Band Natchez and the PeeDee Tribe.) Most of the balance of Natchez citizens are within the Cherokee Nation (est. 185,000), the Mvskoke Nation, Seminole Nation, Chickasaw Nation, with

10406-539: The following years, but retaliatory expeditions against Natchez refugees among the Chickasaw in 1730 and 1731 forced them to move on and live as refugees among the Creek and Cherokee tribes. By 1741, the Natchez had established a town in the northern parts of the Upper Creek Nation. There, with permission from the Abihka , they reconstituted their town and were signatories in the 1790 Treaty of New York and

10527-494: The fort in ruins. In January 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, killing 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. The French and Natchez continued to attack each other until 1731. On January 21, 1731, Perier with

10648-534: The fort, killing the Jesuit priest and 17 French soldiers. The Natchez lost only about 12 warriors during the attack. Eight warriors died attacking the homestead of the La Loire des Ursins family, where the men had been able to prepare a defense against the intruding Natchez. Chépart himself was taken captive by the Natchez, who were at first unsure what to do with him, but finally decided that he should be killed by

10769-524: The free men of color during the Natchez War, the French allowed them to join Louisiana's militias. This gave them important connections into the colonial society, contributing to their achieving an independent social status between the French colonists and slaves. In the 19th century, the free people of color established a relatively large class, especially in New Orleans. Many worked as highly skilled artisans; others became educated; they established businesses and acquired property. Of French and African ancestry,

10890-421: 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 academic study. Scholars debate how the system functioned before the 1730 diaspora and the topic has generated controversy. Primary source documentation on the pre-1730 Natchez kinship and descent system

11011-417: 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 after 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

11132-403: The indigenous people in this area occurred for more than 140 years, but they suffered from epidemics of infectious disease carried indirectly by other Native Americans from European traders. These and other intrusions had severely reduced the native populations. By the historic period local power had shifted to the Grand Village of the Natchez . The French explored the lower Mississippi River in

11253-403: The land, wrote Dumont de Montigny, but only if they were given until after the harvest to relocate their temple and graves. Chépart agreed to give them the time in exchange for pelts, oil, poultry, and grain — a request the Natchez promised to fulfill later. After Chépart announced to the Natchez the complete removal of the tribe from their land in the near future, the Natchez began to prepare for

11374-402: 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 killing 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

11495-439: 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

11616-409: The murder of a Natchez chief's son by a colonist, to which the Natchez responded by killing a Frenchman named Guenot. Bienville then sent French soldiers from New Orleans to attack the Natchez at their fields and settlements, and the Natchez surrendered. Their plea for peace was met following the execution of one of their chiefs by the French. Chronicler Le Page du Pratz, who lived among the Natchez and

11737-553: 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 volunteer work or donations to support the nation and its programs. Natchez families are also found as members among the balance of the Five Civilized Tribes . They are represented as corporations within

11858-414: The night before the massacre, when he was drunk. On the morning of November 28, 1729, the Natchez came to Chépart with corn, poultry, and deerskins, also carrying with them a calumet — well known as a peace symbol. The commandant, still somewhat intoxicated from drinking the night before, was certain that the Natchez had no violent intentions, and he challenged those who had warned of an attack to prove that

11979-492: The northeast, along upper St. Catherine's Creek and Fairchild's Creek, called White Apple (or White Earth), Grigra , and Jenzenaque (or Hickories). Historian James Barnett, Jr. described this dispersed leadership structure as developing in the post-epidemic years. It enabled the Natchez to maintain friendly diplomatic relations with European settlers of all nations, but eventually resulted in deeper internal divisions in Natchez society. The Natchez chiefs were called Suns, and

12100-454: The other major tribes of the region. French colonial governor Étienne Perier, in a report to superiors in France written one week after the revolt, claimed that many of the Indian nations in the lower Mississippi Valley had plotted with the Natchez to attack the French on the same day and that even the Choctaw, who had been close allies of the French, were part of the plot. Perier then cancelled

12221-433: The pro-British villages were executed. This caused French–Natchez relations to deteriorate further. As part of the terms of the peace accord following this First Natchez War, the Natchez promised to supply labor and materials for the construction of a fort for the French. By 1717, French colonists had established Fort Rosalie and a trading post in what is now Natchez, Mississippi , seeking to protect their trade monopoly in

12342-510: The promise. In the Chickasaw Campaign of 1736 , the French, under Governor Bienville, attacked the Chickasaw villages of Apeony and Ackia, and then retreated, suffering significant casualties, but inflicting few. In the Chickasaw Campaign of 1739 , Bienville summoned more than 1,000 troops to be sent over from France. Bienville's army ascended the Mississippi River to the site of present-day Memphis, Tennessee , and attempted to build

12463-555: The region from British incursions. The French also granted numerous concessions for large tobacco plantations, as well as smaller farms, on land acquired from the Natchez. Relations between Natchez and colonists were generally friendly—some Frenchmen even married and had children with Natchez women—but there were tensions. There were reports of colonists abusing Natchez, forcing them to provide labor or goods, and as more colonists arrived, their concessions gradually encroached on Natchez lands. From 1722 to 1724, brief armed conflicts between

12584-538: The region with a few years of their arrival. Most Indian tribes in the region sought to maintain trade links with as many Europeans as possible, encouraging competition and price reductions. By the 1710s, the Natchez had become solidly integrated with the French, trading furs for firearms, blankets, alcohol and other supplies. Despite this, the Natchez kept their markets open for all European merchants. The increasing pace of European colonization caused internal tensions to worsen within Natchez society. Several villages, led by

12705-535: The region. By 1700 the Natchez' numbers had been reduced to about 3,500 by the diseases that ravaged indigenous populations in the wake of contact with Europeans, and by 1720 further epidemics had halved that population. Their society was strictly divided into a noble class called "the Suns" ( Natchez : ʔuwahʃiːɫ ) and a commoner class called in French "the Stinkards" (Natchez: miʃmiʃkipih ). Between 1699 and 1702,

12826-515: The rest of the Natchez and their chiefs escaped in the night. The next morning, only two sick men and one woman were found in the fort. Perier burned the fort and on the 28th, the French began their march back to New Orleans. As soon as he reached New Orleans, Perier sent the chiefs Great Sun, the Little Sun, the 45 other male prisoners and 450 women and children to Saint-Domingue , where they were sold as slaves. Although significantly weakened by

12947-469: The rest of the Natchez and their chiefs escaped in the night. The next morning, only two sick men and one woman were found in the fort. Perier burned the fort and on the 28th, the French began their withdrawal. Perier sold the chiefs Great Sun, the Little Sun, the 45 other male prisoners and the 450 women and children into slavery in Saint-Domingue . Although significantly weakened by the defeat,

13068-456: The rumors were accurate. While Chépart was accepting the goods, the Natchez started firing, giving the signal for a coordinated attack on Fort Rosalie and on the outlying farms and concessions in the area now covered by the city of Natchez. Chépart ran to call his soldiers to arms, but they had already been killed. The details of the attack are mostly unknown, as chroniclers such as Le Page du Pratz, who talked with several eyewitnesses, stated that

13189-693: The same concept of land ownership as 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,

13310-425: The site of the Grand Village of the Natchez, a mile or so east of Fort Rosalie, which had been rebuilt. They killed about 80 men and captured 18 women, and released some French women who had been captured during the massacre of Fort Rosalie. The French relied on allied support from Tunica and Choctaw warriors. The Choctaw attacked the Natchez without the French, killing 100 and capturing women and children. This ruined

13431-464: 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 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

13552-463: The social class one step below their fathers, while female children of male nobles inherited their mothers' commoner status in matrilineal descent. 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

13673-513: 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 had between three and five platform mounds. By 1700,

13794-409: The status of their mothers. However, the children of male Suns and Nobles did not take on commoner status from their mothers, as noble exogamy and matrilineal descent would appear to dictate, but rather were ranked 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

13915-638: The troops of the Colony and two battalions of marines commanded by his brother Antoine-Alexis Perier de Salvert , attacked the stronghold of the Natchez. During the siege of the fort, the French troops used iron grenades , both fired from mortars and thrown by hand. On January 24, the Natchez made propositions of peace and some chiefs met Perier who proposed them to enter into a cabin which seemed to be deserted, but as soon as they crossed its threshold, they were made prisoners. On January 25, 45 men, and 450 women and children surrendered and were taken as prisoners, but

14036-469: The troops of the colony and two battalions of marines commanded by his brother, Perier de Salvert , attacked the stronghold of the Natchez at White Apple. On the 24th, the Natchez made propositions of peace and some chiefs met Perier who proposed they enter a cabin that seemed to be deserted, but as soon as they crossed its threshold, they were made prisoners by Perier. On January 25, 45 men, and 450 women and children surrendered and were taken as prisoners, but

14157-484: 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 developed from 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

14278-473: The war of extermination against the Natchez. Perier ordered slaves and French troops to march downstream and massacre a small village of Chaouacha people who had played no part in the uprising in Natchez. His superiors in Paris reprimanded the leader for this act, which may have been intended to prevent any alliance between slaves and Native Americans against the French colonists. Despite continuing to ally with

14399-545: Was a close friend of Tattooed Serpent, records that he once asked his friend why the Natchez were resentful towards the French. Tattooed Serpent answered that the French seemed to have "two hearts, a good one today, and tomorrow a bad one", and proceeded to tell how Natchez life had been better before the French arrived. He finished by saying, "Before the arrival of the French we lived like men who can be satisfied with what they have, whereas today we live like slaves, who are not suffered to do as they please." The most faithful ally of

14520-676: 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 and kidnapped as a young girl. In later years Dragging Canoe's Cherokee father, Attacullaculla , lived in Natchey Town. Most of the Natchez living with the Cherokee accompanied them in the 1830s on the forced removal , the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). A few remained in North Carolina. Their descendants are part of

14641-427: Was visiting Fort Rosalie with a Jesuit priest when they heard gunshots. They turned around to return to their ship, but warriors caught up with them, killing and scalping them. The Natchez killed almost all of the 150 Frenchmen at Fort Rosalie, and only about 20 managed to escape, some fleeing to New Orleans. Most of the dead were unarmed. Women, children, and enslaved Africans were mostly spared; many were locked inside

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