8 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 47 



The Biloxi appear to have had an unusual facility for escaping obser- 

 vation, for, although they must have been a fair-sized tribe in his day, 

 Du Pratz omits them entirely from his systematic review of Louisiana 

 tribes. The only mention he makes of them is incidentally in connec- 

 tion with the post of Biloxi, when he remarks that there "was for- 

 merly a little nation of this name."'^ From this time on, the tribe 

 appears to have lived near the Pascagoula and on good terms with the 

 French at Mobile. Their history is a blank, however, until the end of 

 French dominion and the beginning of English government in 1763. 

 This change was not at all to the liking of most of the Mobile tribes, and 

 the following year a number of them obtained permission to settle 

 across the Mississippi in Spanish territory. The Biloxi probably went 

 in this migration, but the first we hear of them is in 1784, when 

 Hutchins states that they were west of the Mississippi near the mouth 

 of Red River.^ Their settlement, however, can hardly have remained 

 long in the low country close to the Red River mouth, so that Sibley is 

 probably not far from the truth in saying that they first settled "at 

 Avoyall."'' According to another authority ther€ were two Biloxi vil- 

 lages in the present parish of Avoyelles, one just back of Marksville 

 and the other at the mouth of Avoyelles bayou. The former was prob- 

 ably the more important, and is said to have been on a half-section of 

 land adjoining that owned by the Tunica. It was granted by the Spanish 

 Government to an Indian whose name is always given as Bosra, and the 

 title was afterward confirmed by the United States.*^ Soon afterward, 

 however, the Indians either sold or abandoned this land and moved 

 higher up Red River to Ba3"ou Rapides, and thence to the mouth of 

 the Rigolet de Bon Dieu.« In 179'4-'l796 they moved once more and 

 established themselves on the south side of Bayou Boeuf below a band 

 of Choctaw who had come to Louisiana at about the same period. 

 Two years later the Pascagoula followed and settled between the 

 Biloxi and Choctaw.^ Early in the nineteenth century the Biloxi and 

 Pascagoula sold their lands to Messrs. Miller and Fulton, the sale 

 being confirmed by the United States Government May 5, 1805, s' but 

 a part of the Biloxi continued to live in the immediate neighborhood, 

 where they gradually died out or became merged with the Choctaw 

 and other Indian tribes. A still larger part, if we may trust the 

 figures given by Morse, migrated to Texas, and in 1817 were on what 

 is now called Biloxi bayou, Angelina county.^ The ultimate fate of 



o Du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, i, p. 42. 



b" About 10 miles above the Tonicas village, on the same side of (he river, is a village of Pascagoula 

 Indians of 20 warriors; and a little lower down, on the opposite side, there is a village of Biloxi 

 Indians containing 30 warriors.— Hutchins, Hist. Karr. La., p. 45. 



c Ann. of Cong., Ninth Congress, 2d sess., p. 1085. 



d Amcr. State Papers, Pub. Lands, in, p. 243. 



« Sibley in Ann. of Ninth Cong., 2d sess., p. 1085. 



/ Amer. State Papers, Pub. Lands, ii, pp. 792-796. 



(7 Ibid., p. 791. 



ft Morse, Report on Indian Affairs, 1822, p. 373. 



