SWANTON) INIUAN 'ntlliKS Ol' IllK l-()WKI{ M ISSISSI IM'I VA I .l-K V 47 



(here c;iii li;i\'i' Iktii :iiiy coniicct ii>ii Ix'twccii lln' ii:iiiic-- <il ;i Niilclicz 

 iuid Mil Arkiiiisiis town, iioi- is (he ic^ciiihlaiicc coiiviiiciii^ly dose. 

 Miiroiv iioU's that instead of Tlu'loiU wo slionld jx'rhaps ivad Tlu'cocl, 

 in which case Gatschot's suggestion regarding the identity of Thou- 

 cone with it becomes rathei- strong, especially in view of the fact 

 that the other name for the entire people, Natchez, is also taken fi'om 

 that of a town. linl. if this Ix' the case, it is quite certain that it 

 does not refer to the tribe of Thioux, or Tioux, a small subject gi-ouj), 

 which certainly would not give its name to the entii-e body. It is 

 more likely that the Tioux town is represented by tiie next in the 

 list, Tougoulas, which woidd then be translated 'Tioux pe()|)le " in- 

 stead of ' wood or foi-est |)eople.' Possibly Thoucoue also I'efers to 

 the Tioux. but in that case it was not the same as Thecoel. Of the 

 remaining names with one exception it is impossil)le to judge of the 

 intei'i)retations at the present time, especially since the designations 

 gi\en l)y later Avriters diU'er entirely. The exception is in the case 

 of the third name on the list, Ousagoucoulas, interpreted as ' hickory 

 people," which is evidently that referred to by M. de Richebourg in 

 his memoir on the first Natchez war" along with White-earth, and 

 the \ illage of the Grigra as " the village of the AYalnuts."' The cor- 

 rectness of Wright's interpretation in this instance seems better as- 

 sured than in most other cases, becanse the Natchez and the Choctaw 

 words for 'hickory' are very similar — aca (Natchez), u'ssak or 

 o'xsak (Choctaw). By the first French colonists of I.iOuisiana the 

 hickor)'^ was always called walnut (noyer), although sometimes 

 distinguished as the " white walnut " in contradistinction to the 

 true or "black walnut.'' Therefore de Richebourg undoubtedly 

 refers to the hickory. Outside of the Tioux village or villages which 

 seem to have been added to the Natchez nucleus in comparatively 

 late times, all authors after Penicaut speak of but five settlements, 

 of which tw^o were usually on friendh^ terms Avith the French, 

 while the other three, though not ahvays in open enmity, were uni 

 fonnly the authors of disturbances between the two peoples and 

 ultimately furnished the incentive for the last great Natchez war. 

 The two first mentioned were the Great village and Flour village^, 

 the three latter, as given by Dumont, the ^Yhite Apple, or Apple, 

 village, Jenzenaque or Jansenac, and the village of the Gris. 

 These three hostile towns are mentioned by De Richebourg under 

 the names of the village of the Walnuts (or Hickories), White- 

 earth, and the village of the Grigas." This last is evidently the same 

 as that of the Gris, and it Avas occupied by a small subject tribe called 

 Grigra. probably as Du Pratz says, " because they often pronounce 



« French, Hist. Coll. La., 248, 1851. 



