SlOl' 

 MUONEY 



^'^^] BILOXI HABITAT AND POPULATION. 15 



bago. Mde or bde, the Dakota word for lake, is a good example of a 

 compound souud wliicli to an alien people might appear a simple labial 

 or dental. The name B'luksi or Biloxi, signifying "tritliug or worth- 

 less" in the language of the Choctaw, may have been given them by 

 that tribe on account of its resemblance to the i^roper name, in accord- 

 ance with a common habit among Indian tribes of substituting for a tribal 

 name of unknown meaning some translatable name of similar sound 

 from their own language, especially when, as in this case, the latter 

 term has a derogatory or sarcastic import. The people themselves, 

 like a hundred other tribes, can not explain the meaning of their name. 

 Dorsey thinks the word is connected with the Siouan root changa or 

 hanfja, signifying "first," "foremost," "original," "ancestral," an idea 

 embodied in many tribal names, the assumption of antiquity being 

 always flattering to national pride. Thus the Winnebago call them- 

 selves Ilo-changa-ra, "the people speaking the original language." In 

 Biloxi we tind tanek-ya signifying "the first time" (Gatschet), and 

 Taneks haya, or Biloxi people, would thus mean " the first people." 

 Dorsey suggests that the old French form of 1G99, Anani, may be from 

 anyadi, or haryadi, another word for "people" in their own language. 



The Biloxi were first noted by Iberville, who found them in 1699 

 living al)Out Biloxi bay on the coast of Mississippi, in connection with 

 two other small tribes, the Paskagula and Moctobi, the three together 

 numbering only about twenty cabins (Margry, 1). It is evident that 

 they were even then but remnants of former larger tribes, which, having 

 been reduced by war, pestilence, or other calamities, had been com- 

 pelled to consolidate and take refuge with the powerful Choctaw, who 

 claimed all the surrounding country. At a later period the Biloxi 

 removed northwestward to Pearl river (Jefferys, 1), and thence crossed 

 the Mississippi into Louisiana, probably about 1703, settling on Eed 

 river and Avoyelles lake near the present Marksville (Am. S. P., 1); 

 they were mentioned in a list of southern tribes in 17G4 (New York, 3). 

 In 1784 they and the Paskagula, who still lived near them, were 

 estimated together at thirty warriors, or probably about a hundred 

 souls (Imlay, 1). In 180G they had two villages, one at Avoyelles on 

 Red river and the other on the lake, and wandered up and down the 

 bayous on the southern side of the stream (Berquin-Duvallon, 1). In 

 1829 they were reported to number G5, living with Caddo, Paskagula, 

 and other small tribes about lied river and the frontier of Texas 

 (Schoolcraft, 1). About the same time Mexican authorities report 

 them as numbering twenty families, on the eastern bank of the Neches 

 in Texas. After this no more was heard of them until recently. 



From the fact that the Biloxi Avere known in history only as a tribe 

 subordinate to the Choctaw, it was very naturally supposed that they 

 were of the same linguistic connection, more especially as most of the 

 region of the gulf states was held by tribes of Muskhogean stock. 

 Sibley, in 1805, stated that they spoke the general trade language 



