36 



NATCHEZ 



Lb. a. b. 



The Natchez engaged in three wans 

 with the Freneh, in 1716, 1722, and 1729. 

 The hist, whieh j^roved fatal to their 

 nation, was caused by the attenij^t of tlie 

 French governor, Chopart, to occupy 

 the site of tiieir principal village as a 

 plantation, and it opened with a general 

 massacre of the French at Fort Rosalie, 

 established in 1716. The French, in re- 

 taliation, attacked the Natchez villages 

 with a strong force of Choctaw allies, and 

 in 1730 the Natchez abandoned their vil- 

 lages, separating into three bodies. A 

 small section remained not far from their 

 former home, and a second body fled to 

 Sicily id., near Washita r., where they 

 were attacked early in 1781 by the French, 

 many of them killed, and al)out 450 cap- 

 tured and sold into slavery in Santo Do- 

 mingo. The third and most numerous 

 division was received by the Chickasaw 

 and built a village near them in n. Mis- 

 sissipjii, called by Adair, Nanne Hamgeh; 

 in 1735 these refugees numbered 180 war- 

 riors, or a total of about 700. In the year 

 last named a body of Natchez refugees 

 settled in South Carolina by permission of 

 the colonial government, but some years 

 later moved up to the Cherokee country, 

 where they still kept their distinct town 

 and language up to about the year 1800. 

 The principal body of refugees, however, 

 had settled on Tallahassee cr., an affluent 

 of Coosa r. Hawkins in 1 799 estimated 

 their gun-men at about 50. They occu- 

 pied the whole of one town called Natchez 

 andpartof Abikudshi. The Natchez were 

 thereforenot exterminated by the French, 

 as has frequently been stated, but after suf- 

 feringseverelossestheremainder scattered 

 far and wide among alien triljes. A few 

 survivors, who speak their own language, 

 still exist in Indian Ter. , living with the 

 Cherokee, and in the councils of the Creeks 

 until recently had one representative. 



Though the accounts of the Natchez 

 that have come down to us appear to be 

 highly colored, it is evident that this 

 tribe, and doubtless others on the lower 

 Mississippi, occupied a somewhat anom- 

 alous position among the Indians. They 

 seem to have been a strictly seden- 

 tary people, depending for their live- 

 lihood chiefly upon agriculture. They 

 had developed considerable skill in the 

 arts, and wove a textile fabric from 

 the inner bark of the mulberry Avhich 

 they employed for clothing. They made 

 excellent pottery and raised mounds of 

 earth upon which to erect their dwell- 

 ings and temples. They were also one 

 of the eastern tribes that practised head- 

 flattening. In the main the Natchez ap- 

 pear to have been peaceable, though like 

 other tribes they were involved in fre- 

 quent quarrels with their neigh1)ors. All 

 accounts agree in attributing to them an 



extreme form of sun worship and a liighly 

 developed ritual. IMoreover, the position 

 and function of chief among them dif- 

 ered markedly from that among other 

 tribes, as their head chief seems to have 

 had absolute power over the piroperty and 

 lives of his subjects. On his death hiw 

 wives were expected to surrender their 

 lives, and parents offered their children 

 as sacrifices. The nation was divided 

 into two exogamic classes, nobility and 

 commoners or miclimiclKjupi, the former 

 being again divided into suns, nobles 

 proper, and esteemed men. Children of 

 women of these three had the rank of their 

 mother, but children of common women 

 fell one grade below that of their father. 

 There were various ways, however, by 

 which a man could raise himself from 

 one grade to another at least as far as the 

 middle grade of nobles. While the com- 

 moners consisted partially of subject 

 tribes, the great majority ap]iear to liave 

 been as pure Natchez as the nobility. 

 In spite of great lexical divergence, there 

 is little doubt that the Natchez language 

 is a Muskhogean dialect. 



Consult Gatschet, Creek Migr. Leg.,i, 

 1884; Mooney, (1) Siouan Tribes of the 

 East, Bull. B. A. E., 1894, (2) in Am. 

 Anthrop., n. s., i, no. 3, 1899, (3) in 19th 

 Rep. B. A. E., 1900, and the authorities 

 cited below. For the archeology of the 

 old Natchez countrv, see Bull. Free Mus. 

 Univ. Pa., ii, no. 3," Jan. 1900. 



(h. W. H. J. R. S. ) 



Ani'-Na'tsi.— Mooney in 19tti Rop. B. A. E., 509, 

 1900 (Cherokee name, abbreviated Anintsl; sing. 

 A-Na'M). Chelouels.— Iberville (1699) in Margrv, 

 D6e., IV, 269, ISSO. Innatchas.— Doc. ca. 1721, 

 ibid., VI, 230, l.s,s6. Nacha.— Iberville, op. cit., 

 2.55. Nachee. — Adair, Am. Ind.s., 225, 1775. Na- 

 ches.— Tonti (U;s6) in Margrry, D(5e., ill, 556, 1878. 

 Nachez, — Scliermerhorn (1S12) in Ma.ss. Hist. 

 Soc. Coll., 2d s., II, IS, 1S14. Nachis.— Barcia, 

 En.sayo, 246, 1723. Nachvlke. — Brinton in Am. 

 Philos. Soc. Proc, Xlll, 483, 1873. Nachy.— Tonti 

 (1684) in Margrv, Dec, i, 609, 1875. Nadches.— 

 Iberville (1700), ibid., iv, 404, 1880. Nadeches.— 

 Ibid., 602. Nadezes.— Ibid., 402. Nahchee.— 

 Adair, Am. Inds., 353, 1775. Nahy.— Tonti (1684) 

 in Margry, Dec, l, 603, 1875. Naichoas. — Mc- 

 Kenney and Hall, Ind. Tribes, in, 81, 18.54 

 (possibly identical). Naktche. — Gatschet, Creek 

 Migr. Leg., I, 34, 1884. Natche.— LaSnlle (1682) in 

 Margrv, Dec, i. -558, 1875. Natchee,— S. C. Gazette 

 (1731) 'quoted by Rivers, Hist. S. Car., 38, 1856. 

 Natches.— Proces verbal (1682) in French, Hist. 

 Coll. La., 1, 47. 1846. Natchese.— Hervas, Idea dell' 

 Universe, xvii, 90, 1784. Natchets. — Bacqueville 

 de la Potherie, Hist, de I'Am., i, 239, 17.53. 

 Natchez. -Penicaut (1700) in French, Hi.st. Coll. 

 La., n. s., 1, 57, 1.8i'i9. Nattechez. — Bartram, Voy., I, 

 map, 1799. Nauchee.— Hawkins (1799), Creek 

 Country, 42, 1848. Netches.— Woodward, Rem., 79, 

 1859. Nitches. — Ibid. ,16. Noatches. — Domenech, 

 Deserts N. Am., i, 442, 1860. Notchees.— Doc of 

 1751 quoted by Gregg, Hist. Old CherawsvlO, 1867. 

 Notches.— Glen (1751) quoted by Gregg, ibid., 14. 

 Pine Indians.— Mooney in 19th Rep. B. A. E., 509, 

 1900 (given as incorrect rendering of Ani'-JVa' tsl, 

 op. cit.). Sunset Indians. —Swan (1795) in School- 

 craft, Ind. Tribes, v, 260, 1855. Techloel.— Iberville 

 (1699) in Margrv, Dec, iv, 1.55. ],S80. Telhoel.— 

 Ibid., 121. Theloel.— Ibid. ,179. Theloelles.— Ibid., 

 409. Tpelois.— Iberville (1700) in French, Hist. 

 Coll. La., n. s., 26, 1869. 



