198 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



they were in the habit of trading, and there was a village on the 

 Ouachita as late as 1687. In 1699 a French missionary, Father 

 Davion, established himself among them, abandoned them in 1702 

 after one of his confreres had been killed by the Koroa, a related 

 tribe, but returned about 1705. In 1706, fearing that they were 

 in imminent danger of attack by the Chickasaw and other Indians 

 in the English interest, the Tunica abandoned their villages and 

 moved to the Houma town opposite the mouth of Red River. They 

 were well received, but shortly afterward they rose upon their hosts, 

 killed more than half of them, and drove the rest away. In 1719 or 

 1720, Davion left his charges in despair at the meager results 

 achieved, but his influence was sufficient to retain them definitely in 

 the French interest during the Natchez uprising and the disturbances 

 which followed. Some time between 1784 and 1803 they abandoned 

 their homes on the Mississippi River and moved up the Red to 

 Marksville Prairie, where they settled upon a strip of land they 

 claim to have bought from the Avoyel, the earlier occupants of 

 that section. At any rate it is a piece of land recognized as the 

 Indian reserve, and their mixed-blood descendants have continued 

 there down to the present day. A part of them went farther west 

 and joined the Atakapa and still another body moved to the Chicka- 

 saw Nation in Oklahoma, where they established themselves along 

 Red River, but these are now entirely lost sight of. 



Plate 48 is one of the valuable De Batz series recovered by Bush- 

 nell and gives a sketch of the Tunica chief and the widow and child 

 of his predecessor. Plate 49 is taken from photographs which I 

 made of William Ely Johnson, Gatschet's Tunica informant, and 

 Volcine Chiki, who was regarded as chief of the Tunica in 1910. 

 Plate 50 is from a print made by Miss Caroline Dormon, of Saline, La., 

 of Sam Young, or Sesostrie Yauchicant, last speaker of the Tunica 

 language. 



Tunica population. — In 1699 the missionary De Montigny esti- 

 mated that the Tunica, Yazoo, and Ofo together numbered 2,000 souls, 

 and La Source stated that they occupied about 260 cabins, but Gravier, 

 in 1700, cuts this last to 50-60, while Iberville, writing in 1702, allows 

 300 families to these tribes, inclusion of the Ofo being somewhat un- 

 certain. In 1719, after the Tunica had removed from the Yazoo, 

 La Harpe estimated a total population of 460, and in 1758 Governor 

 Kerlerec supposed that they had about 60 warriors. In 1803 Jefferson 

 sets down 50-60 as the probable total population, and Sibley (1805) 

 agrees quite closely, giving 25 warriors. Morse, in 1822, estimated 

 that there were 30 Tunica altogether; and there may be about as 

 many at the present time, racially very much mixed, but only one 

 speaker of the Tunica language. The census of 1910 returned 



