Natchez people

The Natchez (/ˈnætʃəz/;[2][3] Natchez pronunciation [naːʃt͡seh][4]) are a Native

American people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area in the Lower
Mississippi Valley, near the present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi in the United
States. They spoke a language with no known close relatives, although it may be
very distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek Confederacy.[5]

Natchez

Natchez Nation of Oklahoma Flag

Total population

est. 6,000[1]

Regions with significant populations

Mississippi - Natchez Bluffs, (historical),  Louisiana,  Oklahoma,  South Carolina

Languages

English, French, Natchez

Religion

Christianity, Native

Related ethnic groups

Muscogee, Cherokee
 Pre-contact distribution of the Natchez
people

The Natchez are noted for being the only Mississippian culture with complex
chiefdom characteristics to have survived long into the period after the European
colonization of America began. Others had generally declined a century or two
before European encounter. The Natchez are also noted for having had an unusual
social system of nobility classes and exogamous marriage practices. It was a
strongly matrilineal kinship society, with descent reckoned along female lines. The
paramount chief named the Great Sun was always the son of the Female Sun,
whose daughter would be the mother of the next Great Sun. This ensured that the
chiefdom stayed under the control of the single Sun lineage. Ethnologists have not
reached consensus on how the Natchez social system originally functioned, and the
topic is somewhat controversial.

Around 1730, after several wars with the French, the Natchez were defeated and
dispersed. Most survivors were sold by the French into slavery in the West Indies;
others took refuge with other tribes, such as the Muskogean Chickasaw and Creek,
and the Iroquoian-speaking Cherokee. Today, most Natchez families and
communities are found in Oklahoma, where Natchez members are enrolled in the
federally recognized Cherokee and Muscogee (Creek) nations in Oklahoma. Two
Natchez communities are recognized by the state of South Carolina. An early
American geographer noted in his 1797 gazetteer that they were also known as the
"Sun Set Indians".[6]

Prehistoric
 Emerald Mound

The historic Natchez were preceded in this area by what archaeologists call the
indigenous Plaquemine culture, part of the larger, prehistoric Mississippian culture,
which extended throughout the lower Mississippi Valley and its tributaries. Its
largest center was at Cahokia in present-day Illinois near the confluence of the
Illinois, Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Its peoples were noted for their hierarchical
communities, building complex earthworks and platform mound architecture, and
intensively cultivating maize.

Archaeological evidence indicates that people of the Plaquemine culture, an

elaboration of the Coles Creek culture, had lived in the Natchez Bluffs region since
at least as long ago as 700 CE.[7] The Natchez Bluffs are located along the east side
of the Mississippi River in present-day Mississippi. During the late prehistoric era,
around 1500, Plaquemine-culture people occupied territory from the Big Black River
in the north to about the Homochitto River in the south. The Plaquemine people built
many platform mounds, including Emerald Mound, the second-largest pre-
Columbian structure in North America north of Mexico. Emerald Mound was an
important ceremonial center.

The Natchez used Emerald Mound in their time, but they abandoned the site before
1700. Their center of power shifted to the Grand Village of the Natchez. The Grand
Village had between three and five platform mounds.[8]

By 1700, the Natchez occupied a territory that covered only an area roughly between
Fairchilds Creek and South Fork Coles Creek in the north to St. Catherine's Creek in
the south. This area is approximately that of the northern half of present-day Adams
County, Mississippi.[9]

Protohistoric

The earliest European account of the Natchez may be from the journals of the
Spanish expedition of Hernando de Soto. In 1542 de Soto's expedition encountered
a powerful chiefdom located on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River. Native
sources called it "Quigualtam," after the paramount chief's name. Various scholars
have debated if this chiefdom was the Emerald Phase (1500 – 1680) of the Natchez
chiefdom which was in its ascendancy at the time. The encounter was brief and
violent; the natives attacked and chased the Spanish with their canoes. No further
European contact with the indigenous people in this area occurred for more almost
140 years, but they suffered from epidemics of infectious disease carried indirectly
by other Native Americans from European traders. These and other intrusions had
severely reduced the native populations. By the historic period local power had
shifted to the Grand Village of the Natchez.[10]

French contact era

Platform mounds (in the distance)

and reconstructed wattle-and-daub
house at the Grand Village of the
Natchez.

A modern reconstruction of a
traditional Natchez dwelling at the
Grand Village of the Natchez in
Adams County, Mississippi

Mississippian culture pottery from

th G d Vill f th N t h
 the Grand Village of the Natchez
historic site

The French explored the lower Mississippi River in the late 17th century. Initial
French-Natchez encounters were mixed. In 1682 René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La
Salle led an expedition down the Mississippi River. The Natchez received the party
well, but when the French returned upriver, they were met by a hostile force of about
1,500 Natchez warriors and hurried away. At the time of the next French visit in the
1690s, the Natchez were welcoming and friendly. When Iberville visited the Natchez
in 1700, he was given a three-day-long peace ceremony, which involved the smoking
of a ceremonial pipe and a feast.[11]

French Catholic missionaries from Canada began to settle among the Natchez in
1698. On the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, French colonists established Biloxi in
1699 and Mobile in 1702. Early French Louisiana was governed by Pierre Le Moyne
d'Iberville and his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, among others.
Both brothers played a major role in French-Natchez relations.[12]

During the early 18th century, according to French sources, the Natchez lived in six
to nine village districts with a population estimated at 4,000-6,000 people, and with
the ability to muster 1,500 warriors.[11] There were three village districts in the lower
St. Catherine's Creek area, called Tioux, Flour, and the Grand Village of the Natchez.
Three other village districts were located to the northeast, along upper St.
Catherine's Creek and Fairchild's Creek, called White Apple (or White Earth), Grigra,
and Jenzenaque (or Hickories).[13] Historian James Barnett, Jr. described this
dispersed leadership structure as developing in the post-epidemic years. It enabled
the Natchez to conduct parallel diplomacy with the English to the east and French to
the south of their homelands, but the Natchez finally suffered deeper internal
divisions as a society.

The Natchez chiefs were called Suns, and the paramount chief was called the Great
Sun (Natchez: uwahšiL li∙kip). When the French arrived, the Natchez were ruled by
the Great Sun and his brother, Tattooed Serpent, both hereditary positions. The Great
Sun had supreme authority over civil affairs, and the Tattooed Serpent oversaw
political issues of war and peace, and diplomacy with other nations. Both lived at
the Grand Village of the Natchez. Lesser chiefs, mostly from the Sun royal family,
presided at other Natchez villages.[14]
 

Natchez Great Temple on Mound C and

the Sun Chiefs cabin, drawn by
Alexandre de Batz in the 1730s

"The Great Sun, Paramount Chief of the

Natchez People" in a 1758 drawing by
Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz

The funeral procession of Tattooed

Serpent in 1725, with retainers waiting
t b ifi d
 to be sacrificed

from a drawing by Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz

The Natchez performed ritual human sacrifice upon the death of a Sun. When a
male Sun died, his wives were expected to accompany him by performing ritual
suicide. Great honor was associated with such sacrifice, and sometimes many
Natchez chose to follow a Sun into death. For example, at the death of the Tattooed
Serpent in 1725, two of his wives, one of his sisters (nicknamed La Glorieuse by the
French), his first warrior, his doctor, his head servant and the servant's wife, his
nurse, and a craftsman of war clubs, all chose to die with him.[15]

Mothers sometimes sacrificed infants in such ceremonies, an act which conferred

honor and special status to the mother. Relatives of adults who chose ritual suicide
were likewise honored and rose in status.[16] The practice of ritual suicide and
infanticide upon the death of a chief existed among other Native Americans living
along the lower Mississippi River, such as the Taensa.[17]

During the 18th century, the English and French colonies in the American southeast
had a power struggle. The English colony of South Carolina had established a large
trading network among the southeastern Native Americans. By 1700 it stretched
west as far as the Mississippi River. The Chickasaw Indians, who lived north of the
Natchez, were regularly visited by English traders and were well supplied with
English trade goods. The most lucrative trade with the English involved Indian
slaves. For decades the Chickasaw conducted slave raids over a wide region.
Chickasaw raiders were often joined by Natchez and Yazoo warriors. The warriors
raided over great distances to capture slaves from enemy tribes. For example, in
1713 a party of Chickasaw, Natchez, and Yazoo raiders attacked the Chaouachas
living near the mouth of the Mississippi River. The grand chief of the Chaouachas
was killed; his wife and ten others were carried off as slaves to be sold to the
English.[18]

English traders in the southeast had been operating for decades before the French
arrived, but the French rapidly developed a rival trading network. Most Indian groups
sought trade with as many Europeans as possible, encouraging competition and
price reductions. Many tribes developed internal pro-English and pro-French
factions. The Natchez appear to have developed such factions. By the 1710s the
Natchez had a steady trade with the French and at least some contact with English
traders.

The pro-French faction was led by the Grand Village of the Natchez and included the
villages of Flour and Tioux. These villages were in the southwestern part of Natchez
territory near the Mississippi River and French contact. The pro-English faction's
villages lay to the northeast, closer to the Chickasaw and English contact, and
further from the Mississippi River. The pro-English villages included White Apple,
Jenzenaque, and Grigra. The Great Sun and Tattooed Serpent leaders lived in the
Grand Village of the Natchez and were generally friendly toward the French. When
violence broke out between the Natchez and the French, the village of White Apple
was usually the main source of hostility.

The French regularly described the Natchez as ruled with absolute, despotic
authority by the Great Sun and Tattooed Serpent. The existence of two opposing
factions was well known and documented. The Great Sun and Tattooed Serpent
repeatedly pointed out their difficulty in controlling the hostile Natchez. It is likely
that the White Apple faction functioned at least semi-independently. Whatever
power the family of the Great Sun and Tattooed Serpent did have over outlying
villages was reduced in the late 1720s after both died. They were succeeded by
relatively young, inexperienced leaders. While the new Great Sun was technically the
paramount chief of the Natchez, the chief of White Apple became the eldest Sun
chief and had more political clout than the Great Sun. The French continued to hold
the Great Sun responsible for the conduct of all Natchez villages. They insisted on
dealing with the Natchez as if the people were a unified nation ruled from its capital,
the Grand Village of the Natchez.[19]

During the 1710s and 1720s, French presence and settlement in Natchez territory
increased from a handful of traders and missionaries to hundreds of settlers (some
400 French colonists and 200 African slaves).[20] They cultivated several large
tobacco plantations, and maintained the military post of Fort Rosalie. French
colonists intermarried with Natchez women.[20] At first the Natchez welcomed the
French settlers and assigned them land grants, although it's unlikely they had the
same concept of land use as the French.[11]

Conflicts with the French

The Natchez Revolt of 1729, where the Natchez

slaughtered most of the French soldiers and
colonists, with Fort Rosalie in the background, from
a panaramic painting by John Egan, circa 1850
In the 1710s and 1720s, war broke out four times between the French and the
Natchez. The French called these the First Natchez War (1716), the Second Natchez
War (1722), the Third Natchez War (1723), and the Natchez Rebellion of 1729.

The last of these wars was the largest, in which the Natchez destroyed the French
settlements in their territory. In retaliation, the French eventually killed or deported
most of the Natchez people. Overshadowing the first three in scale and importance,
the 1729 rebellion is sometimes simply called the Natchez War. All four conflicts
involved the two opposing factions within the Natchez nation. The Great Sun's
faction was generally friendly toward the French. Violence usually began in or was
triggered by events among the Natchez of White Apple. In all but the last war, peace
was regained largely due to the efforts of Tattooed Serpent of the Grand Village of
the Natchez.[11]

The First Natchez War of 1716 was precipitated by Natchez raiders from White
Apple killing four French traders. Bienville, seeking to resolve the conflict, called a
meeting of chiefs at the Grand Village of the Natchez. The assembled chiefs
proclaimed their innocence and implicated the war chiefs of White Apple. The
Choctaw assisted the French in fighting the 1716 Natchez War. After the 1716
Natchez War, the French built Fort Rosalie near the Grand Village of the Natchez.
The present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi developed from the 1716
establishment of Fort Rosalie.

War broke out again in 1722 and 1723. Called the Second and Third Natchez wars
by the French, they were essentially two phases of a single conflict. It began in
White Apple, where an argument over a debt resulted in a French trader's killing one
of the Natchez villagers. The French commander of Fort Rosalie reprimanded the
murderer. Unsatisfied with that response, Natchez warriors of White Apple retaliated
by attacking nearby French settlements. Tattooed Serpent's diplomatic efforts
helped restore peace. But within a year, Bienville led a French army into Natchez
territory, intent on punishing the warriors of White Apple. Bienville demanded the
surrender of a White Apple chief as recompense for the earlier Natchez attacks.
Under pressure from the French and other Natchez villages, White Apple turned the
chief over to the French.[11]

Natchez revolt and aftermath

  

1835 oil painting by Eugène Delacroix

of a Natchez mother and father with
their newborn child on the banks of
the Mississippi River, inspired by
Chateaubriand's fictionalized account
of the Natchez Wars in Louisiana

In November 1729, the French commander Sieur de Chépart ordered the Natchez to
vacate the village of White Apple so that he could use its land for a new tobacco
plantation. This turned out to be the final affront to the Natchez, and they were
unwilling to yield to the French demand. The chiefs of White Apple sent emissaries
to potential allies, including the Yazoo, Koroa, Illinois, Chickasaw, and Choctaw. They
also sent messages to the African slaves of nearby French plantations, inviting
them to join the Natchez in rising up to drive out the French.[11]

On November 29, 1729, the Natchez attacked. Before the day was over, they had
destroyed the entire French colony at Natchez, including Fort Rosalie. Warriors killed
more than 200 colonists, mostly French men, and they took captive more than 300
women, children, and slaves.[21] In January 1730, the French attempted to besiege
the main fort of the Natchez, but they were driven off. Two days later a force of
about 500 Choctaw attacked and captured the fort, killing at least 100 Natchez, and
recovered about 50 French captives and 50-100 African slaves. French leaders were
delighted, but surprised when the Choctaw demanded ransoms for the captives.[11]

"Carte de Lousiane" from Dumont de

 Ca te de ous a e o u o t de
Montigny (1753), Mémoires Historiques sur
la Louisiane. Annotated to show paths of
d'Artaguette and Bienville in Chickasaw
Campaign of 1736

War continued until January 1731, when the French captured a Natchez fort on the
west side of the Mississippi. Between 75 and 250 Natchez warriors escaped and
found refuge among the Chickasaw. The young Great Sun and about 100 of his
followers were captured, subsequently enslaved, and shipped to work French
plantations in the Caribbean.[22]

The Natchez revolt expanded into a larger regional conflict with many
repercussions. The Yazoo and Koroa Indians allied with the Natchez and suffered
the same fate in defeat. The Tunica were initially reluctant to fight on either side. In
the summer of 1730, a large group of Natchez asked for refuge with the Tunica,
which was given. During the night, the Natchez turned on their hosts, killing 20 and
plundering the town. In return, the Tunica attacked Natchez refugees throughout the
1730s and into the 1740s.[11]

The Chickasaw tried to remain neutral, but when groups of Natchez began seeking
refuge in 1730, the Chickasaw allied with the refugees against the French. By 1731
the Chickasaw had accepted many refugees. When in 1731 the French demanded
the surrender of Natchez living among them, the Chickasaw refused. French-
Chickasaw relations rapidly deteriorated, resulting in the Chickasaw Wars. Some of
the Natchez warriors who had found refuge among the Chickasaw joined them in
fighting the French. The Natchez Wars and the Chickasaw Wars were also related to
French attempts to gain free passage along the Mississippi River. During the 1736
campaign against the Chickasaw, the French demanded again that the Natchez
among them be turned over. The Chickasaw, compromising, turned over several
Natchez, along with some French prisoners of war.

During the 1730s and 1740s, as the French-Natchez conflict developed into a
French-Chickasaw war, the Choctaw fell into internal discord. The rift between pro-
French and pro-English factions within the Choctaw nation reached the point of
violence and civil war.[11]

Louisiana's Africans, both slave and free blacks, were also affected by the Indian
wars. The Natchez had encouraged African slaves to join them in rebellion. Most did
not, but some did. In January 1730 a group of African slaves fought off a Choctaw
attack, giving the Natchez time to regroup in their forts. More slaves fought for the
French, however, as did some free people of color (gens de couleur libres).[11]
Because of the contributions of the free men of color during the Natchez War, the
French allowed them to join Louisiana's militias. This gave them important
connections into the colonial society, contributing to their achieving an independent
social status between the French colonists and slaves. In the 19th century, the free
people of color established a relatively large class, especially in New Orleans. Many
worked as highly skilled artisans; others became educated; they established
businesses and acquired property.[11] Of French and African ancestry, the base of
Louisiana Creole people, they chiefly spoke French (developing a Creole French) and
practiced Catholicism, while sometimes retaining ties to voodou and African
practices.

Natchez after 1730

After the war of 1729–1731, Natchez society was in flux and the people scattered.
Most survivors eventually settled among the Creek (Muscogee), Chickasaw, or with
English colonists. Most of the latter two Natchez groups ended up with the
Cherokee, due to patterns of subsequent conflicts.

The Natchez settled mostly along the Hiwassee River in North Carolina. The main
Natchez town, dating to about 1755, was located near present-day Murphy, North
Carolina.[23] Around 1740 a small group of Natchez refugees settled along a creek
near the confluence of the Tellico River and the Little Tennessee River. The creek
became known as Notchy Creek after the Natchez. The settlement was called
Natchey Town or Natsi-yi (Cherokee for "Natchez Place"). It was the birthplace of the
Cherokee leader Dragging Canoe, whose mother was Natchez and kidnapped as a
young girl. In later years Dragging Canoe's Cherokee father, Attacullaculla, lived in
Natchey Town.[24] Most of the Natchez living with the Cherokee accompanied them
in 1830 on the forced removal of the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory (later
Oklahoma).

A few remained in North Carolina. Their descendants are part of the federally
recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.[25] Some Cherokee-Natchez were
permitted to remain in South Carolina as settlers along with the Kusso. (The state of
South Carolina recognized the Natchez-Kusso tribe and Eastern Band Natchez.)

There are significant numbers of Natchez citizens within the federally recognized
tribe of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The Natchez were constituent members of
the historic Creek Confederacy and signatories on the 1790 Treaty of New York[26],
1796 Treaty of Colerain[27], and 1814 Treaty of Fort Jackson[28]. During this time, the
Natchez enjoyed signatory status and membership within the Creek Confederacy
and established their town near the Coosa River in Talladega County, Alabama.
Contemporary nation

Today the primary settlements of the Natchez Nation (Nvce or Nahchee), a treaty
tribe, are within the southern halves of the Muscogee and Cherokee Nations in
Oklahoma. The nation developed a constitution in 2003, which confirms its long-
held traditions of self-government. Approximately 6,000 Natchez are members of
the nation. Membership is based on matrilineal descent from people listed on the
Dawes Rolls or the updated records of 1973. The nation allows citizens to have
more than one tribal affiliation, asking only for work or donations to support the
nation.

Natchez families are also found as members among the balance of the Five
Civilized Tribes. They are represented as corporations within the Seminole Tribe of
Oklahoma and Sac & Fox Nation.

Small Natchez communities and settlements may be found in and throughout the
Southeast and as far north as North Carolina. There are two state-recognized
Natchez communities in South Carolina, each of which have independent
governments: the Eastern Band Natchez, formerly Natchez-PeeDee; and the Edisto
(Four Holes Indian Organization – Natchez-Kusso.)

The current leadership of the Natchez Nation consists of a Peace Chief (called the
"Great Sun"), a War Chief, and four primary Clan Mothers. Other Natchez Sun leaders
have included K.T. "Hutke" Fields (Principal Peace Chief / Great Sun, 1996), Eliza
Sumpka (Primary Clan Mother), William Harjo LoneFight, Robert M. Riviera
(Principal War Chief, 1997), Watt Sam, Archie Sam, White Tobacco Sam, and others.

Language

The Natchez language is generally considered a language isolate.[29] As originally

proposed by John Swanton in the early 20th century, some scholars believe that it
may be related to the Muskogean languages. Its two last fluent speakers were Watt
Sam and Nancy Raven. In the 21st century, the Natchez nation is working to revive it
as a spoken language among its people.[30]

Descent system

The Natchez are noted for having an unusual social system of noble classes and
exogamous marriage. Members of the highest ranking class, called Suns, are
thought to have been required to marry only members of the lowest commoner
class, called Stinkards or commoners. The Natchez descent system has received a
great deal of academic study. Scholars debate how the system functioned before
the 1730 diaspora and the topic has generated controversy.[31]

Primary source documentation on the pre-1730 Natchez kinship and descent

system is based on a relatively small number of French colonists who recorded
information about Natchez social life between about 1700 and 1730. Fragmentary
and ambiguous, the French accounts are the only historic accounts of Natchez
society before 1730. Natchez oral traditions have also been studied. The first
modern ethnographic study was done by John R. Swanton in 1911. Swanton's
interpretations and conclusions are still generally accepted and widely cited. Later
researchers have addressed various problems with Swanton's interpretation.[32]
Some researchers have proposed modifications of Swanton's model, while others
have rejected most of it.

In Swanton's interpretation, social status among the Natchez was divided into two
major categories, commoners and nobility. The nobility was further divided into
three classes (or castes) called Suns, Nobles, and Honored People. Noble exogamy
was practiced, meaning that members of the noble classes could marry only
commoners. A person's social status and class were determined matrilineally. That
is, the children of female Suns, Nobles, or Honoreds were born into the status of
their mothers. However, the children of male Suns and Nobles did not take on
commoner status from their mothers, as noble exogamy and matrilineal descent
would appear to dictate, but rather were ranked one class below their fathers. In
other words, children of male Suns became Nobles, while children of male Nobles
became Honored, according to Swanton.[33]

Many later researchers have focused on the so-called "Natchez Paradox" that
Swanton's model is said to engender. The paradox is that if the rules described were
followed strictly, over time the commoner class would become depleted, while the
lower nobility classes would grow larger.

Three general changes to Swanton's interpretation have been proposed to address

the Natchez Paradox. First, a type of asymmetrical descent may have been
practiced in which only male children of male nobility inherited the social class one
step below their fathers, while female children of male nobles inherited their
mothers' commoner status in matrilineal descent. Related to this is the idea that the
Honored category was not a social class but rather an honorific title given to
commoner men and was not hereditary.

Second, the assimilation of foreign people, such as groups of Timucua, could have
at least delayed the Natchez Paradox's effects. Researchers who argue for this idea
often couple it with the proposal that the Natchez system of noble exogamy in the
early 18th century was a relatively recent development in their society. According to
this argument, during the relatively chaotic 16th and 17th centuries, the Natchez
maintained their traditional social system by adapting it to new conditions. They
assimilated foreigners as commoners and made a new requirement of noble
exogamy.

Third, the social classes described by Swanton were not classes or castes, as the
terms are generally used in English, but exogamous ranked clans or moieties, with
patterns of descent common to most Native peoples of the American southeast.
Tribes such as the Chickasaw, Creek, Timucua, Caddo, and Apalachee were
organized into ranked clans, with the requirement that one cannot marry within
one's clan. Related to this theory is the idea that Honored status was not a class or
a clan, but a title. Sun status, likewise, may not have been a class but rather a term
for the royal family. If true, Natchez society would have been a moiety of just two
groups, commoners and nobles. The requirement of exogamy may have applied to
Suns only, rather than the entire nobility.

Some researchers argue that the prohibition against Suns' marrying Suns was
largely a matter of incest taboo. In the early 18th century, all the Suns of a given
generation appear to have been related within three degrees of consanguinity
(siblings, first cousins, and second cousins). The custom of Suns' marrying
commoners rather than Nobles may have been a preference rather than a
requirement. Finally, while Swanton's interpretation claims that Nobles were also
required to marry commoners, later researchers have questioned this idea. They
have noted in particular a mistranslation of the primary sources and a misreading
by Swanton. In other words, it could be that only Suns were required to marry
exogamously, and this requirement may have been mainly a result of the taboo
against incest.[34]

Lorenz proposes that the entire kinship system was not based on classes, castes, or
clans, but rather degrees of genealogical separation from the ruling Sun matriline.
Lorenz's interpretation does not include asymmetrical descent or noble exogamy.
Rather, a person was a Sun if he or she was within three degrees of matrilateral
separation from the ruling matriline's eldest female Sun (called the "White Woman").
Nobles were those people who were four, five, or six degrees removed from the
White Woman, while people seven degrees or more removed were commoners. In
this system, the male children of male ruling Suns would naturally descend one
"class" per generation, and would be required to marry outside the "class" to avoid
incest. The only exception was the case of a male child of a male Noble, who
acquired the Honored title by birth.[35]
Many researchers agree that the Honored group was not a noble class but rather a
title of prestige given to commoner men for acts of valor in war, or to commoner
women who ritually sacrificed their babies upon the death of a Sun as part of
funeral and mourning practices.[36] In addition, people of Honored status could be
promoted to Nobles for meritorious deeds.[32]

Ethnobotany

The Natchez give Potentilla canadensis as a drug to those who are believed to be
bewitched.[37]

Notable people

Tattooed Arm, 18th-century female Sun (mother of a Great Sun)

Tattooed Serpent (died 1725), war chief

William Harjo LoneFight (born 1966), President and CEO of American Native
Services

Nancy Raven (ca. 1850 – 1930s) storyteller, cultural historian, one of the last native
speakers of Natchez

Archie Sam (1914–1986), traditionalist, scholar, and stomp dance leader

Watt Sam (ca. 1857 – 1930s), medicine man, cultural historian, one of the last
native speakers of Natchez

Marguerite Scypion (ca. 1770s – after 1836), slave in Saint Louis, Missouri who won
a freedom suit in a state court after a 30-year fight, on the basis of descent from a
Natchez mother after the Spanish had banned trade in Indian slaves (1764)

Tommy Wildcat (born 1967), traditionalist, flutist, cultural historian

See also

Avoyel

Hernando de Soto Expedition

Taensa

Tunica

Notes
 1. www.legendsofamerica.com

2. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. (2004), p. 825.

3. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed. (2011), p. 1173.

4. Kimball 2005, p. 426.

5. Geoffrey Kimball, "Natchez" , in Native Languages of the Southeastern United States,

ed. Janine Scancarelli and Heather Kay Hardy, University of Nebraska Press, 2005,
pp. 385–453, accessed 9 Dec 2010

6. Morse, Jedidiah. (1804). The American gazetteer : exhibiting a full account of the
civil divisions, rivers, harbours, Indian tribes, &c. of the American continent, also of
the West India and other appendant islands : with a particular description of
Louisiana. 2nd edition. Charlestown, Massachusetts: Printed by and for Samuel
Etheridge, and for Thomas and Andrews. p. 358. The Internet Archive website

7. White, Natchez Class and Rank Reconsidered, p. 369.

8. See the National Park Service web pages Emerald Mound Site and Grand Village
of the Natchez Indians .

9. Lorenz, The Natchez of Southwest Mississippi, p. 143.

10. James F Barnett, Director Mississippi Department of History and Archives. The
Natchez Indians. pp. 12–14.

11. Kathleen DuVal, "Interconnectedness and Diversity in 'French Louisiana'" , in

Powhatan’s Mantle: Indians in the Colonial Southeast, ed. Peter H. Wood, Gregory A.
Waselkov, and M. Thomas Hatley, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2nd
edition, 2006

12. For an overview of colonial Louisiana and French-Indian relations, see DuVal,
"Interconnectedness and Diversity in 'French Louisiana'", in Powhatan’s Mantle:
Indians in the Colonial Southeast, ed. Peter H. Wood, Gregory A. Waselkov, and M.
Thomas Hatley, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2nd edition, 2006

13. Map of historic Natchez village areas in Lorenz, The Natchez of Southwest
Mississippi, p. 149

14. Lorenz, The Natchez of Southwest Mississippi, pp. 151, 160-161

15. La Vere, David (2007-04-01). Looting Spiro Mounds: An American King Tut's Tomb .
University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 119–122. ISBN 978-0806138138.

16. White, Natchez Class and Rank Reconsidered.

17. Gallay, The Indian Slave Trade

18. Galley, The Indian Slave Trade, pp. 296–297.

19. An overview of the pro-French and pro-English factions, their role in the wars, and
the French misunderstandings of Natchez politics can be found in Lorenz, The
Natchez of Southwest Mississippi, pp. 158–163.

20. Jon Parmenter, "Review: Reviewed Work: THE NATCHEZ INDIANS: A History to 1735
by James F. Barnett, Jr." , Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical
Association Vol. 51, No. 1 (Winter 2010), pp. 112-114 via JSTOR (subscription
required)

21. Lawson, p. 7.

22. Lorenz, The Natchez of Southwest Mississippi, pp. 162–163

23. Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, pp. 520–521.

24. Brown, Old Frontiers, p. 539.

25. Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, pp. 387–388.

26. "History - 1790 Treaty of New York - GeorgiaInfo" . georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu.

Retrieved 2020-05-15.

27. "History - 1796 Treaty of Colerain - GeorgiaInfo" . georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu.

Retrieved 2020-05-15.

28. "History - 1814 Treaty of Fort Jackson - GeorgiaInfo" . georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu.

Retrieved 2020-05-15.

29. "Introduction", in Native Languages of the Southeastern United States, ed. Janine
Scancarelli and Heather Kay Hardy, University of Nebraska Press, 2005, p, 6,
accessed 9 Dec 2010

30. "Natchez Indian Language" , Native Languages of the Americas, (retrieved 9

December 2010)

31. See the section titled "Natchez Descent System" in Lorenz, The Natchez of
Southwest Mississippi.

32. White, Natchez Class and Rank Reconsidered, p. 370.

33. Lorenz, The Natchez of Southwest Mississippi, p. 152.

34. An overview of these three general modifications of Swanton's system can be found
in Lorenz, The Natchez of Southwest Mississippi, pp. 152–155.

35. Lorenz, The Natchez of Southwest Mississippi, pp. 157–158.

36. Lorenz, The Natchez of Southwest Mississippi, p. 156.

37. Swanton, John R, 1928, Religious Beliefs and Medical Practices of the Creek
Indians, SI-BAE Annual Report #42:473-672, page 667

References
Balvay, Arnaud (2008). La Révolte des Natchez. Editions du Félin. ISBN 978-2-86645-684-9.

Barnett, Jr., James F. (2007). The Natchez Indians: A History to 1735. University Press of
Mississippi. Conclusion; and pp. 12-15. ISBN 978-1-57806-988-0.

Brown, John P. (1986) [1938]. Old Frontiers, The Story of the Cherokee Indians from Earliest
Times to the Date of Their Removal to the West, 1838 (Reprint edition, AYER Company ed.).
Southern Publishers. ISBN 978-0-405-02830-4.

DuVal, Kathleen (2006). "Interconnectedness and Diversity in French Louisiana" (PDF). In

Gregory A. Waselkov (ed.). Powhatan's Mantle: Indians in the Colonial Southeast, Revised and
Expanded Edition. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-9861-3.

Gallay, Alan (2002). The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American
South 1670–1717. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10193-5.

Kimball, Geoffrey (2005). "Natchez". In Heather K. Hardy; Janine Scancarelli (eds.). Native
languages of the Southeastern United States. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-
4235-7.

Lawson, Charles F. (2004). Archaeological Examination of Electromagnetic Features: An

Example from the French Dwelling Site, a Late Eighteenth Century Plantation Site in Natchez,
Adams County, Mississippi , Master's Thesis, 2004, Florida State University. Retrieved on 21
Aug 2007

Lorenz, Karl G. (2000). "The Natchez of Southwest Mississippi". In Bonnie G. McEwan (ed.).
Indians of the Greater Southeast: Historical Archaeology and Ethnohistory . University Press of
Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-1778-5.

Mooney, James (1995) [1900]. Myths of the Cherokee (Dover ed.). Dover Publications.
ISBN 978-0-486-28907-6.

White, Douglas R.; George P. Murdock; Richard Scaglion (October 1971). "Natchez Class and
Rank Reconsidered" (PDF). Ethnology. X (4): 369–388. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.173.4259 .
doi:10.2307/3773172 . ISSN 0014-1828 . JSTOR 3773172 . Archived from the original
(PDF) on 2008-06-26. Retrieved 2007-08-15.

Further reading
Le Page du Pratz, Antoine-Simon (1774 (English)/1751 in French). The History of Louisiana: Or
of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina... London/New Orleans: T. Becket/ J.S.W.
Harmonson. Check date values in: |year= (help)

Swanton, John R. (1911). Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast of
the Gulf of Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 43. Washington, D.C.: Government
Printing Office.
External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Natchez.

Wikisource has the text of a 1905 New International Encyclopedia article about Natchez
people.

Natchez Nation , website of the Natchez Nation of Oklahoma.

Natchez Nation Profile and Videos - Chickasaw.TV

George Sabo III, "The Natchez Indians" , Indians of Arkansas Internet Project, University of
Arkansas

The Natchez Indians , Mississippi History Now

Charles Gayarré, History of Louisiana , 1867; available at University of Chicago.

Natchez Wars at the Concordia Sentinel