Last of the Mississippians: the Natchez

Beginning about 800 C.E. and continuing into the 1600's, a complex Native civilization flourished in the Midwest, Southeast and Eastern portions of the United States.  They were called Mississippians, because their civilization flourished around the Mississippi River, which was part of their vast trade network.  These Natives had elements of their society similar to the complex Mesoamerican kingdoms encountered by the Spanish.  Their networks of villages were ruled by chiefs known as Great Suns, who achieved their leadership positions through matrilineal descent.  Their mounds, similar to pyramids, were used for both worship and burial.  They grouped themselves into cities with complex class structures and carried on extensive trade with other Natives of similar culture.  Hernando de Soto encountered the last elements of this culture during his expeditions (1539-1541), throughout the Southeast.  By that time, the great civilization was dying and vestiges of it remained only in their descendants such as the Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and later Seminole.

But one Native people carried on important elements of Mississippian culture into the 18th century, giving a rare glimpse into this once-great civilization-the Natchez.  The Natchez lived in what is now Southwestern Mississippi.  De Soto encountered them and fought them in a battle.  The first French explorers also found that the Natchez were not receptive to outsiders.  La Salle's expedition in 1682 first encounter friendly groups of Natchez Natives, but left the area when confronted with a force of about 1500 warriors.  The Natchez later came to develop somewhat peaceful relationships with both English (via the Choctaw) and French explorers and settlers.  It is from French accounts that we derive much of our information about them, and through them their Mississippian forbears. 

Like the other Southeastern tribes, kinship and descent was traced through the mother's line.  Status females, called Female Suns, gave birth to sons who served in important leadership capacities throughout the tribe.  The Great Sun ruled Natchez society from the Grand Village, near present-day Natchez, Mississippi.  He was assisted by one of his brothers, a war and diplomacy chief known as the Tattooed Serpent.  Other Suns ruled satellite villages within the tribe.  By the time the French encountered them, the Natchez were no longer using mounds, but French accounts do describe the burial of a Great Sun complete with ritual sacrifice of some of his relatives and servants, which took place in 1725.  Ordinary people lived in rounded, thatched shelters and practiced farming of maize as well as hunting for subsistence.

Natchez society imploded in the early years of the eighteenth century.  Tensions existed between villages who favored the English and those who favored the French.  Severe epidemics swept through the territory.  Between 1710-1731, war between the Natchez and the French broke out several times.  These conflicts culminated in the Natchez Revolt of 1729-31, during which Natchez forces attacked several French towns and fortifications, including the main French fort at Natchez, Fort Rosalie.  In retaliation, the French destroyed much of what was left of the Natchez civilization, deporting many people as slaves on French plantations in the Caribbean. 

What was left of the Natchez scattered to surrounding tribes, some taking refuge as far away as with the Cherokee, others choosing to remain with tribes closer in the area, such as the Choctaw and Creek.  Those Natchez who settled among the Creek later fled with them to Florida and found refuge with the Seminoles.  During Indian Removal, Natchez Natives accompanied the Cherokee, Choctaw and Seminole to Oklahoma, though a few chose to remain with the Eastern Band Cherokee in North Carolina, or with the Choctaw in Louisiana and Mississippi.  Today, the Natchez are represented by corporations within the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma and the Sac and Fox Nation.