Natchez (people)

Natchez (people), Native North American tribe of the Muskogean language family and of the Southeast culture area. The tribe once lived along the lower Mississippi River, near present-day Natchez, Mississippi. The Natchez were the largest and most unified tribe of the region, with some 5,000 people in the mid-1600s.

The Natchez were well established in their villages between the Yazoo and Pearl rivers when the French set up a trading post in 1713. French-Natchez relations soon deteriorated, and war ensued. In 1729 the French, together with the Choctaw, drove the Natchez from the region. Some took refuge among the Creek, Cherokee, and Chickasaw; others were captured by the French and sold into slavery.

The Natchez were sun worshipers; they kept a perpetual fire burning in their temples. In their religion, their customs, and their dependence on the cultivation of maize for food, they were like the Creek, Choctaw, and other Gulf tribes. The Natchez, however, had rigid class distinctions, including a noble class of three ranks: Suns, Nobles, and Honored People. The supreme ruler, known as the Great Sun, was considered divine and had autocratic powers over his subjects.

Traces of Natchez culture still survive in the stories and rituals of the Creek and Cherokee, but distinguishing them is difficult because they are intermingled with the cultures of these tribes. The Natchez language is considered extinct; its last fluent speaker died in 1965. In the 2000 U.S. census about 100 people identified themselves as Natchez only; an additional 300 people reported being part Natchez.

See also Native Americans of North America: Southeast.