Natchez Indians: who are they?

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Native Americans of Mississippi and Louisiana, the Natchez Indians are native to the Natchez Bluffs area. Known for their complex and unusual class system, the Natchez people have maintained their culture long after Europeans arrived in North America. Most modern day Natchez live in Oklahoma, although two other Natchez communities can be found in South Carolina.

The Natchez language, though an isolate, is related to the Muscogee languages ​​spoken by the Creek Confederacy. In 2003, the Natchez Nation established a constitution confirming its rights to self-government. The nation is made up of 6,000 Natchez people who are granted membership based on their matrilineal descent. However, citizens can have multiple affiliations and support their nation through work or donations.

The Natchez chiefs were known as suns, with the main chief known as the Big Sun. The Big Sun lived in the Grand Village founded by the Natchez Indians. Chiefs with lesser powers lived in and presided over smaller Natchez villages. During the 1720s, when a particularly powerful Great Sun and his brother, Tattooed Serpent, died, the Natchez people were ruled by inexperienced leaders who had difficulty maintaining the surrounding Natchez villages.

When a Sun died, a ritual human sacrifice was performed. The sacrifice was considered a great honor. The wives of a Sun were expected to commit suicide upon his death, and many other members of the tribe often chose to do so for honor as well. Relatives of those who sacrificed were given great honor after the sacrifice. Mothers sometimes sacrificed their children to receive such honor and status.

During the 1730s, Natchez Indian numbers declined severely after the wars with the French. Most members of the Natchez tribe were sold into slavery to the West Indian peoples by the French. Of the few who remained, most of their ancestors fled to neighboring tribes to survive. The Natchez Nation of Oklahoma is a treaty tribe and exists in partnership with the nationally recognized Muscogee and Cherokee nations.

Scholars debate Natchez’s controversial social order. The Natchez Indians practiced exogamous marriage, in which the Suns, the highest social class, could only marry ordinary people, known as Stinkards, who were members of the lowest class. Natchez’s social status was presumably divided into categories consisting of nobility and commoners, who were also divided into subclasses or castes.

Castes in the nobility category were said to include the Honored People and the Suns. Caste was determined matrilineal. While descendants of the female nobility were able to maintain their class, descendants of the male nobility inherited a class below their father’s status. Male Natchez Indians, however, outranked tribal women and held many additional rights, including the right to eat first.

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