Natchez Indian Culture - Research Paper Example

? Natchez Indian Culture [Insert here] [Insert al affiliation] The Natchez Indians were amongst the last of the Native American populous to make a home on Mississippi’s southwestern borders. Their leaders (chiefs) are referred to as “Suns” with the primary chief called the “The Great Sun” whom rules over all villages, making all the decisions as he saw fit. Two great examples of the Natchez mounds are the Grand Village and the Emerald mound which are both historical landmarks today. Not relinquishing the fact that they are an indigenous tribe, the Natchez Indians share distinct similarities to the southeastern Indian tribes, such as being separated into two moieties as they call it. The many traditional rituals of the Natchez people are considered “primitive and brutal” and like many other Indian tribes, the Natchez people were sun worshippers, who held on strongly to the belief that their chiefs were descended from the sun. The Natchez lived in about 6-9 villages spoke their native Natchez language, a language that has been long lost. The inhabited area of the Natchez was sought after to be colonized by the English, Spanish and the French. Research pleaded that a total of four wars broke out between the Natchez and the French between 1716 and 1729. The first three appropriately termed, first, second and third Natchez war whilst the fourth one was called the Natchez Rebellion of 1729. The Natchez Rebellion was caused by French Commander Sieur de Chepart’s order to the villagers from the White Apple Natchez Village to vacate the land so he may use it as a tobacco plantation. Presently, surviving Natchez families and communities can be found dispersed in Oklahoma and the Appalachian mountains. Natchez Indian Culture The Natchez Indians were amongst the last of the Native American populous to make a home on Mississippi’s southwestern borders (Barnett, 2007). The tribe which inhabited the area known today as, the City of Natchez is reckoned for its cultural and complex chiefdom characteristics throughout its matrilineal society, as well as its longevity after America was being colonized by the Europeans. A powerful tribal nation, as described by Hernando De Soto during the Spanish Expedition in 1542, the tribe was ruled by a Head Chief whom they call “The Great Sun”. This “Sun” lives across from the temple, in a big adobe constructed house atop a platform mound, which the Natchez people are famous for constructing. Living close to him, is the single most important person in his life; his Principle Advisor-his mother. She is referred to as a white woman in the Natchez culture, she dwells close to the “The Great Sun” with her other children. This “family”, is considered the highest class in the Natchez Society. Nonetheless, despite being an indigenous tribe, the Natchez Indians share distinct similarities to the southeastern Indian tribes, such as being separated into two moieties as they call it. Moitie is the French word which means “half”. Moieties provide marriage partners for each other as well as other support services. Like today’s societal classing, one moiety of the Natchez tribe is considered superior or of a more established ranking than the other moiety. The Natchez were known for their mass cultivation of agriculture which was their main livelihood, but they also excelled at architecture and pottery, which seem to be the basics behind their mound building. “Mounds” are erected from dirt which acts as a base for their temples and other dwellings. To augment such skillfulness, they also wove textile fabrics from the inner barks of mulberry which they used for clothing. Authors Orin Lewis and Laura Redish (1998) described the dress code of the men as breechcloths and leggings. The breechcloth is a piece of cloth made of deer skin, cloth or fur which is worn between the legs that is tucked over a belt. It doesn’t cover the legs so the men wore leggings made from buckskin or soft leather, whilst the women wore wrap skirts made from deer skin and woven fiber and both sexes wore tunics in cooler weather and moccasins as shoes. The Great Chief shared distinct royalty by wearing multicolored feathered hat as a crown. An article by George Sabo (2008) made reference to the origins of the Natchez people stating that they gained their identity when a man and his wife joined a preexisting community. To the members of the community, the new persons looked brightly colored, appearing as if they have come from the sun. The man then professed about the Great Spirit that directed him there and the way in which they should worship. He instructed rules of living upon them, which included building a temple atop a platform mound base where community leaders will communicate with the Great Spirit whom is represented by an eternal fire in the temple. Natchez Culture The Natchez are infamous for their intricate Plaquemine culture which plays a key role in their identity which really dawned on the Mississippi Valley during the prehistoric times. The art of mound building played a crucial part of their culture and is described as an expression of the religion of the Natchez, who prove themselves as skilled artisans to build flat top ceremonial mounds to serve as bases for their sacred buildings. Members of the tribe pulled together for the construction and maintenance of the mounds. However, only the highest class of societal people (“The Great Sun” and his family) live at the mound centers permanently. Other members of the populous lived scattered over other areas on family farms and only gathered at the mound centers for social and religious gatherings. Two great examples of the Natchez mounds are the Grand Village and the Emerald mound. Research also showed that the Natchez practiced “head flattening” as part of their culture which is described by the online encyclopedia as the practice to intentionally change the shape of the human skull-usually starting from a newborn baby. This practice is done by fitting the baby into a cradleboard, which has a movable cover at the forehead. The mild pressure of the cover applied over time will cause the skull to change. The Natchez Indians were very hardworking people who excelled at farming corn, beans, squash, gourd, sunflower and tobacco-and with reference to a web article supplemented their diet fresh and saltwater fish, crawfish, alligator, turtles and frog legs (2007). They also hunted beavers, deer and turkey and collected nuts, berries, fruits and herbs. The many traditional rituals of the Natchez people are considered “primitive and brutal”. Whenever, a Great Chief or Woman Chief (The mother of the Great Chief) dies, their guards are expected to accompany them into the new world by way of ritual suicide. However, great honor is extended to any other persons who wish to accompany him as well. This ritual suicide has the potential to claim over a 100 lives at once. It is even acceptable for some mothers to give up their infants as ritual suicide (infanticide). This brought special honor and status to the mother. A very important festival tradition celebrated by the Native American Indians is known as the Green Corn Festival, which is held to pay homage and thanks to their gods for blessings upon the fruitfulness of their harvests. This festival was either held in late summer or early fall as this is dependent on when the corn ripens on the stalk. Homes were cleaned, all food from the year before thrown out and all fires extinguished, all in preparation of the Green Corn Ceremony. To mark the beginning of the ceremony, there are two days of ritual fasting executed by priests and distinguished men of the village. Then on the third day, a new fire is made and the Head Priest addressed a sermon to the village. After which, arrangements for a massive feast are made to be consumed on the fourth day accompanied by much singing and dancing. The grand close to this ceremony is probably the most interesting where as members are required to paint their bodies using white clay then submerging themselves in water. Like many other Indian tribes, the Natchez people were sun worshippers, who held on strongly to the belief that their chiefs were descended from the sun. Chiefs of the Natchez tribe were called “suns” and it is tradition for the “sun” to be successes by a son of a woman who is closest related to him. The tribal government of the Natchez was described as despotic, a term used to describe them by the French. The social norms of the Natchez were being closely documented by the French who settled and this documentation proved that the Primary or Head Chief was considered master of their labor, assets and lives. The Natchez lived in about 6-9 villages and had a total population between 4000 and 6000 people. These villages were namely Tioux, Flour and the Grand Village of Natchez, which are located in the lower St Catherine’s Creek and White Apple or White Earth, Grigra and Jenzenaque or the Hickories, which were located to the northeast of St Catherine’s and Fairchild’s Creek. The Natchez were also humbly recognized for their peculiar social norms. Culture has it that where marriage is concerned, the members of the higher societal class are obliged to marry into the lower class known as commoners or stinkards. Class membership was attained through the mother’s status in this society; so many children had the opportunity to be born into the higher class. The Natchez Indians spoke their native Natchez language, a language that has been long lost. Remnants of this tribe took up languages of the other tribes they took refuge with-the Creek dialect is one such example of their adopted language. Their children did basically the same things children of the present day do-play with their corn husk dolls, go to school and do chores but the teenage boys were more taken with playing chunkey; a spear throwing game. In the Natchez tribe, the men are of a higher rank than the women, they were the leaders, they were in charge of the household and most times they got to eat first. Natchez-French Conflicts The Natchez Indians are believed to be peaceful people, who lived by and believed in the rule “kill only in self defense” (The Natchez Indians, undated). The inhabited area of the Natchez was sought after to be colonized by the English, Spanish and the French. However, the first of the three to prance upon the Mississippi was the Spanish-the Expedition of Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle in March 1682. Immediately following them were the French and English Explorers. The French then began to form Fort Rosalie in 1716 which acted as a base for the colony, which grew over the next thirteen years. At first, the French nestled peacefully amongst the Natchez. They bought land from them, but eventually things turned sour by the 1720s as the French started to make demands on their lands and other resources. During this same period, the Natchez got caught between the English and the French for control over the North American state. All that hostility led to war between the Natchez and the French. The Natchez suffered at the hands of the French and those who managed to escape took asylum amongst Chickasaws, Creeks, Catawbas and Cherokees. Research pleaded that a total of four wars broke out between the Natchez and the French between 1716 and 1729. The first three appropriately termed, first, second and third Natchez war whilst the fourth one was called the Natchez Rebellion of 1729. The Natchez Rebellion was caused by French Commander Sieur de Chepart’s order to the villagers from the White Apple Natchez Village to vacate the land so he may use it as a tobacco plantation. The Natchez refused to grant this order and joined forces with allied Indian tribes and the African slaves who were on nearby French plantations. This allied force attacked the French on November 28, 1729. Victory was theirs as they destroyed the French colony and captured an estimated 200 colonists, 300 women and children and slaves. However, in January 1730, this victory overturned as Choctaw, one of the tribes they had allied with, attacked Natchez killing over a 100 of its people and recovering 50 of the French captives from whom they demanded ransoms for their rescue and between 50 and 100 African slaves. Natchez Today The Natchez tribe has been one that has reached the brink of extinction. Its populous has declined severely since they came in contact with the European colonists, whom brought diseases such as; measles, small pox and the bubonic plague, of which many of the Indians succumbed to. It declined even worse after the 1730s, after the wars with the French. After a sour defeat from the French, some survivors took asylum with the Muskogean, Chickasaw, and Creek Tribes, whilst regrettably; other survivors were sold off as slaves by the French to the West Indies. Presently, surviving Natchez families and communities can be found dispersed in Oklahoma and the Appalachian mountains. Although depleted, the Natchez Indians have managed to leave a multicolored history where they once inhabited in Mississippi. The Grand Village which was built by the Natchez as home to “The Great Sun”, today is a National Historic Landmark operated by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Their history is embraced trough the many educational programs and annual events offered by the site. In conclusion, the Natchez tribe once existed as an independent nation. Today, traces of their ancestry and tradition live through the many different inhabitants who inhabit the areas where they once flourished. References Accessgenealogy.Com (2011). Natchez Indian Tribe History. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/natchez/natchezhist.htm [Accessed: 5 Nov 2012]. Barnett, J. Mississippi History Now (2007). [online] Retrieved from: http://mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us/index.php?id=4 [Accessed: November 4, 2012]. Britannica.Com (2012). head flattening (artificial deformation) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/258067/head-flattening [Accessed: 5 Nov 2012]. Lewis, O. Redish, L. Bigorrin.Org (1998). Facts for Kids: Natchez Indians. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.bigorrin.org/natchez_kids.htm [Accessed: 5 Nov 2012]. Nativeamericans.Mrdonn.Org (n.d.). Native Americans in Olden Times for Kids - The Green Corn Festival, The Three Sisters. [online] Retrieved from: http://nativeamericans.mrdonn.org/greencorn.html [Accessed: 5 Nov 2012]. Rootsweb.Ancestry.Com (2003). History of Mississippi - NATCHEZ INDIANS. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~msalhn/NativeAmerican/natchezindians.htm [Accessed: 5 Nov 2012]. Sabo, G. Arkarcheology.Uark.Edu (2008). The Natchez Indians. [online] Retrieved from: http://arkarcheology.uark.edu/indiansofarkansas/index.html?pageName=The%20Natchez%20Indians [Accessed: 5 Nov 2012]. Sciway.Net (2007). South Carolina SC - Indians, Native Americans - Natchez. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.sciway.net/hist/indians/natchez-indians-sc.html [Accessed: 5 Nov 2012]. Read More