Tunica-Biloxi

Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe
Total population
951 (2010 Census)[1]
Regions with significant populations
 United States ( Louisiana)
Languages
English, French
Religion
Protestantism, Roman Catholicism,
traditional religion
Related ethnic groups
Other Biloxi and Tunica peoples

The Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe,[2] formerly known as the Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe of Louisiana, is a Federally recognized tribe of primarily Tunica and Biloxi people, located in east central Louisiana. Descendants of Ofo (Siouan-speakers), Avoyel (a Natchez people), and Choctaw (Muskogean) are also enrolled in the tribe.[3]

Today they speak mostly English and French.[4] Many live on the Tunica-Biloxi Indian Reservation (31°06′48″N 92°03′13″W / 31.11333°N 92.05361°W / 31.11333; -92.05361) in central Avoyelles Parish, just south of the city of Marksville, Louisiana. The Reservation is 1.682 km2 (0.649 sq mi).

The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe operates Louisiana's first land-based casino, Paragon Casino Resort. It opened in Marksville in June 1994.[5] It is now the biggest employer in Avoyelles Parish. The 2010 census lists 951 persons self-identified as at least partly of Tunica-Biloxi, with 669 of those identifying as solely of Tunica-Biloxi ancestry.[1]

History

By the Middle Mississippian period, local Late Woodland peoples in the Central Mississippi Valley had developed or adopted a Mississippian lifestyle, with maize agriculture, hierarchical political structures, mussel shell-tempered pottery, and participation in the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC). The archaeological evidence suggests that the valley was home to several competing paramount chiefdoms, with supporting vassal states. The groups in the area have been defined by archaeologists as archaeological phases; these include the Menard, Tipton, Belle Meade-Walls, Parkin and Nodena phases.[6]

In the spring of 1541 Hernando de Soto and his army approached the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, coming upon the Province of Quizquiz (pronounced "keys-key"). These people spoke a dialect of the Tunica language, which is a language isolate. At that time, these related groups covered a large region extending along both sides of the Mississippi River in present-day Mississippi and Arkansas, as the expedition would soon learn.[7]

“ Off to one side of the town was the dwelling place of the Curaca (chief). It was situated on a high mound which now served as a fortress. Only by means of two stairways could one ascend to this house...... The lord of the province, who like his land was called Quizquiz, was now old and sick in bed; but on hearing the noise and confusion in his village, he arose and came from his bedchamber. Then beholding the pillage and seizure of his vassals, he grasped a battle-ax and began to descend the stairs with the greatest fury, in the meantime vowing loudly and fiercely to slay anyone who came into his land without permission......But the memory of valiant deeds and triumphs of his bellicose youth, and the fact that he held sway over a province so large and good as his, gave him strength to utter those fierce threats and even fiercer ones. ”
— -Inca Garcilaso de la Vega describing the Quizquiz 1605[8]
Parkin Site, circa 1539. Illustration by Herb Roe

Based on evaluations of the three surviving de Soto narratives for topography, linguistics and cultural traits, combined with archaeological excavations and analysis, most archaeologists and ethnohistorians have agreed to identify the Menard, Walls, Belle Meade, Parkin and Nodena phases as the de Soto-named provinces of Anilco, Quizquiz, Aquixo, Casqui and Pacaha, respectively[9]

It was 150 years before another European group recorded the Tunica. In 1699 when encountered by the LaSource expedition (coming downriver from Canada), the Tunica had been reduced to a modest tribe numbering only a few hundred warriors. They and other peoples had suffered from smallpox epidemics, which had high mortality rates. By the time the French arrived, the Central Mississippi Valley was sparsely occupied by the Quapaw, who became significant allies to them and aided their successful settlement. The French established a mission among the Tunica around 1700, on the Yazoo River. Father Antoine Davion was assigned to the Tunica, as well as to the smaller tribes of the Koroa, the Yazoo, and Houspé tribes.[10][11]

The Tunica were skilled traders and entrepreneurs, especially in the manufacture and distribution of salt, a valuable item to both native and Europeans.[12] Salt was extremely important in the trade between the French and the various Caddoan groups in northwestern Louisiana and southwestern Arkansas. It is thought that the Tunica were the middlemen in the movement of salt from the Caddoan areas to the French.[13]

By the early 18th century, the tribes along the lower Mississippi River were a target of Chickasaw raids for the English slave trade in South Carolina. By 1706 the Tunica decided to move.

As their enemies the Natchez were to their immediate south, they moved to the Mississippi side of the Mississippi and Red River confluence. This allowed them to keep control of their salt trade, as the Red River also connected to their salt source in the Caddoan areas.[14] They established a loose collection of hamlets and villages at present-day Angola, Louisiana. The archeological remains of a small hamlet from this time period was rediscovered in 1976 by an inmate of Angola Prison. It is known as the Bloodhound Site.[15]

During the 1710s and 1720s, war periodically broke out between the French and the Natchez. The last uprising in 1729, the Natchez Massacre, was the largest; the Natchez killed most of the French at the village of Natchez and Fort Rosalie. When the French retaliated with the aid of Indian allies, they killed or captured most of the Natchez.

In 1729 the chiefs of the village sent emissaries to potential allies, including the Yazoo, Koroa, Illinois, Chickasaw, and Choctaw. The Natchez Rebellion or Natchez War expanded into a larger regional conflict with many repercussions. The Tunica were initially reluctant to fight on either side.[16]

In June 1730 the Head Chief of the Tunica, Cahura-Joligo, agreed to let a small party of Natchez refugees settle near his village (present-day Angola), provided they were unarmed. A few days later, the chief of the Natchez arrived at the Tunica village with a hundred men, and an unknown number of women and children. They concealed Chickasaw and Koroa in the canebrake around the village. Cahura-Joligo informed them that he could not receive them unless they gave up their arms. They replied that this was their intention, but asked if they could keep them a while longer. He consented and had food distributed to his new guests. A dance was held that night. After the dance and when the village had gone to sleep, the Natchez, Chicasaw and Koroa attacked their hosts. The chief killed four Natchez during the fighting, but was killed along with twelve of his warriors. His war-chief Brides les Boeufs (Buffalo Tamer) repulsed the attack. He rallied the warriors, and after fighting for five days and nights, regained control of the village. Twenty Tunica were killed and as many wounded in the fighting. They killed 33 of the Natchez warriors.[14]

After the attack at Angola, in 1731 the Tunica moved a few miles away to the Trudeau site. Over the years, they buried as grave goods large amounts of European trade goods, including beads, porcelain, muskets, kettles and other items, as well as locally produced pottery in the Tunica tribal style. When discovered in the 20th century, these artifacts attested to the extensive trade with Europeans, as well as the wealth of the Tunica. They stayed at this location into the 1760s, when the French ceded control west of the Mississippi to the Spanish following the French defeat by the British in the Seven Years' War.[17]

Tunica Trail from the Central Mississippi valley to Marksville, LA

In 1764 the Tunica moved 15 miles (24 km) south of the Trudeau Landing site to just outside the French settlement at Pointe Coupée, Louisiana.[4] Other tribes had also settled in the area, including the Offagoula, Pascagoula and Biloxi. The latter came to have a close relationship with the Tunica people. During this time, numerous Anglo-American settlers migrated into the region. The Tunica had become acculturated to European ways, although they still tattooed themselves and practiced some of their native religious customs. With the British in charge of the Western Florida colony at this time, and the Spanish in control of Louisiana, politics were volatile in the area. In 1779 Governor Galvez led a force which included Tunica and other tribes to take the British-held town of Baton Rouge. This was the last military campaign for which the Tunica were recorded.[4]

By sometime in the late 1780s or 1790s, the Tunica moved again, probably because of the large influx of Anglo-Americans moving into the area.[14] They moved west to a site on the Red River named Avoyelles. In 1794 a Sephardic Jewish trader from Venice, Marco Litche (recorded by the French as Marc Eliche) established a trading post in the area.[18] A European-American settlement developed around the post and became known as Marksville. It was noted on Louisiana maps as of 1809.[19]

After acquisition by US

Marksville was a good location then for a trading post, as the Red River was still an important avenue of trade. But the time was one of change for the area. France reacquired the area in 1800, but sold it to the fledgling United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Anglo-Americans migrated to Louisiana in great numbers, eventually changing its culture. In the late 19th century, railroads surpassed the rivers as main avenues of trade and transportation, and the Marksville area became a quiet backwater.

The only U.S. government mention of the Tunica from 1803 to 1938 was made in 1806 by an Indian Commissioner for Louisiana. He noted that the Tunica numbered only about 25 men, lived in Avoyelles Parish, and made their livings by occasionally hiring out as boatmen.[4] Although the Tunica were prosperous at this time, eventually problems with their white neighbors would take its toll. The whites imposed the binary social system based on slavery as a racial caste, recognizing only whites and blacks (in which they classified all people of color). By the late 19th century, they imposed legal racial segregation and disfranchised blacks and other minorities of color. The Tunica became subsistence farmers, with some hunting and fishing to support themselves. Others turned to sharecropping on their white neighbors' land.

As the 20th century dawned, the Tunica talked about their ancient heritage. They had managed to retain possession of the majority of their land, some still spoke the Tunica language, and they practiced traditional tribal ceremonies were still being practiced.

20th century to present

Gradually the remnant descendants of other local tribes (the Ofo, Avoyel, Choctaw, and Biloxi) merged into the Tunica. They have preserved much of their ethnic identity, maintaining their tribal government and the chieftainship up to the mid-1970s.[3]

The modern Tunica-Biloxi tribe was recognized by the federal government in 1981. They live in Mississippi and east central Louisiana. The modern tribe is composed of Tunica, Biloxi (a Siouan speaking people from the Gulf coast), Ofo (also a Siouan people), Avoyel ( a Natchezan people), and Mississippi Choctaw. Many live on the Tunica-Biloxi Indian Reservation in central Avoyelles Parish, just south of the city of Marksville, Louisiana. A part of the city extends onto reservation land.

The Paragon Casino Resort in Marksville

The reservation has a land area of 1.682 km2 (0.649 sq mi). Currently, they operate Louisiana's first land based casino, Paragon Casino Resort, opened in Marksville in June 1994.[5] The casino is known for its contributions back to its members. The 2000 census lists 648 persons identified as Tunica.[20]

Tribal government currently consists of an elected tribal council and tribal chairman. They maintain their own police force, health services, education department, housing authority, and court system. Former tribal chairman Earl J. Barbry, Sr., was widely noted as one of the longest-serving chairman in Indian Country, serving from 1978 until he walked on in July 2013.[21] Barbry was succeeded as chairman by Marshall Pierite, formerly vice chairman of the tribe, from August 2013 through April 2014; the current chairman is Marshall Ray Sampson, Sr., to serve through April 2016.[22]

Tunica treasure

In the 1960s a treasure hunter named Leonard Charrier began searching for artifacts at the Trudeau Landing site in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. The Tunica, who felt he had stolen tribal heirlooms and desecrated the graves of their ancestors, were outraged. In the 1970s the site was excavated by archaeologists, uncovering large amounts of pottery, European trade goods and other artifacts deposited as grave goods by the Tunica from 1731 to 1764 when they occupied the site. A lawsuit, with help from the State of Louisiana, was begun by the tribe for the title to the artifacts, which has subsequently become known as the "Tunica treasure". A decade was to pass in the courts, but the ruling became a landmark in American Indian history, and helped lay the groundwork for new federal legislation, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, passed in 1990.[23]

Because the artifacts had been separated from the original burials, it was decided by the tribe to build a museum to house the artifacts. Members of the tribe were trained as conservators in order to repair damage done to the artifacts by the centuries underground and handling during the ten-year court battle. The museum was built in the shape of the ancient temple mounds of their people, with the earthen structure to take the symbolic place of the original burial underground. It was opened in 1991 as The Tunica-Biloxi Regional Indian Center and Museum.[24] Due to structural problems, it was closed in 1999, with plans for a new larger facility underway. Today the Tunica Treasure collection is housed in the Tunica-Biloxi Cultural and Educational Resources Center, a state-of-the-art facility that includes a library, conservation center, distance-learning center, conference facilities, tribal offices, and museum on the tribal reservation in Marksville. Eighty percent of the artifacts of the Tunica Treasure have been restored.[25]

Federal recognition

Formal efforts to be recognized by the federal government were begun in the 1940s when Chief Eli Barbry, Horace Pierite, Clarence Jackson, and Sam Barbry traveled to Washington, D.C.[23] Federal recognition would have entitled the tribe to benefit from social programs under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. A succession of chiefs, including Chief Horace Pierite Sr, would work at the task. With the Tunica treasure proving their ancient tribal identity, the tribe was able to gain state and federal recognition. They were recognized by the United States government in 1981 as the Tunica Biloxi Indians of Louisiana,[4] later taking the name of Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe.

Tunica and Biloxi languages

Tunica language
Biloxi language
Main articles: Tunica language and Biloxi language

The Tunica (or Tonica, or less common form Yuron[26]) language is a language isolate. The Tunica tribe historically lived close to the Ofo and Avoyeles tribes, but communication among the three depended on their use of the Mobilian Jargon or French.[27]

When the last-known native Tunica speaker, Sesostrie Youchigant, died, the language became extinct. Linguist Mary Haas had worked with Youchigant to describe what he remembered of the language. She published the description in A Grammar of the Tunica Language in 1941, followed by Tunica Texts in 1950, and Tunica Dictionary in 1953.

The Biloxi language is Siouan which was at one time spoken by this people in Louisiana and southeast Texas. The Biloxi were first noted in European records as living along the Biloxi Bay in the mid-17th century, but by the mid-18th century, they had migrated into Louisiana to avoid European encroachment. Some were also noted in Texas in the early 19th century.[28] By the early 19th century their numbers had dwindled. In 1934 the last native speaker, Emma Jackson, was in her 80s.[29] Morris Swadesh and Mary Haas discovered her on a linguistic survey trip in September 1934 and confirmed her status as a speaker of the language.[30] With her death, the language became extinct.

Most modern Tunica speak English, with a few older members speaking French as a first language.

Notable Tunica-Biloxi

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Tunica-Biloxi – 2010 Census". American Fact Finder. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2016-05-23.
  2. ↑ Federal Register, Volume 78, Number 87. 6 May 2013. Page 26388. (78 FR 26384). Retrieved 3 Aug 2013.
  3. 1 2 "On the Tunica Trail-Marksville". Retrieved 2010-02-15.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Jeffrey P. Brain and Frank W. Porter (1990). The Tunica-Biloxi. Chelsea House Publishers. p. 93. ISBN 978-1555467319.
  5. 1 2 "Paragon Casino and Resort-the Tunica Biloxi Tribe". Retrieved 2010-02-13.
  6. ↑ Hudson, Charles M. (1997). Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun: Hernando De Soto and the South's Ancient Chiefdoms. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-1888-4.
  7. ↑ "Tunica and Koroa Indians". Indians of Arkansas. University of Arkansas. Retrieved 2010-02-10.
  8. ↑ Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (1605). La Florida del Inca,. Lisbon.
  9. ↑ Michael P. Hoffman (1994). "Ethnic Identities and Cultural Change in the Protohistoric Period of Eastern Arkansas". In Patricia B. Kwachka. Perspectives on the Southeast-Linguistics, Archaeology and Ethnohistory. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-1593-1.
  10. ↑ Waselkov, Gregory A.; Wood, Peter H.; Hatley, M. Thomas (2006-01-01). Powhatan's Mantle: Indians in the Colonial Southeast. U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803298617.
  11. ↑ "Mid-America : an historical review. Vol. 21". archive.org. p. 228. Retrieved 2015-07-16.
  12. ↑ "ON THE TUNICA TRAIL-Quizquiz". Retrieved 2010-02-14.
  13. ↑ "The Role of Salt in Eastern North American Prehistory". Retrieved 2010-02-13.
  14. 1 2 3 "ON THE TUNICA TRAIL". Louisiana. Retrieved 2010-02-14.
  15. ↑ "The Bloodhound Archaeological Site" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-02-13.
  16. ↑ 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 0-8032-9861-7.
  17. ↑ The Treaty of Paris in Corbett, Julian (1918). England in the Seven Years' War: A Study in Combined Strategy Vol. II. (Second ed.). London: Longman, Green and Co.
  18. ↑ "Marksville, Louisiana Facts". Retrieved 2010-02-15.
  19. ↑ "About Marksville". Retrieved 2101-02-15. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  20. ↑ "Census 2000 PHC-T-18. American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes in the United States: 2000" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-02-11.
  21. ↑ "Earl Barbry, Longest-Serving Chairman in Indian Country, Walks On". Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  22. ↑ "Tunica-Biloxi tribe names new chairman". 2013-09-03. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  23. 1 2 "On the Tunica Trail-Tunica Biloxi Today". Retrieved 2010-02-10.
  24. ↑ "Tunica Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana-Tribal Museum and Cultural Resource Center". Retrieved 2010-02-13.
  25. ↑ Dana Bowker Lee, "Louisiana Indians in the 21st Century", Louisiana Folklife, 18 October 2013
  26. ↑ "Language names:T". Retrieved 2010-02-15.
  27. ↑ Haas, Mary R. Tunica. New York: J.J. Augustin Publisher, 1940.
  28. ↑ "Biloxi Indian Tribe History." Access Genealogy. Retrieved 22 Feb 2009.
  29. ↑ Einaudi 1976, pp. 1-3
  30. ↑ Dalby 2003, p. 224.
  31. ↑ "Indianz.com-News-Tunica Biloxi man on Green Bay Packers". Retrieved 2010-02-13.

References

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