The Natchez Indians Rebel

The Natchez are outraged. Not only because this is one new abuse added to a long line of previous ones, but also because within the boundaries of the town to be yielded up there lies a sacred mound.

Between 9 and 10 o'clock on the morning of November 28, 1729, Natchez warriors appear at French houses throughout the settled zone, asking to borrow guns for hunting. This is not an unusual request, for in the past the Indians have often hunted for the French, later sharing their game.

Once the Natchez have their hands on the guns, at a prearranged signal, they at long last give vent to the rage that for years has built up in each and every one of them. They turn the guns on the guns' owners, and begin killing as many French men as possible, while sparing women, children and black slaves.

In a drastic turn-about from past battles when only Europeans had guns, in the following melee, 250 French lose their lives, while only twelve Indians lose theirs. The Natchez promise freedom to black slaves who join them, and many slaves do.

After the quick battle, victorious Indians and freed slaves celebrate. However, three slaves head down river to spread word about the massacre. About the same time as word gets out about the Natchez uprising, a Jesuit priest arrives at New Orleans from the Yazoo with gunshot wounds in his arm, claiming to have been attacked while saying Mass. Soon French officials in New Orleans are more than a little unnerved by what appears to be a general uprising in the north.

In the same manner as earlier the French have been employing the Choctaws to attack the Chickasaws, now the French convince as many as 500 Choctaw warriors to join a small French force in an attack on the Natchez. The force kills or captures about 150 Natchez Indians, and recover about fifty French women and children, and as many black slaves. Fifteen of the slaves are permitted to arm themselves as the holdout Natchez are besieged. The siege line will one day be discovered and excavated by archeologists.

At the end of February, 1730, the Natchez sue for peace. An agreement is reached for the Natchez to release their captives the next day. During the night, however, the Natchez manage to escape from their fortification without the French noticing.

At this point the Choctaw Indians point out to their French allies that it was because of their, the Choctaws', help that so many French women, children and slaves have been liberated from the Natchez, thus the French should pay the Choctaws in recompense for Choctaw expenses and lost hunting time. An agreement is reached by which some payment is made on the spot, with more to be received later. The Choctaws astutely keep a young Frenchman and some blacks as security until the French pay up.

Meanwhile, the fugitive Natchez flee in all directions. A number cross the river and gather twenty-five miles to the northwest, near present-day Sicily Island, Louisiana. Some Natchez sue for peace, suggesting that since now about as many of their nation had died as had Europeans, so the two sides were "even" and there should be no more war. The French do not buy this reasoning.

French artillery batters the Indians' makeshift defenses until they are forced to surrender. A few escape once again. Some continue westward to meet their deaths in a battle at Natchitoches. Some seek refuge among the Chickasaws to the north, and the Creeks to the east. The Great Sun and his royal family, and some 400 other men, women, and children are captured. They are taken to New Orleans where they are sold as slaves, and shipped to the island location known today as Haiti.

By 1731 the Natchez Indian Nation has ceased to exist.