Biloxi Indians Research Paper

The Biloxi Indians were Siouan speakers that were first recorded in Biloxi, south of Mississippi. They had migrated from the north, but the date they migrated is unspecified. The Biloxi indians have had a lot of history behinds its name.

The Biloxi Indians are from the Choctaw language. They are called Taneks haya, which means “First people”. They Biloxis are from the Siouan language, but they were supposed to be in the Muskhogean stock. This changed because Gatschet heard about survivors that were in the Louisiana tribe in 1886. He found that many of their words spoken resembled the Siouan language. They have not been assigned to a group in the Siouan family, but it is said that the closest group is Dorsey’s Dhegiha.

The biloxi tribe lived

Hernando, a Spanish conquistador, was interacting with Tunica tribe while the tribe was in Louisiana with French Colonists. As soon as the French Jesuits made a mission under Father Antoine Daivon, the tribe moved to a site close to the mouth of the Yazoo River in 1694. In 1699, the French built a relationship with France. The Tunica moved their village to New Orleans from the Yazoo River. When French explorers encountered the Biloxis in 1699, the Biloxis moved to the Pascagoula River, the region of the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. The Spanish probably encountered the Biloxi’s 130 years ago because in the Juan Pardo expedition from Appalachian Highlands, it states that they met 18 indigenous rulers in a town called Xuala. This was by the earlier de Soto expedition and by Joara by the Pardo expedition. One of the rulers was discovered by the Pardo expedition as “Atuqui”. This is a Biloxi word, atuki, meaning congregated with Pardo in Joara. The Grand Tunica village served as French headquarters while the long Natchez war was occuring and provided a buffer between the French and the Natchez. The Tunica ended their alliance with France because they attacked an English settlement party, not too long after France had lost all of its North American colonies. The Tunica were participants in the Pontiac

Tunica warriors fought together with Spanish Governor Bernardo de Galvez, this happened because Spain allied themselves with colonists in the American Revolution in the fall of 1779. They attacked British posts at Manchac and Baton rouge. After the battles, Galvez wanted the Tunica and their Ofo and Biloxi allied to settle on the Avoyelles Praire, so he invited the tribes. This took place on the area surrounding present- day Marksville, Louisiana. The United States became loyal to a policy protecting the Indian land and rights after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Tunica registered their land as “unoccupied” so they would be able to make fake claims to it, but the French settlers ended up taking their land. The Tunica was no concern to the federal government in small numbers on small tracts of land. The Tunica suffered the fate of other southern tribes. The government did not want to recognize them or deal with them through any type of treaties. Tunica got liberated from the removal policy of the 1830’s and 40s and thankfully got to keep their village located on the Avoyelles prairie. The Tunica tribe could reclaim their land in 1844 because Celestin Moreau charged five old women from the tribe with trespassing. The Moreau vs. Valentin case brought the end of the court costs to Moreau and the Tunica was allowed an equal hearing. Because there was