Tunica-Biloxi
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The Tunica-Biloxi is a tribe of native Americans living in Mississippi and east central Louisiana. They got their food by hunting, farming, and fishing. This tribe was very important to the making of Louisiana's history. Nowadays, they provide and operate a fully functional casino-resort in Marksville, Louisiana. The Casino is known for their contributions back to its members and fighting for Native American Rights. The Tunica-Biloxi Indian Reservation lies in central Avoyelles Parish, just south of the city of Marksville, with a part of the city actually extending onto reservation land. It has a land area of 1.682 km² (0.6495 sq mi, or 415.68 acres), and a 2000 census resident population of 89 persons.
The French established a mission among the Tunica around the year 1700, on the Yazoo River near the Mississippi River in the present-day state of Mississippi. Archaeological evidence suggests that they had recently migrated to the region from eastern Arkansas, in the late 17th century. Father Antoine Davion was assigned as the missionary for the Tunica as well as the smaller tribes of the Yazoo, Courouias, and Couspe (or Houspe) Indians. Unlike the northern Indians that the French were familiar with, the Tunica (and the nearby Taensa and Natchez) had complex religion, with temples, idols, and a priest class. The Tunica, Taensa, and Natchez retained chiefdom characteristics, such as a complex religion, after they had disappeared elsewhere.
During the Natchez War of 1729, the Tunica were forced to migrate south into present-day Louisiana. The Tunica, along with other tribes along the lower Mississippi River, were subjected to Chickasaw slave raids, for the South Carolina slave trade. An estimated 1,000 to 2,000 slaves were captured from the Tunica, Taensa, and Arkansas Indians by 1715 (Gallay, 2002).
The Tunica Biloxi were also hunters and gatherers, but most of all traders. They mostly traded salt from the many salt domes found in Louisiana.
[edit] References
- Gallay, Alan. "The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South 1670-1717". Yale University Press: New York (2002).
- Tunica-Biloxi Reservation, Louisiana United States Census Bureau
[edit] External links
- The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana
"Tonica Indians". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company.
