(Marker #1)
A Chickasaw Village
Here once stood an Indian village of several houses and a fort.
Summer House
During the summer they lived in rectangular well-ventilated houses.
Winter House
In the winter they lived in round houses with plastered walls.
Fort
In times of danger, everybody—warriors, women, children—sought shelter in strongly fortified stockades.
Original foundations of four of these structures are overlaid with concrete curb on the ground to your left.
(Marker #2)
The Chickasaw Nation
This tribe, population about 2000, lived in the "Chickasaw Old Fields," a small natural prairie near Tupelo, Mississippi.
Although their villages occupied an area of less than 20 square miles, the Chickasaw claimed, and hunted over, a vast region in northern Mississippi and Alabama and western Tennessee and Kentucky.
The Chickasaw were closely related to the Choctaw, Creek and Natchez as well as some of the smaller tribes of the Mississippi River.
De Soto's followers were the first Europeans to see the Chickasaw, with whom they fought a bloody battle in 1541.
The Chickasaw, after ceding the last of their ancestral lands to the United States, moved in 1837-47 to Oklahoma to become one of the "Five Civilized Tribes."
(Marker #3)
English - French Conflict
1700 - 1763
England and France, after the founding of Louisiana, fought four wars for control of North America.
The CHICKASAW became allies of the British who used them as a spearhead to oppose French expansion. This tribe with British help not only remained independent, but threatened French shipping on the Mississippi.
The FRENCH conquered or made allies of all the tribes along the Mississippi, except the Chickasaw. They made great efforts to destroy this tribe, sending powerful forces against them in 1736 and in 1740, and incited the Choctaw and other tribes to do likewise. The Chickasaw successfully resisted, and remained a thorn in the side of France until she, in 1763, lost all her North American possessions.
(Marker #4)
French - Chickasaw War
1736
The Chickasaw threatened French communications between Louisiana and Canada and urged the Choctaw to trade with the English.
Bienville decided to destroy the Chickasaw tribe. In 1735 he ordered a column of French and Indians, led by Pierre d'Artaguette, from Illinois, to meet him near Tupelo.
Bienville, leading a French army, joined by the Choctaws, proceeded, via Mobile, up the Tombigbee. Arriving at the Chickasaw villages, May 25, 1736, he saw nothing of d'Artaguette.
D'Artaguette was dead. Two months earlier the Chickasaw had defeated and killed him and forced his followers to flee.
Ignorant of d'Artaguette's defeat, Bienville attack the fortified village of Ackia, May 26, 1736. Bloodily repulsed, he withdrew to Mobile, leaving the Chickasaw more dangerous than ever.
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