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The fertile flat lands along the
Yazoo River and the rugged hills that overlook them
have a history as diverse and fascinating as the geography
itself.
Prehistoric
Indians were the first inhabitants of Yazoo County.
They built mounds (pictured to the left) that dot our
land, but left only these and stone arrowheads to attest
to their existence.
The
descendants of these Indians living in Central Mississippi
were first met and described in 1682 by a French explorer,
La Salle, coming down from Canada to discover the course
of the Mississippi River. Besides the largest and most
important tribe, the Choctaws, he found several quite
small and completely distinct tribes, all in small villages
near the mouth of the Yazoo River. The biggest were
the Tunica’s, numbering about 1700. The Chocchumas,
Coroas, Ofoconlas, Taperchas, Ibetoupas and Yazoos were
fewer. The Yazoos had about 600 souls. Each group had
its own language, but all these tribes had similar customs.
They worshipped the Great Spirit. They erected poles,
hanging scalps, all around the villages. As the wind
blew through these it made a whispering sound which
they believed to be messages from the “great Spirit”
telling them to go fight anyone they met.
Each
year the Indians gathered for their ball games. They
brought the bones of those who died during the year
for burial. Several days were spent feasting and visiting
before the games started. They settled boundary dispute
disagreements and tribal controversies by playing stick
ball. Many were hurt or killed during the game that
lasted several days. They were great gamblers, betting
all of their possessions even their wives, anything
but their bones!
Their
courtship and marriage problems were very simple. The
mother or sister of a youth would select a suitable
girl and carry gifts to her. If she accepted them that
signified her willingness to accept him. She simply
disappeared from her mother’s tent and joined
him.
When
the French began to colonize their newly-claimed Louisiana
Territory in 1699, founding forts in Biloxi, Mobile,
New Orleans and Natchez, they sent Jesuit missionaries
up to work among these small tribes. There were priests
among the Yazoos when the Natchez Indians in 1728 rose
up against Ft. Rosalie in Natchez and massacred every
Frenchman there. The Yazoos supported the Natchez and
the priests in their area had to flee to New Orleans.
When
the French returned two years later to completely annihilate
the Natchez, their Yazoo allies suffered too. Furthermore,
new European diseases like measles and whooping cough
had begun to decimate all the Indians, and by 1831 there
were only an estimated 130 Yazoos left. And these few
soon disappeared from history.
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