Tunica-Biloxi

[5] Many live on the Tunica-Biloxi Indian Reservation (31°06′48″N 92°03′13″W / 31.11333°N 92.05361°W / 31.11333; -92.05361) in central Avoyelles Parish, just south of the city of Marksville, Louisiana, and overlapping its boundaries.

[6] In the spring of 1541 Hernando de Soto and his army approached the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, coming upon the Province of Quizquiz (pronounced "keys-key").

The lord of the province, who like his land was called Quizquiz, was now old and sick in bed; but on hearing the noise and confusion in his village, he arose and came from his bedchamber.

Then beholding the pillage and seizure of his vassals, he grasped a battle-ax and began to descend the stairs with the greatest fury, in the meantime vowing loudly and fiercely to slay anyone who came into his land without permission....

But the memory of valiant deeds and triumphs of his bellicose youth, and the fact that he held sway over a province so large and good as his, gave him strength to utter those fierce threats and even fiercer ones.Based on evaluations of the three surviving de Soto narratives for topography, linguistics and cultural traits, combined with archaeological excavations and analysis, most archaeologists and ethnohistorians have agreed to identify the Menard, Walls, Belle Meade, Parkin and Nodena phases as the de Soto-named provinces of Anilco, Quizquiz, Aquixo, Casqui and Pacaha, respectively.

In 1699 the LaSource expedition (coming downriver from French Canada) encountered the Tunica, describing them as a modestly sized tribe numbering only a few hundred warriors.

[13] By the early 18th century, the tribes along the lower Mississippi River were a target of Chickasaw raids for the English slave trade in South Carolina.

[16] In June 1730 the Head Chief of the Tunica, Cahura-Joligo, agreed to let a small party of Natchez refugees settle near his village (present-day Angola), provided they were unarmed.

A few days later, the chief of the Natchez arrived at the Tunica village with a hundred men, and an unknown number of women and children.

[17] In 1764 the Tunica moved 15 miles (24 km) south of the Trudeau Landing site to just outside the French settlement at Pointe Coupée, Louisiana.

In 1779 Governor Galvez led a force, which included Tunica and other tribal warriors, to take the British-held town of Baton Rouge.

In 1794 Marco Litche (recorded by the French as Marc Eliche), a Sephardic Jewish trader from Venice, established a trading post in the area.

After failing to regain power in its colony of Saint-Domingue, France sold the large territory known as the Louisiana Purchase to the fledgling United States in 1803.

Anglo-Americans migrated to Louisiana in great numbers, mostly from the southern United States, eventually changing its culture to one dominated by the English language and Protestant Christianity, especially in the northern parts of the area.

In the late 19th century, railroads surpassed the rivers as main avenues of trade and transportation, and the Marksville area became a quiet backwater.

They also tended to discount Indian identity among mixed-race people, failing to understand that they identified culturally and socially as Tunica.

By the late 19th century, the dominant white conservative Democrats imposed legal racial segregation after disenfranchising blacks and other minorities of color.

They had managed to retain possession of the majority of their communal land, some still spoke the Tunica language, and they still practiced traditional tribal ceremonies.

The tribe maintains its own police force, health services, education department, housing authority, and court system.

Former tribal chairman Earl J. Barbry Sr., was widely noted as one of the longest-serving chairmen in Indian Country, serving from 1978 until his death in July 2013.

[24] In the 1960s a treasure hunter named Leonard Charrier began searching for artifacts at the Trudeau Landing site in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.

With help from the State of Louisiana, the tribe filed suit to gain title to the artifacts, which has subsequently become known as the "Tunica treasure".

It helped to lay the groundwork for new federal legislation, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), passed in 1990.

[25] Because the artifacts had been separated from the original burials and connections were lost, the tribe decided to build a museum to house these items.

Members of the tribe were trained as conservators in order to repair damage done to the artifacts by the centuries underground and handling during the ten-year court battle.

The museum was built in the shape of the ancient temple mounds of their people, with the earthen structure to take the symbolic place of the original burial underground.

Acacia Entertainment is a joint venture between the Tribe's Economic Development Corporation and film producer Matthew George.

[32] Morris Swadesh and Mary Haas met her on a linguistic survey trip in September 1934 and confirmed her status as a speaker of the language.