The Chakchiuma were a

Native American tribe In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, Indigenous tribe, or Tribal nation may be any current or historical Tribe (Native American)#Other uses, tribe, band, or nation of Native Americans in ...

of the upper

Yazoo River The Yazoo River is a river primarily in the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is considered by some to mark the southern boundary of what is called the Mississippi Delta, a broad floodplain that was cultivated for cotton plantations before the Ame ...

region of what is today the state of

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

. In the late 17th century, French explorers identified the Chakchiuma as "a Chicacha nation," indicating that they were related to the Chickasaw and similar Western Muskogean speaking–tribes. They likely shared a common origin as the Chickasaw and

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

people and merged into the Chickasaw Nation in the mid-18th century.Galloway, "Chakchiuma," 496.

Name

According to Swanton, the name was originally ''Sa'ktcihuma'' "red crawfish," referring to the tribal

totem A totem (from or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage (anthropology), lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While the word ...

. This name is cognate with the Choctaw ''shakchi humma'' "red crawfish". It has appeared in European language sources in a variety of ways, including as ''Sacchuma'' and ''Saquechuma'' in records of de Soto's travels, and as ''Choquichoumans'' by d'Iberville. Swanton argued that the name ''Houma'' derives from ''Chakchiuma''.

History

The first historical reference to the Chakchiuma is found when

Hernando de Soto Hernando de Soto (; ; 1497 – 21 May 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, ...

sent a contingent of troops against them while he was staying with the

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is ...

. In 1700, English colonists from the

Province of Carolina The Province of Carolina was a colony of the Kingdom of England (1663–1707) and later the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1712) that existed in North America and the Caribbean from 1663 until the Carolinas were partitioned into North and Sou ...

convinced

Quapaw The Quapaw ( , Quapaw language, Quapaw: ) or Arkansas, officially the Quapaw Nation, is a List of federally recognized tribes in the United States, U.S. federally recognized tribe comprising about 6,000 citizens. Also known as the Ogáxpa or � ...

warriors to attack the Chakchiuma to capture members of their tribe to sell into slavery in the

Carolinas The Carolinas, also known simply as Carolina, are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the southwes ...

. The ensuing attack was unsuccessful.Swanton. ''Indians of the Southeastern US'' p. 106 Historian Alan Gallay suggests the colonists turned to the Quapaw because their usual partners in the Indian slave trade, the Chickasaw, may have resisted attacking their own people. The Chakchiuma participated on the French side in the Yazoo War. In about 1739 the Chakchiuma were involved in hostilities, primarily with the Chickasaw, that led to their destruction as an independent tribe and their being incorporated into the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes. The Chickasaw and Choctaw had become so incensed that they not only killed all the Chakchiuma warriors but also every animal found in their villages. But the Chakchiuma were numerous enough to form their own clan (the Crawfish) within the Choctaw when they were incorporated into the latter group in the 1730s.

Historical populations

Based on Bienville's claim that there were 400 families of the Chakchiuma in 1702, historians estimate they numbered around or above 2000 persons in total, given what is known of the size of their families. By 1704 their numbers had fallen to 80 families due to war. They likely had fewer than 500 people. Bienville recorded there were only 60 families by 1735. Phillippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, governor-general of

New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...

wrote that they had been wiped out in warfare; however, Jerome Courtance, a white trader, wrote in 1757 survivors had settled in Chickasaw villages.Galloway, "Chakchiuma," 498.

Notes

References

* Galloway, Patricia
"Chakchiuma" in ''Handbook of North Americans Indians.''
Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004: 496–498. {{authority control Chickasaw Muskogean tribes Extinct Native American tribes Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands Native American tribes in Mississippi Pre-statehood history of Mississippi