Tattooed Arm (French: Bras Piqué; died after 1731) was the Female Sun of the

Natchez people ttps://archive.org/details/dcouverteett01marg The Internet Archive website The Natchez ( , ) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area in the Lower Mississippi Valley, n ...

in the early 18th century. The Natchez were matrilineal, and while the

paramount chief A paramount chief is the English-language designation for a king or queen or the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a Chiefdom, chief-based system. This term is used occasionally ...

was a man, this title was inherited through his mother, the Female Sun. Tattooed Arm was the mother of the Great Sun (in office from 1728), and the daughter of the previous female sun, "White Woman" (died 1704). She was the sister of war chief

Tattooed Serpent Tattooed Serpent (died 1725) (Natchez language, Natchez: Obalalkabiche; French language, French: Serpent Piqué) was the war chief of the Natchez people of Grand Village of the Natchez, Grand Village, which was located near Natchez, Mississippi, N ...

(d. 1725) and the Great Sun (d. 1728). Like her brothers, she was friendly to the French, and had attempted to warn them of plans by her tribe to attack them by surprise. In early 1731 the French besieged a Natchez fort in the Tensas watershed. Several hundred Natchez, mainly women and children, surrendered to the French under a false offer of amnesty. Tattooed Arm may have surrendered then, or may have stayed in the fort until escaping with almost all of the remaining defenders during a rainstorm. In any case, Tattooed Arm was later interviewed by

Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz (1695?–1775)

in New Orleans. Tattooed Arm may have been among the 291 Natchez people who were sent to the French colony of

Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colonization of the Americas, French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1803. The name derives from the Spanish main city on the isl ...

in May 1731, where they were sold as slaves. Her original Natchez name is unknown.

Notes

References

*Mehta, J. M. (2013). "Spanish Conquistadores, French Explorers, and Natchez Great Suns in Southwestern Mississippi, 1542–1729". ''Native South'', 6(1), 33–69. *Sayre, G. M. (2002). "Plotting the Natchez Massacre: Le Page du Pratz, Dumont de Montigny, Chateaubriand". ''Early American Literature'', 37(3), 381–413. {{authority control Year of birth missing Year of death missing Natchez people Native American women in warfare Pre-statehood history of Louisiana French slaves Women in 18th-century warfare 18th-century Native American women 18th-century American women 18th-century Native American people

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