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CERTAIN MOUNDS OF ARKANSAS AND OF MISSISSIPPI. By CLARENCE B. MOORE. PART II. MOUNDS OF THE LOWER YAZOO AND LOWER SUNFLOWER RIVERS, MISSISSIPPI. The Yazoo river has its origin in the northwestern part of the State of Mississippi , and flows in a southerly course through the eastern part of the alluvial plain of the Mississippi valley, to its union with the Mississippi river, near the city of Vicksburg. The Sunflower river has its source somewhat to the westward of that of the Yazoo, and continues southward to its junction with the latter stream, about 44 miles by water above Vicksburg. The Yazoo region is of considerable archooological interest, since the Yazoo Indians, who dwelt not far from the mouth of the river that bears their name, were at no great distance north of the famous Natchez Indians who, as the reader is aware, were found by the early explorers living near where now is the city of Natchez, Miss. The Yazoo had been, no doubt, long under the influence of the Natchez Indians, and in 1730 we find the Yazoo, on their return from a visit to the Natchez, massacring the small garrison of the French fort on the Yazoo river. According to Du Pratz, the Yazoo and other small tribes, after the Natchez troubles with the French, took refuge with the Chickasaw and were absorbed by them. B. F. French, however, says 1 there were still a few huts of the Yazoo on the Yazoo river so late as 185l. A list of the small tribes of the lower Yazoo is given by Coxe,2 and another by Chevalier Tonty,3 who says: "The Yazous are masters of the soil." Other lists are given by Du Pratz 4 and by Penicaut.15 Referring to the Yazoo river at the beginning of the eighteenth century, La Harpe 6 says: "Cabins of the Yazous, Courois, Offagoula and Ouspie are dispersed over the country lipon mounds of earth made with their own hands." 1 Hist. ColI. of La., Part III, p. 59, footnote. • French, Hist. CoIL, of La., Part II, p. 227. S Ibid., Part I, p. 82, et seq. • Histoire de la Louisiane, Paris, 1758, Vol. II, p. 226. 5 Rist. ColI. of La. and Fla., 1~69, p. 61. 6 Rist. ColI. of La., Part III, p. 106. 566 CERTAIN MOUNDS OF ARKANSAS AND OF MISSISSIPPI. There can be little doubt that in early times the Natchez-Yazoo region had a comparatively considerable population. Du Pratz attributes the great falling off in numbers of the Natchez tribe in his time (1720) to the many human sacrifices following the death of the greater and inferior" suns," or nobles, which, he says, were more destructive than the havoc wrought by war. But the Natchez had their wars also, for, although Charlevoix, speaking of them in 1721, says they rarely go to war and do not glory in the destruction of men, de Montigny, who saw them in 1699, speaks of them as then at war" with almost all the nations on the Mississippi." 1 De la Vente,2 who visited the lower Mississippi river in 1704, found most of the peoples there at war. "I could not say for how long back," he says, "their chief glory has been to take a few scalps from their enemies on the slightest pretext ." M. de la Vente adds that the English gave the Indians firearms and incited them to make war on each other in order that they (the English) could obtain slaves thereby. Parenthetically, it may be said that the English were not wholly to blame in the distribution of firearms. Of Indians of Mississippi we are told by Father Membre, who went down the Mississippi in 1682, that" they have also axes and guns, which they procure from the Spaniards, sixty-five or more leagues off." 3 Presumably all the causes given were contributory to the lessening of the number of aborigines, to which may be added the introduction of smallpox and of alcoholic drink. We shall now describe our work on the Yazoo and Sunflower rivers. As noted in previous memoirs, it is our practice to have agents, who are accustomed to the work, travel in advance over the region, the investigation of which we have in view, in order exactly to determine the situation of mounds and cemeteries, and to obtain the names and addresses of the owners; thus, in the winter season, in our flat-bottomed steamer, with a...

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