Natchez

Natchez, a renowned North American nation, formerly powerful in the lower Mississippi basin above the Delta, where is now the city of Natchez; two divisions, Na'htchi and Taensa, extinct all but four Na'htchi, living (1892) with the Creeks of Indian Territory and a few in the Cherokee Hills. Most of the Natchez were destroyed by the French in 1730, when the survivors took refuge amongst the Chickasaws and Upper Creeks. The Natchez was a stock language fundamentally distinct from all others; but much doubt prevails regarding the affinities of the Taensa, the grammar of which, with vocabulary and texts, published by J. D. Haumonte in 1882, is believed, on internal evidence, to be a fraud. (D. G. Brinton, American Antiquarian, March 1885, pp. 109-14.)