The Natchez Indians are a famous Indian tribe because of their important complex social and ceremonial system. These Indians were also the last to inhabit the land of southwestern Mississippi. The Natchez Indian civilization started around 700 A.D. and lasted until the 1730s when the tribe was destroyed in a war with the French.( History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians, H. B. Cushman, N/A page) The Natchez Indians were very skilled workers and as well as farmers. They grew many crops and traded to the tribes that surround them. (http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/features/feature1/natchezindians.html, 9-12-03) In addition, they had a very organized way of living and splitting responsibilities within the tribe. Their society and their organization were divided in to 4 sections which made of the Natchez tribe. In addition, Mound building was very important to them because it was a scared place for religion and a place for the chiefs to live on. (http://www.natchezbelle.org/adams-ind/indians.htm, 9-12-03).
The government was an absolute despotism. The supreme chief was master of the people's labor, when he needed money or work, he would invite people to the feast where they brought supplies sufficient for entertainment and money to support the king and his family. Their society was organized into what researchers call a chiefdom, which was divided into four groups or sects. Membership in one rank or in the others was determined by heredity through the female line. This system is called matrilineal line and was common among many other Native American groups. The Natchez chief, called Great Sun, inherited his position of leadership from his mother's family .The Natchez were divided into 4 classes-the Sun, the nobility, the hornoreds and last the common people, called Stinkards. (http://www.mdah.state.ms.us/hprop/gvni.html , 9-15-03)While they understood each another, their dialects were different within the groups.
