| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Extinct as a tribe | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| United States (Mississippi) | |
| Languages | |
| Tunica language | |
| Religion | |
| Native tribal religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Tunica,Koroa, Tioux |
TheYazoo were atribe of theNative AmericanTunica people historically located along the lower course of theYazoo River in an area known as theMississippi Delta. They were closely related to otherTunica language–speaking peoples, especially the Tunica,Koroa, and possibly the Tioux.
| Yazoo | |
|---|---|
| (unattested) | |
| Native to | United States |
| Region | Mississippi |
| Ethnicity | Yazoo |
| Extinct | (date missing) |
Tunican?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
Nothing is definitely known about their language, believed to be related toTunica, alanguage isolate.
French explorers and missionaries documented the tribe. In 1699, FatherAntoine Davion of the Quebec Seminary of Foreign Missions in New France (Canada) established amission among the Tunica.
At this time, the Yazoo, like theChickasaw, were under the influence of the English traders fromCarolina on the Atlantic coast. In 1702, the Yazoo aided theKoroa in killing the French priest Nicholas Foucault and his three companions. The seminary temporarily withdrew Fr Antoine from the area.
In 1718, the French established a fort near the village of St. Pierre to command the river. In 1722 the youngJesuit priest Jean Rouel was given the Yazoo mission near the French post. He worked there until the outbreak of theNatchez revolt in 1729.[1]
At that time, the Yazoo and Koroa joined with theNatchez in attacking the French colonists, in an attempt to drive them out of the region altogether.
On November 29, 1729, the Natchez attackedFort Rosalie, killing more than 200 people, including the Jesuit priest Paul Du Poisson. They carried off as captives most of the French women and children, and their African slaves. On learning of the event, the Yazoo and Koroa, on December 11, 1729, waylaid and killed Rouel and his black slave. The next day, they attacked the neighboring post, killing the whole garrison. The tribes buried Rouel's body. His bell and some books were afterward recovered and restored to the French by theQuapaw. Another priest,Stephen Doutreleau, was attacked on January 1, 1730, but was able to escape.[2]
TheNatchez War of 1729 was a disaster for French settlements in Louisiana. The colonists withdrew in retreat toNew Orleans. It was also a disaster for the Natchez and Yazoo. The French allied with theChoctaw for retaliation and overwhelmingly defeated the Natchez and Yazoo. They sold survivors intoslavery on Caribbean plantations. The Chickasaw captured many other Yazoo men and sold them into slavery to Carolina-based traders.[3] This ended the Yazoo as a tribe; their survivors intermarried with the Chickasaw, Africans, and other peoples.
John Grisham's story "Casino", included in the short-story collectionFord County (2009), turns on a shady businessman in present-dayMississippi gathering several dozen people with purported Yazoo ancestry to seek tribal status. He gainsfederal recognition for them as aNative American tribe, which would enable them to use their land to develop a gamingcasino.
