In 1716, the Natchez Indians allowed the French to establish a fort in what is now Natchez and ceded several tracts of land for French settlers.

At first there was peace, but as the years passed, conflicts arose because the French began to take too much land from the Natchez, leading to war in 1729.

As a result, the French virtually wiped out the Natchez Indians, and much of their defining culture was lost. However, several Frenchmen who had contact with the Natchez provided valuable written evidence about them.

The major European source for this information is from Antione-Simon Le Page du Pratz, who lived among the Natchez from 1720 to 1728, and who wrote about them in a series of articles for the Journal Economique from 1751-1753. These articles led to his book, Histoire de la Louisiane, published in 1758. An English version became available in 1774.

Little is known about Du Pratz. Many sources state he was probably born in the Netherlands, but was raised in France. He served as a dragoon in the French army in the 1713 War of Spanish Succession. He graduated from Cour de Mathematique, and he claimed that he was both an engineer and professional architect. Du Pratz described himself as being six feet tall, with head full of bright red hair, and that the Natchez name for him was Handsome Head. He was also, as designated by the “du” in his name, a member of the nobility.

He left France for Louisiana in May 1718, and moved to the Natchez area in 1720, where he became a tobacco farmer. He lived there until 1728, and during those years he learned the language and customs of the Natchez Indians, and he became friends with The Great Sun, the Natchez chief; and The Great Sun’s brother, Tattooed Serpent, who served as the war chief.

Du Pratz observed and wrote about many aspects of the Natchez culture. One of his most interesting observations was that the men and women spoke their language with a different accent.

Many of the French soldiers attached to the region courted the Natchez maidens, and learned the Natchez language from them. To the amusement of the Natchez men, and Du Pratz, these soldiers always spoke the language with a feminine accent, making them appear effeminate.

One of the things that astounded Du Pratz about the Natchez were their medical treatments, which were, in many ways, far ahead of European medical knowledge at the time.

Twice he was cured by a Natchez healer, once for an infection in one his legs that a French surgeon stated could only be healed by going back to France, and once for an eye infection called a fistula lacrymalis.

A French physician had wanted to cure the eye infection by applying fire to his eye, which would have cured it, but the treatment was painful and would have left it permanently bloodshot. The Natchez healer used a system of soaking the eye in an herbal solution twice a day for eight days which took care of the problem and left no visible effect.

Du Pratz was very interested in the Natchez social organizations which according to Jim Barnett in his book The Natchez Indians as were many others of the French who wrote about them because their tribal rankings were similar to the European class system of that period. They were also surprised by the fact the Natchez ruler was The Great Sun, and the French King Louis the XIV, who ruled France from 1643 to 1715, had styled himself the “Sun King”.

Du Pratz left the Natchez region in 1728, escaping 1729 Natchez Rebellion, when most of the French in the Natchez area were killed by the natives. He returned to France in 1734, but he did not write about Louisiana until 1751. His writings offer a unique insight into the lives of the Natchez Indians because he used the words of the Natchez themselves to describe their manner and customs rather than the detached style used by most of colonial writers of the period.

H. Clark Burkett is a historian at Historic Jefferson College.