It was 150 years before another European group records the Tunica. In 1699 when encountered by the LaSource expedition ( coming downriver from Canada ), the Tunica were a modest tribe numbering only a few hundred warriors. By the time the French arrived, the Central Mississippi Valley was sparsely occupied by the Quapaw, who were significant allies to them and aided their successful settlement.
The French established a mission among the Tunica around 1700, on the Yazoo River. Father Antoine Davion was assigned as the missionary for the Tunica, as well as the smaller tribes of the Koroas, the Yazoo, and Couspe (or Houspe) tribes. The Tunica were skilled traders and entrepreneurs, especially in the manufacture and distribution of salt, a valuable item to both native and Europeans. Tunica were the middlemen in the movement of salt from the Caddoan areas to the French.
By the early 18th century, the tribes along the lower Mississippi River were a target of Chickasaw raids for the English slave trade in South Carolina. By 1706 the Tunica decided to move. With their enemies the Natchez to their immediate south, they moved to the Mississippi side of the Mississippi and Red River confluence. This allowed them to keep control of their salt trade, as the Red River also connected to their salt source in the Caddoan areas. They established a loose collection of hamlets and villages at their new home in Angola, Louisiana.
In 1729 the chiefs of the village sent emissaries to potential allies, including the Yazoo, Koroa, Illinois, Chickasaw, and Choctaw. The Natchez Rebellion or Natchez War expanded into a larger regional conflict with many repercussions. The Tunica were initially reluctant to fight on either side.
After the attack at Angola, in 1731 the Tunica moved a few miles away to the Trudeau site. Over the years, they buried as grave goods large amounts of European trade goods, including beads, porcelain, muskets, kettles and other items, as well as locally produced pottery in the Tunica tribal style. When discovered in the 20th century, these artifacts attested to the extensive trade with Europeans, as well as the wealth of the Tunica. They stayed at this location into the 1760s, when the French ceded control to the Spanish following the Seven Years' War.
In 1764 the Tunica moved fifteen miles south of the Trudeau Landing site to just outside the French settlement at Pointe Coupée. During this time, numerous Anglo-American settlers migrated into the region. The Tunica had become acculturated to European ways, although they still tattooed themselves and practiced some of their native religious customs. With the British in charge of the Western Florida colony at this time, and the Spanish in control of Louisiana, politics were volatile in the area. In 1779 Governor Galvez led a force which included Tunica and other tribes to take the British-held town of Baton Rouge. This was the last military campaign for which the Tunica were recorded.
By sometime in the late 1780s or 1790s, the Tunica moved again, probably because of the large influx of Anglo-Americans. They moved west to a site on the Red River named Avoyelles. The only U.S. government mention of the Tunica from 1803 to 1938 was made in 1806 by an Indian Commissioner for Louisiana. He noted that the Tunica only numbered about 25 men, lived in Avoyelles Parish, and made their livings by occasionally hiring out as boatmen. Although the Tunica were prosperous at this time, eventually problems with their white neighbors would take its toll. The Tunica became subsistence farmers, with some hunting and fishing to support themselves. Others turned to sharecropping on their white neighbors' land. As the 20th century dawned, the Tunica talked about their ancient heritage. They had managed to retain possession of the majority of their land, some still spoke the Tunica language, and their traditional tribal ceremonies were still being practiced.
The modern Tunica-Biloxi tribe live in Mississippi and east central Louisiana. The reservation has a land area of 1.682 km². The Tunica language is a language isolate. When the last known fluent speaker, Sesostrie Youchigant, died, the language became extinct. Linguist Mary Haas worked with Youchigant to describe what he remembered of the language, and the description was published in A Grammar of the Tunica Language in 1941, followed by Tunica Texts in 1950 and Tunica Dictionary in 1953.
External links:
http://www.tunicabiloxi.org/tribal_history.php?PHPSESSID=1ef4b2c007154f00763bcb4a9883c8aa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunica-Biloxi
