The French Chickasaw War of 1736

After the first French Chickasaw War, (see last post) Jean Baptiste Le Moyne d=Bienville, the governor of Louisianna, became obsessed with annihilating the Chickasaws, and for almost 30 years he did everything in his power to accomplish that goal. I saw a statue of him in New Orleans. They should replace it with a statue of a Chickasaw warrior. The same goes for Andrew Jackson, but I digress.

Down through history the rights of indigenous peoples have been disregarded, and the Native Americans were no exception. Even now, most history books portray history from the point of view of the settlers, making homes for themselves in a savage wilderness, and protecting themselves from wild animals and Indians. It's easy to excuse or to even justify the cruelty with which the Indians were treated when you look at history in this way, but when these Native Americans are your ancestors, your family, you start to see things in a different light.

The colonial powers, the Spanish, the French and British considered North America as a prize to be divided up among themselves. The Indian tribes were just one of the obstacles in their way. The Indians were manipulated with bribes and lies to become allies of one side or the other, or if they were obstinate they were subjugated either by military force or by educating and "civilizing" them. No consideration was given for their rights as individual human beings, not to mention  the fact that they were the rightful owners of the continent.

One of the things I admire about the Chickasaws is that throughout their history they never allowed themselves to be intimidated. They learned to communicate and to negotiate without being cheated; they learned to use the white man's technology to defend themselves and to improve their lives, they learned to use diplomacy to deal with their neighbors and to play the Europeans off against each other, and when these methods failed, the Chickasaws were tough enough to defend themselves.

They proved that to the Spanish in 1541 and to the French and British in 1720. The French, who just barely survived their war with the Chickasaws, said of them, "These people breathe nothing but war … are unquestionably the bravest of the continent." The assessment by the British, who were fortunate to be allies of the Chickasaws, was that the Chickasaw Nation was strategically located to "command all the water Passages between New Orleans and Canada, and from that River to the backs of our Colonies," and the Chickasaws themselves were "expert Horsemen (having perhaps the finest breed of Horses in N. America); by much the best Hunters; and without Exception … the best Warriors."

With the typical European attitude however, the British proceeded to use the Chickasaws to insinuate their influence among other tribes in the region, and to further their ultimate goal of taking the region for themselves. The Chickasaws cooperated because they still enjoyed the British trade and didn't feel threatened by the British colonists. They even managed to turn some of the Choctaw and Natchez in the area to the British side. The situation came to a head in 1729 when Natchez warriors attacked two French settlements, killing 250 Frenchmen and taking 300 women and children hostage. The French retaliated by practically annihilating the Natchez tribe. The survivors sought refuge among the Chickasaws. The French blamed the whole affair on the Chickasaw influence, and when the Chickasaws refused to hand over the Natchez refugees, they murdered three Chickasaw agents.

This started a series of raids by the Chickasaws on French shipping along the Mississippi, and retaliation by the French and their Choctaw allies against Chickasaw towns. The French also paid bounties to warriors from northern tribes for hostages from Chickasaw villages.

Bienville, who had been away in France for three years, returned in 1732 and decided that this situation was unacceptable. He decided to mass his forces, not Indians this time, but French regulars whom he would lead personally, to defeat the Chickasaws once and for all. 

Bienville's spies assessed the Chickasaw strength, and mapped their villages. He built a fort on the northern boundary of the Choctaw Nation, Fort Tombeckbe, from which to base his campaign. He assembled 600 French soldiers, and 600 Choctaws of unquestioned loyalty, and he ordered the commander of French troops in Illinois, Major Pierre D'Artaguette, to meet him at his new fort in March 1736.

Meanwhile the Chickasaws were not idle. They enclosed their households in pallisades; built forts around their towns, surrounding them with shoulder deep trenches, and built their arsenal of British made weapons. 

On March 25, 1736, on the way to meet Bienville, D'Artaguette made the mistake of trying to plunder a Chickasaw village for supplies. The warriors in the Chickasaw village pinned down D'Artaguette's men until reinforcements arrived. Then they massacred the French. All but 20 were killed or captured. D'Artaguette and a priest were burned alive by the furious Chickasaws. Then it was the Chickasaws who did the plundering, retrieving 450 pounds of powder, 12000 bullets and 11 horses from the French baggage train.

Two months later Bienville was ready for his main attack. He chose the village of Akia, the site which I visited with my mother in 1960. Bienville marched his forces forward, flags flying, drums beating, and guns blazing at 3 oclock in the afternoon, May 26, 1736. Bienville's forces broke through the Chickasaws' outer defenses, but as they poured into the village they were caught in a crossfire between the fortified households. When the first French units were cut to pieces, Bienville sent in reinforcements, but they met with the same fate. It was only three hours before Bienville withdrew in defeat. 

Informed by the French minister to the colonies that the King was anxious to restore "The honor of France" and that 700 additional troops were being sent to insure "the destruction of the Chickasaw Indians" Bienville began again to plan for an attack on the Chickasaws. It took him three years to prepare for his second campaign. This time he would supplement his forces with cannons and bombs to help destroy the Chickasaw fortifications. In Autumn of 1739 Bienville proceeded up the Mississippi River with 3600 troops. Additional troops were sent from Canada.

The Chickasaws were aided by the weather during this second conflict with Bienville. Heavy rain caused the French baggage train to bog down along the 100 mile route from the Mississippi River to the principal Chickasaw settlements, and the Chickasaws delayed it further by launching attacks along the way. Finally Bienville sent out a detachment of 600 Canadian troops, augmented by Choctaw and Iroquois mercenaries, to attack a Chickasaw town. After a two day siege and numerous casualties, the Canadians withdrew and sent the Chickasaws a message requesting a peace parlay. The French met with a Chickasaw delegation in February, 1736, and agreed to cease hostilities and exchange prisoners.

After his second failure to defeat the Chickasaws, Bienville was replaced as governor of Louisiana by the Marquis de Vaudreuil. The Chickasaws continued to harass the French by attacking their settlements and shipping, and by creating dissension among the Choctaws. While there is no definite proof of it, it has been said that Vaudreuil tried again and failed to annihilate the Chickasaws in 1752.

At any rate the Chickasaws held their own against the French until the conclusion of the French and Indian war in 1763. Although they were not invited to the negotiations in Paris, they Chickasaws were largely responsible for the French giving up their claims to the territory from Canada to Mobile.

Some day, if there's any justice, maybe a statue of a Chickasaw warrior will be placed in New Orleans, to recognize that it was the Chickasaws Indians who were responsible for dominance of the British over the French in North America.     

The French Chickasaw War of 1720

When I graduated from high school we took a family vacation through the southern states, and in Mississippi my mother stopped and showed me the site of the early Chickasaw town of Akia where an important battle had been fought. Years later in 1971, a history professor at the University of Oklahoma, Arrell Gibson, wrote a book about the Chickasaws, and I got a copy. From it I learned that the battle of Akia was the decisive battle in the French Chickasaw War, along with a lot of other fascinating things about our tribe and about our family. That was when I started to share my mother's passion for Chickasaw history. 

The French Chickasaw War is another example which supports the Chickasaw  motto, "Unconquered and Unconquerable." If you know anything about Indian history, this is a surprising claim for any Indian tribe. The story of Native Americans was typically that of one defeat after another, by arrogant, ruthless Europeans. The Indians, naively trusting the promises of foreign representatives, outgunned by superior weapons, and eventually outnumbered by settlers, were not just defeated. They were exiled to remote unwanted areas of the country, where many still live in poverty, clinging to their proud traditions and self respect. 

The history of the Chickasaws is different. The Chickasaws managed to adapt to changing times and often as not came out ahead in their encounters with white culture, both in times of war and in times of peace.

I've already described how Hernando de Soto learned to respect the Chickasaws in 1541, the hard way. It was almost 150 years before the Chickasaws were confronted by the white man again. By 1700 there were English settlements all along the Eastern seaboard, and French settlements to the north in Illinois and Quebec, and to the south in Mobile. The Indian tribes in the Mississippi valley were almost all allied with the French, but not the Chickasaws.

The Chickasaws were different for several reasons. Firstly they had traded with both the French and the British, and had decided that the British goods were better and cheaper. Also they were further inland than most of the tribes so their domain was not yet threatened by settlers. The Chickasaws were acquainted with British traders though, and several traders had even married into the tribe, bringing with them not only an understanding of the English language, but also some savvy in negotiating with Europeans. It was one of these intermarried traders, James Adair, who wrote the most authoritative description of Chickasaw culture during the late 1700's.

The Chickasaws took advantage of their relationship with the British traders, and by 1700 they were well equipped with metal knives, hatchets and rifles. Not only that, they understood the value of the horse. The Chickasaws now raised their own horses and had become expert horsemen. Chickasaw women had replaced their clay pots with metal ones; they used metal hoes for tilling their gardens, and they often dressed in woven fabric instead of animal skins.

The French governor of the Louisianna Province at the time, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, wanted to establish control of the Mississippi River for transporting goods from northern French settlements. Surveying the situation, Iberville came to the conclusion that the only obstacle in his way were the Chickasaws. From their vantage point at the Chickasaw Bluffs near Memphis, Tennessee, the Chickasaws could control traffic down the Mississippi River, and they seemed to have formed an alliance with the British.

In 1702 Iberville invited a Chickasaw delegation to his headquarters in Mobile, where he promised to protect them from attacks by their sister tribe the Choctaws if they would sever their ties with the British. On the other hand Iberville threatened to support the Choctaws and to turn the other tribes in the region against them if they refused. The Chickasaws thanked the French for their protection and returned to their homes.

One of Iberville's tactics for securing control of the various Indian tribes was to send missionaries to live among them. The missionaries could then report back on the tribe's activities. So after the Mobile council, Iberville sent a missionary to the Chickasaws, a young man named St. Michel. When St. Michel didn't report back as planned, the Choctaws, trying to stir up trouble, told the French that the Chickasaws had killed him. The Chickasaws responded by returning St Michel safe and sound, thereby foiling the French plans to spy on them.   

The Chickasaws did continue to trade with the French, but at the same time they increased their trade with the British, because they preferred their goods. Besides that, trade with the French became more and more difficult. In order to reach Mobile, the Chickasaws had to cross the Choctaw domain risking attack by their enemies, or travel a long circuitous route. They tested the French promise to protect them from the Choctaws by asking for an escort for one of their trading parties, but the Choctaws attacked the party anyway and several Chickasaws were killed.

During the next 18 years tensions grew between the Chickasaws and the French. The French were frustrated that their threats had not disrupted the Chickasaws' relationship with the British, and the harrassment of Chickasaw traders by the Choctaws continued. The Chickasaws began to suspect that the attacks were inspired by the French. In 1720 the Chickasaws discovered a Frenchman they believed to be spying on them and put him to death. They then proceeded to shut down French traffic on the Mississippi River at the Chickasaw Bluffs, and to make raids on French settlements further south.

The French didn't feel they had enough troops to engage in an all out war with the Chickasaws, so they hired Choctaw mercenaries to do their fighting for them. The Choctaw attacks not only failed militarily, the Chickasaws started using diplomacy, telling the Choctaws they should trade with the British also. So in 1720, after four years of a failed war and isolation from their northern settlements, alarmed that they might soon lose the support of the Choctaws, the French suspended their war against the Chickasaws. Trade was resumed between the French and the Chickasaws, and the Mississippi River was reopened to French traffic.

The Louisianna Council of War decided that the Chickasaws had been "sufficiently punished" and the "honor of France" sustained, but Jean Baptiste Le Moyne d'Bienville, who had replaced Iberville as governor before the war, decided that the Chickasaws, because of their obstinacy, would remain a problem. Bienville started making plans to build up French forces for an attack on the Chickasaws that would wipe them off the map.   

To be continued.