Chakchiuma

The Chakchiuma were a Native American tribe of the upper Yazoo River region of what is today the state of Mississippi. The identification of the Chakchiuma by the French of the late 17th century as "a Chicacha nation" indicates that they were related to the Chickasaw and of similar Western Muskogean stock. They likely shared a common origin as the Chickasaw and Choctaw people and were absorbed into the Chickasaw Nation in the mid-18th century.Galloway, "Chakchiuma," 496.

Name

According to Swanton, the name was originally ''Sa'ktcihuma'' "red crawfish," referring to the tribal totem. This name is cognate with the Choctaw ''shakchi humma'' "red crawfish". It has appeared in European language sources in a variety of ways, including as ''Sacchuma'' and ''Saquechuma'' in records of de Soto's travels, and as ''Choquichoumans by'' d'Iberville. Swanton argued that the name ''Houma'' derives from ''Chakchiuma''.

History

The first historical reference to the Chakchiuma is found when Hernando de Soto sent a contingent of troops against them while he was staying with the Chickasaw. In 1700, English colonists from the Province of Carolina convinced Quapaw tribesmen to attack the Chakchiuma in order to capture members of their tribe to sell into slavery in the Carolinas; the ensuing attack was unsuccessful.Swanton. ''Indians of the Southeastern US'' p. 106 Historian Alan Gallay suggests the colonists turned to the Quapaw because their usual partners in the Indian slave trade, the Chickasaw, may have resisted attacking their own people.

The Chakchiuma participated on the French side in the Yazoo War. In about 1739 the Chakchiuma were involved in hostilities, primarily with the Chickasaw, that led to their destruction as an independent tribe and their being incorporated into the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes. The Chickasaw and Choctaw had become so incensed that they not only killed all the Chakchiuma warriors, but also every animal found in their villages. But the Chakchiuma were numerous enough to form their own clan (the Crawfish) within the Choctaw when they were incorporated into the latter group in the 1730s.

Historical populations

Based on Bienville's claim that there were 400 families of the Chakchiuma in 1702, historians estimate they numbered around or above 2000 persons in total, given what is known of the size of their families. By 1704 their numbers had fallen to 80 families because of infectious diseases introduced by European contact. They likely had fewer than 500 people. Bienville recorded there were only 60 families by 1735 Phillippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, governor-general of New France wrote that they had been wiped out in warfare; however, Jerome Courtance, a white trader, wrote in 1757 survivors had settled in Chickasaw villages.Galloway, "Chakchiuma," 498.

Notes

References

* Galloway, Patricia
"Chakchiuma" in ''Handbook of North Americans Indians.''
Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004: 496–498.

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Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands
Native American tribes in Mississippi