On the morning of November 28, 1729, the Natchez attacked the French settlers established in their neighborhood, 300 kilometers north of New Orleans. Armed with rifles and “puzzles”, they killed more than 250 men, women and children, or 13% of the European population of Louisiana, Canada’s sister colony.
The carnage is without example in the history of New France. “It’s a mass killing taking on the appearance of war,” explains French historian Gilles Havard in an interview with The duty for the publication of his latest work devoted to the Natchez.
Unlike the Lachine massacre of 1689, perpetrated by Iroquois living hundreds of kilometers from Montreal, the Louisiana drama of 1729 features two groups having established close relationships. Hence the surprise of the unarmed victims shot at the door of their house or in their tobacco and corn fields. “This event remains a bit mysterious,” recognizes the specialist in colonial North America.
The Natchez have fascinated the French since their first contacts established at the end of the 17th century.e century during the travels of Cavelier de La Salle. “They were used to egalitarian indigenous societies with leaders without real power, like the Hurons and the Iroquois of Canada,” emphasizes Gilles Havard. But with the Natchez, they are dealing with a culture that seems extremely sophisticated to them. »
Natchez society, hierarchical, is dominated by a royal lineage, the Suns, and a leader, the Great Sun, who had to be transported on a stretcher in order to prevent him from touching the ground, like the ‘star. The solar attributes of this almost supernatural being were reminiscent of those of Louis XIV, the Sun King, who gave his name to Louisiana. “The French felt close to the Natchez, even though we are in a situation of maximum otherness,” explains Gilles Havard.
Northern Aztecs?
The Natchez habitat was organized around artificial mounds topped with temples, whose enclosure of stakes was decorated with skulls. In particular, sacrifices of loved ones of deceased Suns were practiced there. “Several dozen individuals could be put to death,” explains Gilles Havard. Namely, the entire household entourage of the Sun, some of his parents and elderly people, so that they accompany him to the land of the Dead. »
French observers were struck by the consent of the sacrifices who, during a ritual journey, walked with a firm step towards death, making circles evoking the shape of the solar star. “We then gave them an intoxicant mixed with tobacco then we put a deer hood on their heads before pulling the strangulation rope sharply. »
For Gilles Havard, the massacre of the end of 1729 could well be linked to this spectacular ritual of “accompanying death”. By socializing with their native neighbors, settlers established a kinship relationship, which would have exposed them to domestic sacrifice on a par with other Natchez. We would therefore be halfway between an act of war and an act of sacrifice.
The authoritarianism of the French commander, Dechepare, and the fact that the French were seen as failing allies would have acted as a trigger. The passage of the comet Sarrabat in the Louisiana sky in 1729 could have reinforced the decision of the Natchez to carry out this bloody attack. “The word comet,” Havard explains, “meant “war leader” in their language, and this may have reinforced the warlike climate. »
Terror
The massacre of November 1729 shook the inhabitants of New Orleans, who feared a widespread attack by all Native people. In 1730 and 1731, the governor of Louisiana, Étienne de Perier, organized reprisal operations by mobilizing his native allies.
The small war made up of ambushes was of no help to the Natchez, who retreated to their stockaded villages. The defeated warriors were shipped to Santo Domingo, present-day Haiti, to serve as slaves. The others took refuge among other indigenous nations.
The military campaigns continued until the end of the 1730s. They reached a peak in 1739 with the mobilization by Montrealer Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, governor of Louisiana, of a Franco-Native army. of 3,000 fighters, including a contingent of Hurons from Lorette and Iroquois from Montreal. These Aboriginal people converted to Catholicism traveled 2000 kilometers by canoe to strike the common enemy.
“This campaign illustrates the extraordinary capacity of the French to mobilize their Native American allies,” observes Gilles Havard. That said, the Natives did not make these expeditions as mercenaries, but because Native American men could realize themselves socially, individually through warrior exploits. »
Hardening
The “destruction” of the Natchez can be compared to that of the Foxes of Lake Michigan, which took place in parallel with, again, the enthusiastic participation of the indigenous allies of the French. “There is then a hardening of French military logic,” notes Gilles Havard, who however refuses the use of the word “genocide” to talk about these military operations. “There is relentlessness, but that does not involve the systematic death of prisoners,” recalls the specialist.
The “logic of terror” used against the Natchez and the Foxes still scratches the vision of an idyllic New France. “This historical episode is a thorn in the side of the thesis according to which the French got along better with the Aboriginal people than the British, the Spanish or the Americans. Even if this was still most often the case. »
In less than ten years, the 3000 Natchez were reduced to 500 individuals, who found refuge with the Creeks or the Cherokees. “Natchez society as it was organized at the beginning of the 18the century no longer exists, notes Havard, but there are elements of Natchez culture and identity which will be maintained in other ethnic frameworks. »
Wandering
The nation that terrorized Louisiana no longer represented a threat in the early 1750s, so much so that it disappeared from the correspondence between the governor of Louisiana and the ministers at Versailles. Bienville’s successor, Vaudreuil, another Canadian, even considered allowing their return to the Mississippi.
This historical episode is a thorn in the side of the thesis according to which the French got along better with the Aboriginal people than the British, the Spanish or the Americans. Even if this was still most often the case.
The Natchez would only see this mythical river again in the years 1836-1838, in another tragic context, during the forced transplantation of the Creeks and Cherokees from the southeast of the United States to Oklahoma. This deportation will end up crushing the memory of the French colonial wars that occurred a hundred years earlier. The Natchez oral tradition does not seem to have a precise memory of it, estimates Gilles Havard.
Should the “destruction” of the Natchez be included in the future National Museum of the History of Quebec announced at the end of April by Prime Minister François Legault? “French America must be studied as a whole,” replies Gilles Havard simply, referring to the bloc formed by Canada, Acadia and Louisiana. We must account for historical situations according to what they were, and not what we expect of them. »