Page:A Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages.djvu/14

 The Biloxi appear to have had an unusual facility for escaping observation, for, although they must have been a fair-sized tribe in his day, Du Pratz omits them entirely from his systematic review of Louisiana tribes. The only mention he makes of them is incidentally in connection with the post of Biloxi, when he remarks that there “was formerly a little nation of this name.”ᵃ From this time on, the tribe appears to have lived near the Pascagoula and on good terms with the French at Mobile. Their history is a blank, however, until the end of French dominion and the beginning of English government in 1763. This change was not at all to the liking of most of the Mobile tribes, and the following year a number of them obtained permission to settle across the Mississippi in Spanish territory. The Biloxi probably went in this migration, but the first we hear of them is in 1784, when Hutchins states that they were west of the Mississippi near the mouth of Red River.ᵇ Their settlement, however, can hardly have remained long in the low country close to the Red River mouth, so that Sibley is probably not far from the truth in saying that they first settled “at Avoyall.”ᶜ According to another authority there were two Biloxi villages in the present parish of Avoyelles, one just back of Marksville and the other at the mouth of Avoyelles bayou. The former was probably the more important, and is said to have been on a half-section of land adjoining that owned by the Tunica. It was granted by the Spanish Government to an Indian whose name is always given as Bosra, and the title was afterward confirmed by the United States.ᵈ Soon afterward, however, the Indians either sold or abandoned this land and moved higher up Red River to Bayou Rapides, and thence to the mouth of the Rigolet de Bon Dieu.ᵉ In 1794-1796 they moved once more and established themselves on the south side of Bayou Bœuf below a band of Choctaw who had come to Louisiana at about the same period. Two years later the Pascagoula followed and settled between the Biloxi and Choctaw.ᶠ Early in the nineteenth century the Biloxi and Pascagoula sold their lands to Messrs. Miller and Fulton, the sale being confirmed by the United States Government May 5, 1805,ᵍ but a part of the Biloxi continued to live in the immediate neighborhood, where they gradually died out or became merged with the Choctaw and other Indian tribes. A still larger part, if we may trust the figures given by Morse, migrated to Texas, and in 1817 were on what is now called Biloxi bayou, Angelina county.ʰ The ultimate fate of

ᵃ Du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, I, p. 42.

ᵇ About 10 miles above the Tonicas village, on the same side of the river, is a village of Pascagoula Indians of 20 warriors; and a little lower down, on the opposite side, there is a village of Biloxi Indians containing 30 warriors.—Hutchins, Hist. Narr. La., p. 45.

ᶜ Ann. of Cong., Ninth Congress, 2d sess., p. 1085.

ᵈ Amer. State Papers, Pub. Lands, III, p. 243.

ᵉ Sibley in Ann. of Ninth Cong., 2d sess., p. 1085.

ᶠ Amer. Stat Papers, Pub. Lands, II, pp. 792-796.

ᵍ Ibid., p. 791

ʰ Morse, Report on Indian Affaires, 1822, p. 373.