BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY


try to reconcile their claims here with those made to Du Pratz and
other writers. According to the former, they anciently extended
from east to west a distance of more than twelve days' journey, and
fifteen from north to south, and counted more than 500 Suns.a From
this data Du Pratz supposes that they had occupied all of the coun-
try from the Manchac to the Ohio.b On this point Le Petit says:
" In former times the nation of the Natchez was very large. It
counted 60 villages and 800 Suns, or princes; now it is reduced to
6 little villages and 11 Suns." And La Harpe: "According to
their report they had formerly counted 1,900 Suns in their nation
and more than 200,000 persons." d
 While such statements have small historic value, there is no doubt
that the Natchez had formerly been a larger tribe than when the
French first met them. In view of the rapid decrease which these
peoples are known to have suffered, it is not at all improbable that
Tonti's figure of 1,500 warriors in 1686( is correct, and that between
this date and 1698 they had lost one-third. An examination of the
later figures for this tribe leads the writer to suggest the following
estimates: 600 warriors and 2,100 people in 1730, 250 warriors and
825 people in 1734, 135 warriors and 470 people in 1800. At the
present time there remains only a small neighborhood and some
scattered individuals in the Cherokee Nation, among whom but four
speak the language. The figures for other, tribes show a similar
though not in all cases as striking a decline.
 The following may give a rough idea of their total population at
various periods:
 Tainsa, 875 in 1690, 400 in 1730, 100 in 1764, 70 in 1805. Now
extinct.
 Avoyel, 280 in 1098, 140 in 1715, 2 or 3 in 1805. Now extinct.
 Quinipissa, practically destroyed in 1700.
 Bayogoula, 825 (with Quinipissa) in 1698, 350 in 1702, 140 in 1715.
Fused with Acolapissa and Houma by 1739.
 Acolapissa, 1,050 in 1698, 700 in 1722. Fused with Houma by 1739.
 Houma, 1,225 in 1698, 700 in 1700, 450 in 1718, 300 in 1739 (includ-
ing the remnants of the two preceding), 180 in 1758, 75 in 1784, 60 in
1804. (See p. 291.)
 UTpper Yazoo tribes, 750 in 1698, 250 in 1722. United with Chicka-
saw by 1770.
 Washa, Chawasha, and Okelousa, 700 in 1698, 315 in 1715, 100 to
120 in 1739, 60 to 75 in 1758. Now extinct or united with Houma.
 Pascagoula, 455 in 1698, 260 in 1720, 150 in 1805, 111 in 1829.
Now extinct.
 SDu Pratz, Hist. de La Louisiane, ii, 338. d La Harpe, Jour. Hist., 29, 1831.
 SIbid., 223. e Margry, Dkcouvertes, III, 556.
 Jes. Rel., LXVIII, 135.


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