Introduction to Paper 1 - The Chickasaw Villages
The locations of the eighteenth century Chickasaw villages have been problematic given the varied village names, their varied spellings and their apparently conflicting descriptions. Indeed, in 1736 and again in 1739 Bienville with his armies readying to attack the Chickasaws questioned their locations. Given his field intelligence, Bienville knew that the villages had/were moving. This paper attempts to answer not only the locations that Bienville pondered but also those described by the other village witnesses.
In 1980 the author wrote a paper entitled "Historic Chickasaw Village Locations" (Cook). The paper, using primary historic sources, provided specific locations for many of the eighteenth century Chickasaw villages.
Paper 1 serves to restate the previous paper's conclusions and provide other village locations from then unknown historic sources. Interpretive maps will be introduced to assist in locating villages.
Two companion papers follow on this web site. Paper 2, "Dating the Chickasaw Beads" will date the glass beads found within features in the Tupelo area; Paper 3 "Chickasaw Villages Defined by Bead Dating" will combine the bead dating and bead feature association and location to confirm or deny the village locations presented in this and earlier (Cook) papers.