Biloxi tribe

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Biloxis are Native Americans of Siouan stock. They call themselves Tanêks(a). When first encountered by Europeans in 1699, Biloxis inhabited an area near the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the vicinity of what is now the city of Biloxi, Mississippi. They were eventually forced west into Louisiana and eastern Texas. Today, remaining Biloxis share a small reservation with the Tunica, an unrelated people, in Marksville, Louisiana. The Biloxi language--Tanêksąyaa ade--has been extinct since the 1930s when the last known native semi-speaker, Emma Jackson, died.

Since Biloxis, like most Native Americans, were people of oral tradition who did not keep written records, little is known of Biloxi history prior to their contact with Europeans. There is no mention of the Biloxis in the documentation of the Hernando de Soto expedition of 1540. Their first known contact with Europeans was in 1699 when they encountered the French Canadian Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville who was establishing France's Louisiana colony. D'Iberville was told that the Biloxi nation was formerly quite numerous, but that their people were severely decimated by a disease epidemic (smallpox, or variola) that left an entire village abandoned and in ruins.

Remaining Biloxis were later found residing in various parts of the Southeast, including in Louisiana and Texas, often living with other peoples such as Caddo, Choctaw, and most recently, Tunica.

Although historically of Siouan origin, Biloxis shared similar features to other cultures of the Southeast, or what anthropologists call the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC). They were an agricultural society, although they supplemented their agrarian diet by hunting deer, bear, and bison (Kniffen et al. 1987) and year-round they fished the bounty provided by the multitude of rivers, streams, and bayous of the Gulf area (Brain 1990). As in many largely agrarian societies, control of access to granaries and storage facilities as well as controlled distribution of their contents led to a stratified society revolving around the Yaaxitąąyą, or "Great Sacred One," the highest ruling noble, king or queen. The Yaaxitąąyą had a cadre of lesser nobles or deputies called ixi. The Biloxi word for "king" or "chief," ąyaaxi or yaaxi, is also the word for "medicine person" or "shaman," thus indicating that these rulers were also spiritual practitioners, perhaps similar to the "shaman-kings" of ancient Maya polities.

Biloxis "were descendants of the mound-building Mississippian people...." (Brain 1990: 80). Like their neighbors, Natchez, Choctaw, and Tunica, Biloxi settlements probably centered around large earthen pyramidal structures, commonly called "mounds", as well as temples and large ceremonial plazas in which crowds would gather for community events, such as probably quite impressive spiritual and political spectacles. Some of these spectacles no doubt involved the Yaaxitąąyą.

D'Iberville described coming upon a deserted village after it had been stricken two years prior by disease. The village contained remnants of cabins made of mud with roofs covered in tree bark (in Dorsey & Swanton 1912: 6).

According to the data Dorsey compiled for the 1912 dictionary based on solicited vocabulary items and conversations with his Biloxi informants, in traditional Biloxi culture prior to the arrival of Europeans, men wore breechcloth or breechclout, usually made of deerskin which was "passed between the legs and tucked up under a belt before and behind, with considerable to spare at either end" (Swanton 1985: 681). Belts were made of skin or of beaded cord. "Men covered the upper parts of their bodies with a garment or garments made of the skins of various animals, such as the bear, deer (particularly the male deer), panther, wildcat, beaver, otter, raccoon, squirrel, and bison. Some of these were made long, were used particularly by old people, and were intended for winter wear" (ibid.). Leggings were worn during cold weather or to protect the legs from underbrush. The lower portions of leggings were tucked under the rims of moccasins and the upper ends were usually fastened to the belt by means of straps (ibid.: 682). Biloxis made implements and utensils from bison and deer horn and wore ornaments of cut and polished seashells. Some Biloxis had facial tattoos and wore nose- and/or earrings (Dorsey & Swanton 1912).

While little is known of Biloxi funereal practices among commoners, the bodies of deceased ąyaaxi were dried in fire and smoke. The preserved bodies were then placed in an upright position on red poles stuck into the ground around the central interior of a temple. The last deceased would be set up on a platform near the front entrance of the temple and food would be "offered" to him daily by visitors (De Montigny 1753: 240).

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[edit] References

Brain, Jeffrey (1990), The Tunica-Biloxi. Indians of North America series. New York: Chelsea House Publishers.
De Montigny, Dumont (1753), Mémoires historiques sur la Louisiane. Paris.
James Owen Dorsey. and J. Swanton (1912), A Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages. Bureau of American Ethnology, 47. Washington, D.C.
Kniffen, Fred & H. Gregory & G. Stokes. 1987. The historic Indian tribes of Louisiana: from 1542 to the present. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.