The Natchez Nation was a powerful Native American people in the early days of European colonisation. Located in about nine separate towns along St. Catherine's Creek (east and south of modern Natchez, Mississippi), they had a highly stratified and theocratic government led by a male leader referred to as 'The Sun'. The royal bloodline was matrilineal, meaning 'The Sun' achieved his office through kinship to a woman; a man did not pass his titles to his son, but rather they were inherited by his nephew (his sister's son).
The Natchez were a formidable force when they first made contact with Spanish explorers and then French colonists. Illness and warfare took their toll; after three wars with the French - in 1716, 1722 and 1729 - Natchez society collapsed and the peoples scattered. In 1729, perhaps one-half of the population remained of the pre-1716 era. Most survivors settled with the Creek, with English colonists or in Chickasaw towns; the latter two groups ended up with the Cherokee within fifty years due to subsequent intraethnic conflict. Those living with the Upper Creek fled with these peoples after the Red Stick War ended in 1814 and also took refuge with the Cherokee.
The Natchez language is apparently an isolate, although a very distant relationship to the Muskogean languages is possible. Its two last speakers were Watt Sam and Nancy Raven; it became extinct in the 1930s.
