Interconnectedness and Diversity in ?French Louisiana? - Georgia ...
Interconnectedness and Diversity in ?French Louisiana? - Georgia ...
Interconnectedness and Diversity in ?French Louisiana? - Georgia ...
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that the <strong>French</strong> had a right to defend themselves <strong>and</strong> avenge the kill<strong>in</strong>gs at the Natchez post. 62<br />
For most Indians, fight<strong>in</strong>g Chickasaws was less cut <strong>and</strong> dry harder to justify. While often<br />
enemies of the Quapaws <strong>and</strong> Choctaws, their ma<strong>in</strong> offense here was harbor<strong>in</strong>g fugitives. 63 More<br />
importantly, the Chickasaws were more populous <strong>and</strong> better armed, <strong>and</strong> start<strong>in</strong>g a war aga<strong>in</strong>st<br />
them would decisively cut off the English trade that they brokered.<br />
Much of the debate surrounded the nature of alliance. To all, alliances entailed<br />
obligations, with<strong>in</strong> limits. As Patricia Galloway has demonstrated, Europeans <strong>and</strong> Indians often<br />
<strong>in</strong>terpreted one another’s vocabularies <strong>and</strong> symbols of alliance differently, a mis<strong>in</strong>terpretation<br />
useful <strong>in</strong> first encounters but that could cause difficulties <strong>in</strong> determ<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g responsibilities <strong>in</strong> times<br />
of crisis. 64 Reciprocal by nature, the alliances were under no one people’s control. Hav<strong>in</strong>g the<br />
same enemy did not necessarily make two peoples <strong>in</strong>to allies. In the spr<strong>in</strong>g of 1734, 150<br />
Quapaws go<strong>in</strong>g to fight the Natchez came across a b<strong>and</strong> of Tunicas on the same mission. They<br />
<strong>in</strong>stead began to argue, reviv<strong>in</strong>g their old animosity. Just before their warriors came to blows, the<br />
Tunicas turned home, <strong>and</strong> the Quapaws did the same, both ab<strong>and</strong>on<strong>in</strong>g their war plans. 65 At least<br />
out <strong>in</strong> the field, their old rivalry trumped their opposition to their common enemies <strong>and</strong> their<br />
common alliance with the <strong>French</strong>. <strong>French</strong> officials <strong>in</strong>structed their allies to destroy the<br />
Chickasaws, but the Quapaws, Tunicas, <strong>and</strong> Choctaws fought accord<strong>in</strong>g to their own methods<br />
<strong>and</strong> goals.<br />
Choctaws had vary<strong>in</strong>g reactions to this <strong>French</strong>-Chickasaw war. The divided nature of the<br />
Choctaw polity meant that different divisions ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong>ed ties with different neighbors, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
62 Régis du Roullet to Maurepas, journal abstract for October 9, 1730, MPAFD, 1: 182-183.<br />
63 Still, this was an offense. Choctaw War Chief Red Shoe expla<strong>in</strong>ed that accept<strong>in</strong>g refugees could mean tak<strong>in</strong>g on<br />
the refugees’ enemies. Régis de Roullet to Périer, March 16, 1731, MPAFD, 4: 70.<br />
26