A bronze plaque of a handsome Indian chief has been erected in a granite wall overlooking the great “Father of Waters”, in memory of the Natchez Indian tribe from which the city of Natchez derives its name.

The Natchez Indians were of Aztec origin and were in possession of the Natchez country when the French came in 1700. They were sun-worshiping Indians, and their great chief proclaimed himself “brother to the Sun”.

White Apple village, ten miles south of Natchez, was headquarters of the Natchez tribe. They resented the invasion of the French explorers into their country, and because of an insult (real or fancied) to their Chief by a French Commandant, on November 28, 1729, the Indians slaughtered the entire French settlement at Fort Rosalie. Later a French colony, with the assistance of the Choctaws, a warring Indian tribe, annihilated every member of the Natchez tribe.

Undoubtedly this was the country of the Natchez tribe, and the beautiful plaque is a deserved reminder of the days when the land was one hundred per cent American.