access to Blackland Prairie Trail (Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail) + a short nature loop trail
What is now Tupelo, MS was once the homeland of the Chickasaw people. This site is on land that is believed to have been a Chickasaw fort and village up through the 1700s (scroll down the page to read more about the area's rich history).
Today, the park service has interpretive signs and artist renderings of what the village would have looked like.
There are several hiking/walking options available at the Chickasaw Village Site. You can hike north to the Old Town Overlook site and further to the Parkway Visitor Center along the 6 mile long Blackland Prairie Trail (a segment of the Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail). Part of the trail requires walking on the parkway for road and creek crossings.
There is also a one half mile interpretive trail that identifies plants and their uses by American Indians. Hikers can make a loop by using the hiking trail and part of a horse trail (that extends further south to its trailhead on Jackson Street).
Here once stood an Indian village of several houses and a fort. During the summer they lived in rectangular, well-ventilated houses. In the winter they lived in round houses with plaster walls. In times of danger, everybody - warriors, women, children - sought shelter in strongly fortified stockades. Original foundations of four of these structures are overlaid with concrete curb on the ground.
The Chickasaw Nation - This tribe, population about 2000, lived in the Chickasaw Old Fields, a small natural prairie near Tupelo, Mississippi. Although their villages occupied an area of less than 20 square miles, the Chickasaw claimed and hunted over a vast region in northern Mississippi, Alabama, western Tennessee and Kentucky. The Chickasaw were closely related to the Choctaw, Creek and Natchez, as well as some the smaller tribes of the Mississippi Valley. De Soto's followers were the first Europeans to see the Chickasaw with whom they fought a bloody battle in 1541. The Chickasaw, after ceding the last of their ancestral lands to the United States, moved in 1837-1847 to Oklahoma to become one of the 5 civilized tribes.
The English-French Conflict 1700-1763 - England and France, after the founding of Louisiana fought four wars for control of North America. The Chickasaw became allies of the British, who used them as a spearhead to oppose French expansion. This tribe, with British help, not only remained independent, but threatened French shipping on the Mississippi. The French conquered or made allies of all the tribes along the Mississippi except for the Chickasaw. They made great efforts to destroy this tribe, sending powerful forces against them in 1736 and 1740 and incited the Choctaw and other tribes to do likewise. The Chickasaw successfully resisted and remained a thorn in the side of France, until she in 1763, lost all her North American possessions.
The French-Chickasaw War in 1736. The Chickasaw threatened French communications between Louisiana and Canada, and urged the Choctaw to trade with the English. Bienville decided to destroy the Chickasaw tribe. In 1735, he ordered a column of French and Indians led by Pierre D'Artaguette from Illinois to meet him near Tupelo. Bienville, leading a French Army joined by the Choctaws, proceeded via Mobile up the Tombigbee. Arriving at the Chickasaw villages, May 25, 1736, he saw nothing of D'Artaguette. D'Artaguette was dead. Two months earlier the Chickasaw had defeated and killed him and forced his followers to flee. Ignorant of D'Artaguette's defeat, Bienville attacked the fortified village of Ackia, May 26, 1736. Bloodily repulsed, he withdrew to Mobile, leaving the Chickasaw more dangerous than ever.
