Grand Village of the Natchez

The Grand Village (site 22 AD 501), also called the Fatherland site, is a 128-acre park holding three platform mounds built in stages from about 1200 CE by people of the Plaquemine culture, with significant construction again in the mid-1400s. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries it was the main political and religious ceremonial center of the Natchez nation, a role it took over from Emerald Mound. French explorers and priests left accounts of the Natchez mounds on St. Catherine Creek; two of the mounds, the Great Sun's Mound and the Temple Mound, have been excavated and rebuilt to their original sizes and shapes. A temple stood atop the Temple Mound where a sacred perpetual fire was kept, symbolic of the sun from which the Natchez royal family claimed descent.

French-Natchez relations collapsed after violence in 1716 and 1723, and after the 1729 Natchez attack on the French at Fort Rosalie, French retaliation forced the Natchez to abandon their homeland in 1730 and 1731. Natchez descendant communities survive today, and the site's museum interprets their history; the annual Natchez Powwow brings Native singing, dancing, and crafts to the grounds.

Visiting

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History operates the site. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, and Sunday 1:30 to 5:00 pm; admission and parking are free. See the museum, walk the nature trail and the three mounds, and check the calendar for the annual Natchez Powwow; the visitor center is limited to 15 people at a time. Call 601-446-6502.

Photo: NatalieMaynor, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mound,_Grand_Village_of_the_Natchez_Indians,_Natchez,_Mississippi.jpg))