Other SOUTHEAST INDIANS shared some of the Natchez cultural traits, having chiefs with great authority as well as an agriculture-based economy and organized village life. Yet when Europeans arrived and began recording information about the Native peoples, the Natchez had by far the most elaborate caste system, that is, a division of society into social classes, with strict rules governing behavior.
In addition to the king, known as the Great Sun, there was a royal family at the top of the pecking order. The king’s mother, referred to as White Woman, lived on top of her own mound and served as the king’s adviser. From among his brothers or uncles, called Little Suns, were chosen a war chief and a head priest. His sisters were called Women Suns and also had influence and power among all the other Natchez.
Below the Suns were the Nobles, an aristocratic class decided by heredity. Nobles had positions of rank in war parties and village functions. Below them were the Honored Men and Honored Women, who were lesser nobles. One could achieve this social status through deeds, such as bravery in warfare or piety in religious matters.
Below the royalty and aristocracy was a class of commoners, called Stinkards (although not in their presence, because the name offended them). They performed all the menial tasks, such as farming and building mounds.
But there was a bizarre twist to this rigid social structure. All grades of royalty and nobility, even the Great Sun himself, could not marry among their own class. They had to marry Stinkards. Stinkards could marry among themselves, and their children would naturally be Stinkards too. But when a male from the upper classes had children, they were always a grade below him. For instance, children of male Suns and Stinkards were automatically nobles. The children of Nobles or Honored Men and Stinkards were automatically Stinkards.
On the other hand, the children of Women Suns and Stinkards were Suns; the children of female Nobles and Stinkards were Nobles; and the children of Honored Women were Honored People. Thus, although the men had the greater decision-making power in Natchez society, social rank was decided through the female line. And Stinkards had the opportunity to better their lives through marriage.
There was another strict rule governing the behavior of the nobility. When a Noble died, his or her Stinkard mate and servants would have to give up their lives to accompany the deceased to the next world.
This complex social system of the Natchez endured long after the arrival of Europeans in the Natchez homeland—first the Spanish in the 1500s (Hernando de Soto and his companions probably made contact in 1541—43), then the French in the 1600s (Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle was the first to use the Natchez name in writings about his travels along the Mississippi River in 1682). The caste system continued into the following century, when the French established a mission among the Natchez in 1706 and then, after 1713, a trading post and fort. Yet in 1729, Natchez culture was disrupted because of a war with the French, and before long, the tribe faded to extinction.