Tattooed Serpent

Tattooed Serpent (died 1725) (Natchez: Obalalkabiche; French: Serpent Piqué) was the war chief of the Natchez people of Grand Village, which was located near Natchez in what is now the U.S. state of Mississippi. He and his brother, the paramount chief Great Sun, allied his people with the French colonists. He was a friend of the colonist and chronicler Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz. Du Pratz described their friendship and Tattooed Serpent's death and funeral in detail in his chronicle.

The name Tattooed Serpent was traditionally adopted by the War Chief of the Natchez, who was always the younger brother of the Paramount Chief, whose official name was Great Sun. Thus, the Tattooed Serpent who died in 1725 and was a friend of Du Pratz was preceded by his own maternal uncle (died 1700), who was also called Tattooed Serpent while in office. On his death in 1725, Tattooed Serpent was succeeded by his sister's second eldest son, who took the same name. As an emblem of the office, he was decorated with the elaborate tattoo of a serpent circling his body from his foot to his mouth.

In 1723, Tattooed Serpent helped the French negotiate a peace treaty after the Second Natchez War 1723, which ended the attacks on the French by the Natchez of the White Apple Village. He was such a friend of the French that, according to the chronicle of Dumont de Montigny, his sister, called La Glorieuse by the French, said that "he was like a Frenchman".

At his death, he and his older brother were both succeeded by much younger men. The alliance between the French and the Natchez became unstable, as the leaders of the pro-British White Apple village gained influence. This eventually led to the Natchez Massacre of 1729, and the end of amiable relations between the French and the Natchez.

Le Page du Pratz describes in great detail the events surrounding the death of Tattooed Serpent, including his funeral. When he died, his brother, the Paramount Chief Great Sun, was so grief-stricken that he wanted to follow his brother in death by suicide. Le Page du Pratz managed to prevent the Great Sun from doing so.

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