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The Tunica treasure is a group of artifacts from the Tunica-Biloxi tribe discovered in the 1960s. Their discovery led to a protracted legal battle over their ownership, and the eventual passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Site

Trudeau Landing, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is located in Tunica, Louisiana.

Terminology

The term Tunica treasure was introduced by archaeologist Jeffrey Brain, a name which he later came to regret.

Background

In the spring of 1541 Hernando de Soto and his army approached the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, coming upon the Province of Quizquiz (pronounced "keys-key"). These people spoke a dialect of the Tunica language, which is a language isolate. At that time, these related groups covered a large region extending along both sides of the Mississippi River in present-day Mississippi and Arkansas, as the expedition would soon learn.

It was 150 years before another European group recorded the Tunica. In 1699 the LaSource expedition (coming downriver from French Canada) encountered the Tunica, describing them as a modestly sized tribe numbering only a few hundred warriors. They and other peoples had suffered from smallpox epidemics, which had high mortality rates as they had no natural immunity to this new disease carried by Europeans.

The Tunica were skilled traders and entrepreneurs, especially in the manufacture and distribution of salt, a valuable item to both native and Europeans.

By the early 18th century, the tribes along the lower Mississippi River were a target of Chickasaw raids for the English slave trade in South Carolina. By 1706 the Tunica decided to move.

As their enemies the Natchez were to their immediate south, they moved to the Mississippi side of the Mississippi and Red River confluence. This allowed them to keep control of their salt trade, as the Red River also connected to their salt source in the Caddoan areas.

They established a loose collection of hamlets and villages at present-day Angola, Louisiana. The archeological remains of a small hamlet from this time period were discovered in 1976 by an inmate of Angola Prison. It is known as the Bloodhound Site.

Tunica treasure

In the 1960s, graves at the site were dug up by a local self-described treasure hunter, who worked as a guard at Louisiana State Prison (Angola). He took many artifacts from the area, which had been deposited as grave goods with the more than 100 graves. The Tunica felt that he had stolen tribal heirlooms and desecrated the graves of their ancestors and were outraged at the violations. He tried to sell the artifacts to the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, but the transaction stalled when the museum found that he did not have legal title to the items.

In the 1970s, the site was excavated by archaeologists, who uncovered large amounts of pottery, European trade goods, and other artifacts deposited as grave goods by the Tunica from 1731 to 1764 when they were in residence. With help from the State of Louisiana, the tribe filed a lawsuit to obtain the title to the artifacts.

A decade passed in the courts, but the ruling became a landmark in Native American history, and it helped lay the groundwork for new Federal legislation, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, passed in 1990. It was also used to prove the ancient heritage of the Tunica peoples, and helped them to gain state and Federal recognition.

A museum to house the artifacts was built by the Tunica-Biloxi, in Marksville, Louisiana. They are using it also as a conservation and education center for preservation of their artifacts.

In the 1960s a treasure hunter named Leonard Charrier began searching for artifacts at the Trudeau Landing site in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. The Tunica, who felt he had stolen tribal heirlooms and desecrated the graves of their ancestors, were outraged.

In the 1970s the site was excavated by archaeologists, uncovering large amounts of pottery, European trade goods and other artifacts deposited as grave goods by the Tunica from 1731 to 1764 when they occupied the site. With help from the State of Louisiana, the tribe filed suit to gain title to the artifacts, which has subsequently become known as the "Tunica treasure". The case took a decade to be decided in the courts, but the ruling became a landmark in American Indian history. It helped to lay the groundwork for new federal legislation, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), passed in 1990.

Because the artifacts had been separated from the original burials and connections were lost, the tribe decided to build a museum to house these items. Members of the tribe were trained as conservators in order to repair damage done to the artifacts by the centuries underground and handling during the ten-year court battle. The museum was built in the shape of the ancient temple mounds of their people, with the earthen structure to take the symbolic place of the original burial underground. It opened in 1989 as The Tunica-Biloxi Regional Indian Center and Museum. Due to structural problems, it was closed in 1999, with plans for a new larger facility underway. Today the Tunica Treasure collection is housed in the Tunica-Biloxi Cultural and Educational Resources Center, a state-of-the-art facility that includes a library, conservation center, distance-learning center, conference facilities, tribal offices, and museum on the tribal reservation in Marksville. Eighty percent of the artifacts of the Tunica Treasure have been restored.

See also

• List of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition
• Mississippian culture
• List of Mississippian sites
• Southeastern Ceremonial Complex
• Mound Builders

References

1. Brain, Jeffrey P. (1979). Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (ed.). Tunica Treasure. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. ISBN 978-0-87365-196-7. OCLC 1056207351. The 'Tunica Treasure' is the label I carelessly applied to this extraordinary collection for its faintly alliterative sound, but have since come to regret in the light of subsequent developments.
2. Sabo III, George. "Tunica and Koroa Indians". Indians of Arkansas. University of Arkansas. Archived from the original on 2010-06-12. Retrieved 2010-02-10.
3. Brain, Jeffrey P. "On The Tunica Trail: Quizquiz". Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
4. Brain, Jeffrey P. "On The Tunica Trail: Angola Farm". Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
5. "Bloodhound Hill Site". Louisiana Historic Preservation's National Register of Historic Places Database. Retrieved 2017-12-27.
6. "On the Tunica Trail-Tunica Biloxi Today". Archived from the original on 2007-09-19. Retrieved 2010-02-10.
7. Jeffrey P. Brain (1990). The Tunica-Biloxi. Chelsea House Publishers. p. 93. ISBN 1-55546-731-8.
8. Day, Bill. "On The Tunica Trail: Tunica-Biloxi Today". Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
9. "Tribal Museum and Cultural Resources Center". Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana. Archived from the original on 2014-08-11.
10. Dana Bowker Lee, "Louisiana Indians in the 21st Century", Louisiana Folklife, 18 October 2013

External links

• United States
• Louisiana
• Indigenous peoples of the Americas

• Indian Mounds Louisiana
• Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, official website
• Tunica-Biloxi History
• The Peabody Man, biography of Jeffrey Brain

v t e Mississippian and related cultures
List of Mississippian sites Timeline of Mississippi valley
Middle Mississippian	American Bottom and Upper Mississippi Aztalan Big Eddy Cahokia Monks Mound Mound 34 Mound 72 Ramey state Woodhenge Cloverdale Dickson Mounds Emerald Acropolis Emmons Cemetery Horseshoe Lake John Chapman Kuhn Station Larson Lunsford-Pulcher McCune Mitchell Orendorf Sleeth Starr Steed-Kisker culture Sugarloaf Mound Lower Ohio River and Confluence area Adams site Dogtooth Bend Mounds Kincaid Mounds Marshall Site Millstone Bluff Orr-Herl Rowlandton Mound Towosahgy Turk Site Twin Mounds Ware Mounds Wickliffe Mounds Middle Ohio River Angel Mounds Angel phase Annis Mound Bone Bank Caborn-Welborn culture Ellerbusch Hovey Lake-Klein Hovey Lake District Murphy Prather Slack Farm Tolu Welborn Village Yankeetown Tennessee and Cumberland Backusburg Beasley Mounds Brentwood Library Brick Church Castalian Springs Dunbar Cave Fewkes Group Hiwassee Island Link Farm Mound Bottom Riverview Sellars Obion Old Town Swallow Bluff Central and Lower Mississippi Belle Meade Boone's Boyd Campbell Carson Chucalissa Denmark Eaker Janet's Menard-Hodges Murphy Nodena Nodena phase Owl Creek Parkin Quigualtam Tipton phase Tunica Koroa Yazoo Walls phase
South Appalachian Mississippian	Adamson Avery Beaverdam Creek Bell Field Mound Bessemer Biltmore Blair Bussell Island Chauga Chiaha Chota Citico Coosa Dallas phase Dyar Etowah Garden Creek Hoojah Branch Irene Jere Shine Joara Joe Bell King Lamar Lamar phase Liddell Little Egypt Long Swamp Mabila Mandeville McMahan Moccasin Bend Moundville Mouse Creek phase Mulberry Muscogee (Creek) Nacoochee Nikwasi Ocmulgee Park Mound Pisgah phase Punk Rock Shelter Rembert Roods Landing Rucker's Bottom Savannah Shiloh Sixtoe Summerour Taskigi Tomotley Toqua Town Creek Waddells Mill Pond Wilbanks
Fort Walton culture	Anhaica Apalachee Apalachee Province Cayson Corbin–Tucker Fort Walton Mound Lake Jackson Leon-Jefferson culture Letchworth Velda Yon
Pensacola culture	Bottle Creek Dauphin Island Fort Walton Hickory Ridge Cemetery Naval Live Oaks Cemetery Pensacola people
Plaquemine Mississippian	Anna Atchafalaya Basin Emerald Fitzhugh Flowery Fosters Ghost Glass Grand Village of the Natchez Holly Bluff Jaketown Jordan Julice Mangum Mazique Medora Mott Natchez Taensa Pocahontas Routh Scott Place Sims Transylvania Venable Winterville
Caddoan Mississippian	Battle Belcher Blue Spring Shelter Bluffton Caddo Caddoan Mounds Gahagan Hughes Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village Keller Spiro
Upper Mississippian cultures	Oneota Anker Beattie Park Blood Run Carcajou Point Fifield Fisher Mound Group Gentleman Farm Grand Village of the Illinois Griesmer Hartley Fort Hotel Plaza Hoxie Farm Huber Juntunen Knoll Spring Mero site Moccasin Bluff Oak Forest Palos Plum Island Roche-a-Cri Petroglyphs Schwerdt Summer Island Fort Ancient culture Alligator Effigy Mound Clover Dodge Leo Petroglyph Serpent Mound SunWatch Indian Village
Culture	Agriculture Beans Chenopodium Little barley Maize Marshelder Pumpkin Squash Sunflower Three Sisters Tobacco Artwork Emmons mask Copper plates Rogan plates Spiro plates Wulfing cache Duck River cache Long-nosed god maskette Mill Creek chert Pottery Shell gorget Stone statuary Languages Caddoan Central Algonquian Cherokee Mobilian Jargon Muskogean Natchez Taensa Siouan Timucuan Tunican Yuchi Religion Ballgame (Southeastern) Northern Black drink Burial mound Ceremonial pipe Chanunpa Chunkey Earth/fertility cult Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Platform mound Red Horn Sacred bundle Village bundle Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stone box grave Thunderbird Underwater panther
Related topics Chevron bead Clarksdale bell Mound Builders de Soto Expedition

• Culture of the United States
• American Indian reservations in Louisiana
• Archaeological sites in Louisiana
• Native American history of Louisiana
• Archaeological cultures of North America
• United States federal Native American legislation
• Tunica-Biloxi
• West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana