Are Not the Lands Our Own? Tunica Diplomacy in Spanish Louisiana and British West Florida 1763-1783

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Ellis, Elizabeth Nicole
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History

Abstract

Following the partition of French Louisiana in 1763, Spain and Britain strove to establish control of the Lower Mississippi Valley. Lacking the military might to rule their territorial spoils by force, British and Spanish colonial officials sought to build alliances with local Indigenous peoples, and use economic and political persuasion to press these Indian nations into exclusive imperial relationships. Spain and England hoped that these ties would help them lay claim to the territories inhabited by local nations, and grant them proxy rule over the lands. Despite European efforts to politically and geographically restrict the movements of Indian peoples, smaller tribes such as the Tunicas, recognized that residence along the Mississippi presented them with an opportunity. Rather than limiting their diplomatic relations to only one colony, during the 1760s and 1770s, the Tunicas cultivated alliances with both England and Spain and thereby sought to maintain a position of regional power.

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