For my mother, Claudia Williams Rees, who was born and raised in Natchitoches, Louisiana.
Prologue
In the mid 17th century, many Indian tribes lived in the areas of eastern Texas and northern Louisiana along the Red River and Sabine River. One such tribe, called the Caddo Indians, lived there long before the first French and Spanish explorers arrived. As time passed, the tribe eventually split into smaller tribes and settled in other nearby areas as explorers began to encroach upon their territory.
At the turn of the 18th century, exploration of the New World was well underway. France and Spain continued to push further into the heart of North America, by way of the Mississippi River. Merely a few decades had passed since the 30 Years’ War in Europe, yet tensions still ran high between France and Spain in the New World. The French explorers sought to establish trade with the natives and help them improve their way of life. The Spanish made their way with missionaries that came along to spread the Christian Word to the natives. The race was on, to claim new territory, and establish strategic positions in this part of the New World burgeoning with promise and opportunity. Many times their paths crossed in these strange new lands.
Yet, the explorers were accompanied by only small military fronts. They found it best to travel up the local rivers and tributaries with traders and small companies of soldiers to try and establish good relations with the local Indian tribes. Good progress was made, but resentment and opposition from some tribes was culminating, for the newcomer’s presence was not welcome.
French explorers were deeply interested in establishing roots in the fertile lands of the lower Mississippi for purposes of trade and settlement. But, they were also wary of Spanish explorers in Texas pushing into their territory from the West.
For the most part, the native tribes welcomed the newcomers for their livestock trade, and building and farming skills. In turn, the natives showed the settlers the art of hunting in these foreign lands. The land was called La Louisiane, or “Land of Louis”. Just a few short years earlier, Robert Cavelier de La Salle had claimed the land for France in the name of King Louis XIV. The land would become known as the Louisiana Purchase nearly a century later.
This is a fictional account based on true persons and events in the oldest settlement of this territory, which is nearly three hundred miles inland from the mouth of the Mississippi River. This particular area, near the head of the Red River, was called Natchitoches. It was named for the local tribe, which the French settlers befriended in the early 1700’s. The French were led by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis. The story tells of the tribe’s settlement in the area, their first encounter in 1701 with the French explorers, their move to Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans in 1702, and then their eventual, yet historic, return to their homeland in 1714. Their return to a small tributary near the head of the Red River, called the Riviere aux Cannes, or the Cane River.