Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana

The Tunica and Biloxi Indians have lived on their reservation near Marksville, Louisiana, for over two centuries, during which the tribes, though speaking completely different languages, intermarried. The first half of the motto on the Tunica-Biloxi flag, "Cherishing Our Past," refers to the Tunica's pre-Marksville history -- an odyssey without parallel among Lower Mississippi Valley tribes. As recounted by Dr. Jeffrey P. Brain in "The Tunica Trail", the Tunica inhabited Quizquiz, a great center of power in northwestern Mississippi when the Spanish explorer De Soto encounteredthem in 1541. The Tunica exercised influence over a wide territory, encompassing present-dayArkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, and even Florida. They were traders and entrepreneurs of the first order. Under severe pressure from European diseases,famine, and warfare, the Tunica steadily moved southward, following the Mississippi River.

The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana operates a construction company, gaming commission, housing authority, tribal court, and health and social services divisions. Its museum was razed in 1999 and is being replaced by the Cultural and Educational Resources Center. The business entity was established in 1974 and incorporated in 1989; the history of the native Biloxi and Tunica tribes, however, goes back centuries, if not millennia. French explorers first encountered the Tunica tribe in the late 17th century.