Also known as the Fatherland site, the “Grand Village” of the Natchez Indians is one of Mississippi's most significant post-contact sites on the Mound Trail. An on-site museum houses exhibits and a gift shop. Currently, MDAH is consulting with tribal communities and scholars to expand the museum and upgrade the overall site condition and interpretation. MDAH expects to complete the new museum building within the next five years. To signify this project, MDAH has renamed the site the Natchez Tribal History Center.
According to a map made in 1723 by Ignace-François Broutin, the “Grand Village” originally had at least six earthen mounds. According to French sources, four of the mounds were in use during the 1720s; two others may have been abandoned by that time. Mounds A, B, and C are still visible. Theother three were covered by layers of colluvium and alluvium or destroyed sometime during the mid-nineteenth century by levee construction, agriculture, and erosion. Archaeologists have determined that the mounds were built during the Plaquemine Period, beginning around AD 1350, though people were living at the site by AD 1200 or earlier. Beginning around AD 1680, the site was the principal town and capital of the Natchez chiefdom and home to its most important political and religious leaders, including the Great Sun and his brother, Tattooed Serpent, who were encountered by the French in the early eighteenth century.
Of the original earthworks, Mounds A, B, and C remain. Mound A has been eroding into St. Catherine Creek since the early twentieth century or earlier and all that remains of it is a small rise. Broutin's map indicates that it had multiple buildings on its summit at the time the map was drawn. The function of the buildings is unknown. Pottery recovered from the mound also indicates that it was occupied until the early eighteenth century.
Two buildings on the summit of Mound B were identified on French maps as the residence of the Natchez chief or Great Sun. This has been corroborated by professional archaeologists, who excavated the mound in the early 1960s. These excavations revealed that the mound was built in four stages and that each mound stage had a chief's house on its summit. The final stage of Mound B contained European trade goods. Mound B has been restored to the dimensions recorded by the French.
Mounds C and D were identified by the French as temple mounds. Mound D, the "old temple," was never investigated by archaeologists and is not visible on the contemporary landscape. Mound C, the "new temple," was excavated in the 1930s. Like Mound B, Mound C was also constructed in four stages, with the two latest stages supporting structures on their summits. Archaeological findings indicate that this mound likely served a prominent role in Natchez cultural practices. Mound C has also been restored to its original dimensions.
Very little is known about mounds E and F, which are visible on Broutin's map but had disappeared from the landscape by the time archaeologists began excavating at the site. The village portion of the site, located between Mounds B and C, was excavated during the 1970s. Archaeologists discovered four superimposed residential buildings as well as a 6-inch accumulation of household refuse, called a midden, and speculated that one of the buildings was the residence of an important person such as the Tattooed Serpent, who served as an important diplomat for the Natchez in the early 1700s.
The "Grand Village" was abandoned by the Natchez in 1730, when the French and their Native American allies laid siege to the village. A recent survey in 2019 by MSU archaeologist Dr. Tony Boudreaux relocated Mounds D and E through ground penetrating radar and magnetometry investigations. In recognition of its outstanding cultural and historical significance, the Fatherland site has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
