The Natchez chiefdom was destroyed in the 1730s by the French ; Natchez speakers took refuge among their neighbors and accompanied them when they were eventually driven to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears . That meant that Natchez speakers were frequently multilingual in Creek , Cherokee , Natchez , and English , and the language gradually became endangered , and it is now generally considered extinct in spite of recent revitalization efforts . What is known of the language comes mostly from its last fluent speakers , Watt Sam and Nancy Raven , who worked with linguist Mary R. Haas in the 1930s
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Natchez language