Moctobi Indians. A small tribe formerly residing in south Mississippi. They are mentioned by Iberville, in 1699, as living at that time on Pascagoula river, near the Gulf coast, associated with the Biloxi and Paskagula, each tribe having its own village 1 . Sauvole, who was at Fort Biloxi in 1699-1700, speaks of the “villages of the Pascoboulas, Biloxi, and Moctobi, which together contain not more than 20 cabins.” Nothing is known respecting their language, nor has anything more been ascertained in regard to their history, but front their intimate relations with the Biloxi it is probable they belonged to the same (Siouan) linguistic stock. The name Moctobi appears to have disappeared from Indian memory and tradition, as repeated inquiry among the Choctaw and Caddo has tailed to elicit any knowledge of such a tribe. What seems to be a justifiable supposition, in the absence of further knowledge, is that the three or four small bands where the remnants of a larger tribe or of tribes which, while making their way south ward, and been reduced by war, pestilence, or other calamity, and had been compelled to consolidate and take refuge under the Choctaw.
For Further Study
The following articles and manuscripts will shed additional light on the Moctobi as both an ethnological study, and as a people.
- Consult Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East, Bull. B.A.E. 1894
- The Paskagula, Moctobi, and Chozetta Indians
Citations:
- Margry, Déc., iv, 195, 1880[↩]