A brief Hstory of DeSoto County
Courtesy of the DeSoto County Geneological Society
Early Indians and Hernando DeSoto
Indian artifacts collected in DeSoto County link it with prehistoric groups of Woodland and Mississippian Indians.
The Mississippian Indians met Hernando DeSoto when he explored North Mississippi and, traditionally, came through DeSoto County. Some scholars project that DeSoto discovered the Mississippi River west of present-day Lake Cormorant, built rafts there and crossed to Crowley's Ridge, Arkansas. The National Park Service declared a "DeSoto Corridor" from the Chickasaw Bluff (Memphis) to Coahoma County, Mississippi.
Over 200 years passed and the Mississippian Indians disappeared. Meanwhile, the Chickasaw tribe moved here. Their "Long Town," several villages close to each other, was near present-day Pontotoc. The Chickasaws claimed land here as their hunting ground.
Negotiations, begun September, 1816, between the United States government and the Chickasaw nation, concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Pontotoc in October 1832. During these 16 years government officials and Chickasaw tribesmen worked out and revised treaty details.
From 1832 to 1836, government surveyors mapped the 6,442,000 acres of the Chickasaw domain, dividing it into townships, ranges and sections just as it remains today. The Mississippi Legislature formed 10 new counties, including DeSoto, Tunica, Marshall and Panola Counties, from this land.
By treaty the land was assigned by sections (640 acres, or one square mile) to individual Indians. The Chickasaws, a numerically small tribe, were assigned 2,422,400 acres of land using this formula. The government disposed of the remaining 400,000 at public sale. The Indians received at least $1.25 per acre for their land. The government land sold for 75 cents per acre or less.
