Between 20,000 and 30,000 Indians live in what is today the state of Mississippi, most of them in the Natchez, Choctaw, and Chickasaw tribes.
Other tribes in the region include the Biloxi, Tunica, Bayougoulas, Pascagoulas, and Chakchiumas.
December:
Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto enters present-day Mississippi.
The explorer, leading an expedition of more than 600 men and 200 horses, spend the winter in northeast Mississippi, where they are supplied with food by the Chickasaw Indians.
When De Soto demands more, the Chickasaw attack, killing ten men and fifty horses.