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In 1682 Robert De La Salle sailed down the Mississippi with 23 Frenchmen and 18 Indians and established a small fort at the site of what is now Memphis. He claimed the whole of the Mississippi River valley as a possession of France and called it “Louisiana” in honor of Louis XIV, king of France.
The French saw the Louisiana Territory as a tool to aid their constant competition with Spain and England. In 1706 they began a war with the CHITIMATCHA tribe which controlled the Atchafalaya Basin and began to enslave them. The ability of the Chitimacha to escape and go home was a continuing problem for the French
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