Discover the Heart of Tchula

Around 1826, the family of Thomas Laud, Sr., were the first known white settlers to come to this section. Many settlers had brought land from the Indians before the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed by the United States Government in 1830. By this occasion land on which Tchula now stands became a part of Yazoo County which had been formed in 1823, and the earliest records are now found in that county. It was not until 1833 that Holmes County was formed from Yazoo. Tchula was primarily started as a trading and shipping center for the large plantations that were being cleared in this Delta section. They were known as Tchula, and its name means "Red Fox" in the Choctaw language. It had been given the lake in memory of an Indian maiden named Tchula, who was the daughter of a long-dead Choctaw Chief.