Tupelo, Mississippi

===European settlement===
Indigenous peoples, including the [[Chickasaw]] and [[Choctaw]], occupied the area prior to European settlement.  The French and British traded with these indigenous peoples and tried to form alliances with them. The French established towns in Mississippi mostly on the Gulf Coast. At times, the European powers came into armed conflict. On May 26, 1736, the [[Battle of Ackia]] was fought near the site of present-day Tupelo; [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] and [[Chickasaw]] soldiers repelled a [[French colonization of the Americas|French]] and [[Choctaw]] attack on the then-Chickasaw village of Ackia. The French, under [[Louisiana]] governor [[Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville|Jean Baptiste Le Moyne]], Sieur de Bienville, had sought to link Louisiana with [[Acadia]] and the other northern colonies of [[New France]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Our History|url=https://tupelo150.com/our-history|access-date=2021-04-13|website=Tupelo 150|language=en-US}}</ref>

In the early 19th century, after years of trading and encroachment by European-American settlers from the United States, conflicts increased as the US settlers tried to gain land from these nations. In 1830, Congress passed the [[Indian Removal Act]] and authorized the relocation of all the Southeast [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] to federal territory west of the [[Mississippi River]], which was completed by the end of the 1830s.

In the early years of settlement, European-Americans named this town "Gum Pond", supposedly due to its numerous [[tupelo]] trees, known locally as "blackgum". The city still hosts the annual Gumtree Arts Festival.<ref>{{Citation|title=Tupelo's 150 Years- How Tupelo Got Its Name|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewattVUpnaw| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/ewattVUpnaw| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live|language=en|access-date=2021-04-13}}{{cbignore}}</ref>