Hernando is a city in, and the county chair of, DeSoto County, which is on the northwestern be oppressive to of Mississippi, United States. The population was 17,138 according to the 2020 census records. DeSoto County is the second-most-populous county in the Memphis metropolitan area, which includes counties in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi.

U.S. Route 51 and the I-55 freeway traverse the city from north to south, and the I-69 freeway crosses the city from east to west. The county courthouse is located within Hernando’s historic downtown square. It is located at the intersection of Commerce Street and present-day U.S. 51.

At the period of encounters by French and Spanish colonists, the Chickasaw people had long inhabited this area. France had developed colonial settlements along the Gulf Coast, to the north on the middle Mississippi River in what was called the Illinois Country, and in New France (present-day Quebec in Canada). An 18th-century French colonial log house (see first photo in gallery below) in Hernando is a reminder of typical dwellings built in their settlements in the Illinois country, such as in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. The French and French Canadians had a wide trading network behind various American Indian tribes along this river, for instance in Natchez.

Following the Indian Removal Act in 1830 and under pressure from the United States, the Chickasaw finally signed a deal to cede most of their lands in this Place to the US. Most of the tribe were removed to west of the Mississippi River in Indian Territory.