The Bordeaux Band of West Feliciana Houma-Choctaw People command INDISPUTABLE indigenous sovereign rights. We DO NOT abdicate or defer these rights because we are involved in commerce with the public or government.
The State of Arkansas Officially acknowledged these indigenous rights by way of the Arkansas Department of Education in 2005 after a year-long, highly intensive and exhaustive Equity Assistance Center (EAC) investigatory review, led by Tripp Walter of the Arkansas DOE Legal Counsel Division. After which, the state of Arkansas confirmed that the Bordeaux Band of West Feliciana Houma-Choctaw are a "Protected Ethnic Class", in accordance to Title VI federal regulations and statutes; ethnically unique unto themselves & their unique historic culture that pre-dates USA acquisition, per Tripp Walter Arkansas Department of Education, Staff Attorney and Interim General Counsel
E Pluribus Unum
Chief Elder Ean Bordeaux
D'Choctaw Clan, Band Bordeaux
Harvard anthropologist tells what he learned about local Indians
In May and June 1917, Harvard-trained anthropologist Dr. John R. Swanton was in coastal Louisiana, investigating the origins and language of several Indian groups, including those in Lafourche and neighboring Terrebonne.
“The first of these,” reported the journal of the Smithsonian in 1918, was “the mixed-blood Houma Indians in La Fourche parish and the eastern part of Terre Bonne.
“Dr. Swanton was accompanied and his work greatly facilitated by Mr. Ernest Coycault, a creole living in New Orleans and married to one of these Indians.” The party apparently traveled by boat.
“The brother-in-law of Mr. Coycault acted as pilot, guiding Dr. Swanton to all of the more important Indian settlements between New Orleans and Point au Chien, where the oldest Houma town in the region is said to have been situated until destroyed by three huge waves from the Gulf about 1909.”
Swanton represented the Bureau of American Ethnology. “A few notes, relating chiefly to the material culture of the people, were made and a number of photographs were taken, but only a single expression in the old Houma language could be secured, and it is evident that the vocabulary obtained in 1907 from an old woman belonging to the western settlements of these Indians is all, relating to their language, that can now be expected from them.”
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
Years of contact with other tribes and with French settlers had evidently eroded the original Houma language.
“Before setting out on this trip Dr. Swanton spent a few days in New Orleans examining some of the manuscripts belonging to the Louisiana Historical Society ... was able to add several items to his material on the history of the southeastern Indians.”
The report suggested a bit more success with a second regional tribe.
“After returning from the Houma (Indians), Dr. Swanton proceeded to Charenton, La., where he spent a few days revising some of his material on the Chitimacha language with Benjamin Paul, one of the four surviving speakers of this tongue and a man who had assisted him on previous visits.
“Although it was found that there was little new material to be had, Dr. Swanton secured some grammatical information of great value in fixing the proper position of Chitimacha among the languages of the region.”
The Houma Indians were also mentioned in “Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast of the Gulf of Mexico,” published by Swanton in 1911.
“This tribe, when the French first descended the Mississippi, was located on high ground ... in the northern edge of West Feliciana Parish, La. The river at that time made a grand sweep to the westward in front of them to meet Red river, so that there were two Houma landing places, one below and another, the principal one, above the bend.”
But the Houma gradually moved southward. “The remnant of the tribe, mixed with other Indian peoples and white and Negro blood, now live along the coasts of Terre Bonne and La Fourche parishes, where they were visited by the writer in April, 1907, and the following facts learned regarding them:
“They occupy six settlements on as many bayous, and are principally engaged in hunting the otter, mink, and such other animals as occur in their country, and in fishing and gathering shellfish.
“During the sugar season some of them work on the plantations, especially at crushing, and some cattle are raised, particularly by Bob Verret, the leading man among them.
“Mr. Verret gave the following estimate of their population: On Point au Barree, 28 houses and 165 people; Lower Point au Chien, 36 houses and 160 people; Champs Charles, 13 houses and 117 people; Lower Bayou La Fourche, about 25 houses and 175 people; Bayou de Large, 12 to 14 houses and 84 to 98 people; Bayou Sale, below Bayou Grand Caillou, at least 25 houses and 175 people; total, 139 to 14l houses and 876 to 890 people.
“For Point au Barree and Point au Chien this was a house-by-house statement, and is nearly complete.
“According to tradition, moreover, these are the descendants of only a part of the ancient Houma. When they first came across from the Mississippi, it is said that they located near the city that bears their name (Houma), but, being driven out by the whites, moved to their present situation.
“Being followed down by the settlers, all except three families, or possibly bands, went back north about one hundred and twenty years ago and were never heard of again. The three families, which were known by the French names ‘Couteaux,’ ‘Billiout,’ and ‘Verdine,’ held their ground, and it is from them that all the Houma of Terre Bonne and La Fourche are descended.
“In spite of mixture with whites and Negroes, they form a distinct class of the population, and prefer to be called ‘Indians.’ The rate at which they have increased in recent years shows either that they have been protected by their isolation or that the mixture has chanced to be a very virile one.
“Although they call themselves ‘Houmas,’ or, rather ‘Homas,’ it has been intimated above that remains of several other tribes, such as the Bayogoula and Acolapissa. have been incorporated with them. To these must be added Biloxi and Chitimacha (pronounced by them ‘Sitimasha’), who were often introduced in the capacity of slaves, and probably the remnants of the Washa and Chawasha, besides individuals from a number of other Louisiana and Mississippi peoples.
“The family history of the writer’s oldest informant, Felicite Billiout, will serve to illustrate this tribal complexity. Her grandmother, whose Indian name was Xuyu’n, but who was baptized ‘Marion’ after her removal to Louisiana, was born in or near Mobile; her grandfather, Shulu-shumon, or, in French, Joseph Abbe, and more often called ‘Couteaux,’ was a Biloxi medal chief; and her mother ‘an Atakapa from Texas.’
“In addition, she said that Cherokee, Choctaw, and Alibamu had all married with her people. Among other tribes she had heard of the Chickasaw, Tallapoosa, and Tunica.
“Her grandmother, whom, she said, had moved successively to the Mississippi, ‘Tuckapaw canal,’ Bayou La Fourche, Houma, and the coast of Terre Bonne, was evidently among the Indians who migrated from the neighborhood of Mobile after 1764, in order not to remain under English rule.
“It is plain that remnants of all sorts of tribes joined the Houma before and at this period, though it is certain that most of these were Muskhogean, and that the Houma was always the dominating element.”
The Courier is looking for your old photographs and the memories that go with them to run in this weekly feature. In order to protect your valuable photographs, do not send unsolicited photographs. Instead, contact Bill Ellzey at 876-5638 and leave a message. You may also write to him at: The Courier, P.O. Box 2717, Houma, LA 70361.
Just found your blog and I admire what you are doing. I don't know if you have read Okla Hannali, but I think it is a worthy book that gives insight into what happened for Choctaw people. It is amazing the level of denial in what people consider to be modern times.
ReplyDeleteBlessings
Chris