Louisiana

The Shetimasha Language

Although my chief purpose in going south was to study the Shetimasha language, I cannot give here a full account of it, for it would fill not less than one hundred pages. This language, of which no other dialects are known to exist now, is vocalic, and nasalizes its vowels to a small degree only. It has a profusion of declensional and conjugational endings, suffixes the personal pronouns to the finite verb, forms a passive voice, and seems to be extremely polysynthetic as far as derivation by suffixes is concerned. Ternary and quaternary compounds are not uncommon. The numerals show … Read more

Shetimasha Tribe

The wide area of Louisiana was once the home of a large number of Indian tribes, whose names and locations are mentioned by the historians of the early colonies. These Indians were distinct from each other in language as well as in race, and if an investigator, of scientific attainments, had visited all of them 150 years ago, he would have probably discovered over forty dialects, belonging to at least eight linguistic families. Unfortunately, such a work was not undertaken at a time when it was possible to perform it, and all that we can do now is to collect … Read more

Sioux Indians

Siouan Family, Siouan Tribe, Sioux Tribe. The most populous linguistic family North of Mexico, next to the Algonquian. The name is taken from a ‘term applied to the largest and best known tribal group or confederacy belonging to the family, the Sioux or Dakota, which, in turn, is an abbreviation of Nadowessioux, a French corruption of Nadowe-is-iw, the appellation given them by the Chippewa. It signifies ‘snake,’ ‘adder,’ and, by metaphor, ‘enemy.’ Before changes of domicile took place among them, resulting from contact with whites, the principal body extended from the west bank of the Mississippi northward from the Arkansas … Read more

Biloxi Tribe

Biloxi Indians. A name of uncertain meaning, apparently from the Choctaw language. They call themselves Taneks haya, ‘first people.’ A small Siouan tribe formerly living in south Mississippi, now nearly or quite extinct. The Biloxi were supposed to belong to the Muskhogean stock until Gatschet visited the survivors of the tribe in Louisiana in 1886 and found that many of the words bore strong resemblance to those in Siouan languages, a determination fully substantiated in 1892 by J. Owen Dorsey. To what particular group of the Siouan family the tribe is to be assigned has not been determined; but it … Read more

Pascagoula Tribe

A small tribe of Indians formerly living on Pascagoula river in south Mississippi, in intimate connection with the Biloxi, but now extinct as a separate division.

Taensa Tribe

Taensa Indians. A tribe related in language and customs to the Natchez, from whom they must have separated shortly before the beginning of the historic period. There is reason to think that part of the Taensa were encountered by De Soto in 1540, but the first mention of them under their proper name is by La Salle and his companions, who visited them in 1682 on their way to the mouth of the Mississippi. They were then living on Lake St Joseph, an ox-bow cut-off of the Mississippi in the present Tensas Parish, Louisiana. Tonti stopped at their villages in … Read more

Washa Tribe

Washa Indians. A small tribe, probably of Muskhogean stock, which, when first known to Europeans, inhabited the lower part of Bayou Lafourche, Louisiana, and hunted through the country between that river and the Mississippi. In 1699 Bienville made an unsuccessful attempt to open relations with them, but in 1718, after the close of the Chitimacha War, they were induced to settle on the Mississippi 3 leagues above New Orleans, and they appear to have remained near that place to the time of their extinction or their absorption by other tribes. They were always closely associated with another small tribe called … Read more

Muskogean Indians

Muskhogean Family, Muskhogean Stock, Muskhogean People, Muskhogean Indians. An important linguistic stock, comprising the Creeks, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and other tribes. The name is an adjectival form of Muskogee, properly Măskóki (pl. Maskokalgi or Muscogulgee). Its derivation has been attributed to an Algonquian term signifying `swamp’ or `open marshy land’, but this is almost certainly incorrect. The Muskhogean tribes were confined chiefly to the Gulf states east of almost all of Mississippi and Alabama, and parts of Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. According to a tradition held in common by most of their tribes, they had reached their historic seats from some starting point west of the Mississippi, usually placed, when localized at all, somewhere on the upper Red River. The greater part of the tribes of the stock are now on reservations in Oklahoma.

Bayogoula Tribe

Bayogoula Indians (Choctaw: Báyuk-ókla ‘Bayou people’). A Muskhogean tribe which in 1700 lived with the Mugulasha in a village on the west bank of the Mississippi, about 64 leagues above its mouth and 30 leagues below the Huma town. Lemoyned’ Iberville gives a brief description of their village, which he says contained 2 temples and 107 cabins; that a fire was kept constantly burning in the temples, and near the door were kept many figures of animals, as the bear, wolf, birds, and in particular the choucoüacha, or opossum, which appeared to be a chief deity or image to which … Read more

Koasati Tribe

Koasati Indians. An Upper Creek tribe speaking a dialect almost identical with Alibamu and evidently nothing more than a large division of that people. The name appears to contain the word for ‘cane’ or ‘reed,’ and Gatschet has suggested that it may signify ‘white cane.’ During the middle and latter part of the 18th century the Koasati lived, apparently in one principal village, on the right bank of Alabama river, 3 miles below the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, where the modern town of Coosada, Alabama, perpetuates their name; but soon after west Florida was ceded to Great Britain, … Read more

Choctaw Genealogy

Choctaw Eagle Dance, George Catlin, 1845-8

Think you have Choctaw in your ancestry? This page will provide some background history and locations the tribe resided in as well as the rolls and census they were enumerated on.

Acolapissa Tribe

Acolapissa Indians. An tribe, of Choctaw lineage, formerly living on Lake Ponchartrain, about the coast lagoons, and on the Mississippi, in Louisiana.

Chitimacha Tribe

Chitimacha Indians (Choctaw: chúti’cooking pot’ másha ‘they possess’: `they have cooking vessels’). A tribe, forming the Chitimachan linguistic family, whose earliest known habitat was the shores of Grand Lake, formerly Lake of the Shetimasha, and the banks of Grand River, Louisiana. Some 16 or 18 of the tribe were living on Grand river in 1881, but the majority, about 35, lived at Charenton, on the south side of Bayou Tèche, in St Mary’s parish, about 10 miles from the gulf. The remnant resides in the same district, but the present population is not known. The name of these Indians for … Read more

Yatasi Tribe

Yatasi Indians. A tribe of the Caddo confederacy, closely affiliated in language with the Natchitoch. They are first spoken of by Tonti, who states that in 1690 their village was on Red river of Louisiana, north west of the Natchitoch, where they were living in company with the Natasi and Choye. Bienville and St Denys, during their Red river trip in 1701, made an alliance with the Yatasi and henceforward the tribe seems to have been true to the friendship then sealed. The road frequented by travelers from the Spanish province to the French settlements on Red River and at … Read more

Caddo Indian Research

Map of Caddoan Mississippi Culture

These resources should assist your in your Caddo Indian research. Most of the links feature content found on AccessGenealogy and it’s sister sites, however some of these are offsite resources of which AccessGenealogy has no relationship other then we value the content we link to for the quality of it’s information. If you know of a quality website which we haven’t featured on the Caddo tribe then please feel free to submit them through the comments at the bottom of the page.

Kadohadacho Tribe

Kadohadacho Indians (Kä’dohadä’cho, real Caddo “Caddo proper’ ). A tribe of the Caddo confederacy, sometimes confused with the confederacy itself. Their dialect is closely allied to that of the Hainai and Anadarko, and is one of the two dialects dominant today among the remnant of the confederacy. The Kadohadacho seem to have developed, as a tribe, on Red river of Louisiana and in its immediate vicinity, and not to have migrated with their kindred to an distance either north or south. Their first knowledge of the white race was in 1541, when De Soto and his followers stayed with some … Read more

Kichai Tribe

Kichai Indians (from K’itsäsh, their own name). A Caddoan tribe whose language is more closely allied to the Pawnee than to the other Caddoan groups. In 1701 they were met by the French on the upper waters of the Red river of Louisiana and had spread southward to upper Trinity river in Texas. In 1712 a portion of them were at war with the Hainai, who dwelt lower down the Trinity. They were already in possession of horses, as all the Kichai warriors were mounted. They seem to have been allies of the northern and western tribes of the Caddoan … Read more

Natchitoch Tribe

Natchitoch Indians (Caddo form, Näshi´tosh). A tribe of the Caddo confederacy which spoke a dialect similar to that of the Yatasi but different from that of the Kadohadacho and its closely affiliated tribes. Their villages were in the neighborhood of the present city of Natchitoches, near those of another tribe called Doustioni. Whether the army of De Soto encountered them is unknown, but after La Salle’s tragic death among the Hasinai his companions traversed their country, and Douay speaks of them as a “powerful nation.” In 1690 Tonti reached them from the Mississippi and made an alliance; and in 1699 … Read more

Caddo Tribe

Caddo Indians (contracted from Kä’dohädä’cho, ‘Caddo proper,’ ‘real Caddo,’ a leading tribe in the Caddo confederacy, extended by the whites to include the confederacy). A confederacy of tribes belonging to the southern group of the Caddoan linguistic family. Their own name is Hasínai, our own folk.’ See Kadohadacho Tribe. Caddo Indian History According to tribal traditions the lower Red river of Louisiana was the early home of the Caddo, from which they spread to the northwest, and south. Several of the lakes and streams connected with this river bear Caddo names, as do some of the counties and some of … Read more