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 1 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 offerings were made. At this time they numbered 200 to 250 men, probably including the Mugulasha. Not long after the Bayogoula almost exterminated the Mugulasha as the result of a dispute between the chiefs of the two tribes, but the former soon fell victims to a similar act of treachery, since having received the Tonica into their village in 1706, they were surprised and almost all massacred by their perfidious guests 2 Smallpox destroyed most of the remainder, so that by 1721 not a family was known to exist.
Citations:
