Chitimacha Indian Tribe
Location
Chitimacha. Perhaps derived from the name
of Grand River in the native tongue, which was Sheti, though Gatschet
(1883) interprets it through the Choctaw language as meaning "those who
have pots."
Connections
The Chitimacha have given their
name to a group of languages under the Tunican linguistic stock, including
also the Chawasha and Washa.
Location
On Grand River, Grand Lake, and
the lower course of Bayou La Teche.
Subdivisions and Villages
The earliest French writers
couple with this tribe the name of a tribe or supposed tribe called Yakna-Chitto, "Big Earth," but it is not known whether they were a part of
the Chitimacha or an entirely independent people. In later times the
Chitimacha were drawn into two unnamed subdivisions, one near the upper
end of Bayou La Fourche and the other on Grand Lake. Following are the
known villages:
Ama'tpan na'mu, two villages:
(1) 3 miles east of Charenton on Bayou Teche;
(2) on the east side of Grand Lake opposite Charenton.
Grosse Tête na'mu, 2 miles from
the village at Plaquemine.
Hi'pinimsh na'mu, at the Fausse Pointe in the western part of Grand
Lake, near
Bayou Gosselin.
Ka'me naksh teat na'mu, at Bayou du Plomb, near Bayou Chêne,
18 miles north of Charenton.
Ku'shuh na'mu, on Lake Mingaluak, near Bayou Chene.
Na'mu ka'tsi, the Bayou Chene village, St. Martin's Parish.
Ne'kun tsi'snis, opposite Ile aux Oiseaux, in the Lac de la Fausse
Pointe.
Ne Pinu'nsh, on Bayou Teche, 2 miles west of Charenton.
Oku'nkiskin, probably at some sharp bend on Bayou La Teche judging
from their name.
Shatshnish, at Jeanerette.
She'ti na'mu, on Grand River west of Plaquemine.
Sho'ktangi ha'ne hetci'nsh, on the south side of Caine
à Volée
Inlet, Grand Lake.
Tca'ti kuti'ngi na'mu, at the junction of Bayou Teche with the
Atchafalaya Bayou.
Teat kasi'tunshki, on the site of Charenton.
Tsa'htsinshup na'mu, the Plaquemine village, on Bayou des
Plaquemines near Grand River.
Waitinimsh, at Irish Bend near Franklin.
There are said to have been
others at the shell bank on the shore of Grand Lake, close to Charenton, and at
a place called "Bitlarouges."
History
Iberville made an alliance with
the Chitimacha in 1699, shortly after his arrival in the present Louisiana. In
August 1706, the Taensa captured some Chitimacha by treachery and enslaved them,
and later the same year a Chitimacha war partly killed St. Cosme, missionary to
the Natchez, and three other Frenchmen encamped with him. War followed between
the Chitimacha on one hand and the French and their Indian allies on the other,
which dragged along until 1718. The Chitimacha suffered severely during these 12
years and this war was responsible for the fact that in the early days of the
Louisiana colony the greater part of the Indian slaves were Chitimacha. By the
terms of the peace concluded in 1718, the Chitimacha agreed to settle at a
designated spot upon the Mississippi, not far from the present Plaquemine. This,
they or rather the eastern portion of them, did in 1719. In 1739 they seem to
have been farther down, near the head of Bayou La Fourche. In 1784 one village
is reported on Bayou La Fourche and two on the Teche. By 1881 the only survivors
were near Charenton, where they occupied a small part of what had once been a
considerable reservation. In that year and the year following Dr. A. S. Gatschet
of the Bureau of American Ethnology collected from them a considerable body of
linguistic material and some ethnological information. (See Gatschet, 1883.)
Descendants of the tribe, mostly mixed-bloods, occupy the same section at the
present time, but the Plaquemine band has disappeared.
Population
Mooney (1928) estimated that in
1650 the Chitimacha numbered 3,000 souls. The present writer allowed 750
warriors to the tribe in 1698, based on Beaurain's estimate of 700-800 in 1699, which would mean about 2,625
souls. In 1758 the Mississippi band counted only about 80 warriors and in
1784 Hutchins gives 27. The size of the western band is nowhere indicated
separately but the census of 1910 gives 69 for the entire tribe, 19 of
whom were then at school in Pennsylvania. In 1930, 51 were returned.
Connection in which they have
become noted
The Chitimacha were the most
powerful tribe of the northern Gulf coast west of Florida in United States
territory. They also attained prominence in early Louisiana history on account
of their long war with the French and the number of Chitimacha slaves in
colonial families arising from that fact. The survivors are noteworthy as the
best basket makers in the whole Gulf region.
Resources:
Notes About the Book:
Source: The Indian Tribes of North America, by John R. Swanton, 1953, Bureau of
American Ethnology, Bulletin 145, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC.
Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. Minimal editing
has been done, and readers can and should expect some errors in the textual
output.
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