Atakapa

For the language, see Atakapa language.

Atakapa
Ishak

An Attakapas, by Alexandre De Batz, 1735
Total population
450
Regions with significant populations
United States (Louisiana, Texas)
Languages
English, historically Atakapa
Religion
Christianity, historically traditional tribal religion
Related ethnic groups
isolate language group, intermarried with Caddo and Koasati

The Atakapa /əˈtɑːkəpə/ are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who spoke the Atakapa language and historically lived along the Gulf of Mexico. Europeans adopted this name from the competing Choctaw people, whom they first encountered. The Atakapan people, made up of several bands, called themselves the Ishak, pronounced "ee-SHAK", which translates as "The People." Within the tribe the Ishak identified as "The Sunrise People" and "The Sunset People". Although the people were decimated by infectious disease after European contact and declined as a tribe, survivors joined other tribes and their descendants still live in Louisiana and Texas. People identifying as Atakapa-Ishak had a gathering in 2006.

Their name was also spelled Attakapa, Attakapas, or Attacapa. It was the name by which the Choctaw people referred to them, meaning "man eater", for their practice of ritual cannibalism. Europeans encountered the Choctaw first during their exploration, and adopted their name for this people to the west. The peoples lived in river valleys, along lake shores, and coasts from Galveston Bay, Texas to Vermilion Bay, Louisiana.

After 1762, when Louisiana was transferred to Spain following French defeat in the Seven Years' War, little was written about the Atakapa as a tribe. Due to a high rate of deaths from infectious disease epidemics of the late 18th century, they ceased to function as a tribe. Survivors generally joined the Caddo, Koasati, and other surrounding tribes, although they kept some traditions. Some culturally distinct Atakapan people survived into the 20th century.

Subdivisions or bands

Plaque for Attakapa Trace Junction

Atakapa-speaking peoples are called Atakapan, while Atakapa refers to a specific tribe.

EASTERN ATAKAPA or Hiyekiti Ishak (Sunrise People or Eastern People, name for the S.W. Louisiana Atakapa bands)

• Eastern Atakapa Groups living in present-day Acadiana parishes in southern Louisiana, divided in two major regional bands:
  • Alligator Band, lived along the Vermillion River and near Vermilion Bay in southwestern Iberia Parish and southeastern Vermilion Parish in South Central Louisiana, an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, which is separated from it by Marsh Island and a portion of the Louisiana mainland in southeastern Vermilion Parish; the alligator was very important to this band; its oil was used for cooking and to treat minor arthritis and eczema symptoms, its scales were used as arrow heads, and its meat was used for food.
  • Teche Band or Snake Band, lived on the prairies and coastal marshes in the Mermentau River watershed, along the Bayou Nezpique, Bayou des Cannes, Bayou Plaquemine Brule and Bayou Plaquemine Brule, containing the freshwater lakes Grand Lake and White Lake and around St. Martinville on Bayou Teche in present-day St. Martin, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Mary, Acadia and Evangeline parishes in southern Louisiana. They are named for the snake that symbolizes the winding and twisting course of Bayou Teche.
• Appalousa (Opelousa) or Opelousas Band, also known as the Heron Band, because they painted their lower legs and feet black during mourning ceremonies, mimicking the long black legs of the heron, lived between the Atchafalaya River and Sabine River (at the border of Texas-Louisiana) west of the lower Mississippi River before European contact in the 18th century, later centered in the area around present-day Opelousas, Louisiana and the prairies around St. Landry Parish were at various times in their history associated with the neighboring Eastern Atakapa and Chitimacha peoples. They were warlike and preyed on neighbors to defend their own territory; in 1760 Eastern Atakapa Chief Kinemo sold all the land between Vermilion River and Bayou Teche to Frenchman Gabriel Fuselier de la Claire, the angry Appalousa exterminated the Eastern Atakapa bands. They are supposed to have spoken the Eastern Atakapan dialect.

WESTERN ATAKAPA or Hikike Ishak (Sunset People or Western People, name for the S.E. Texas Atakapa bands)

• Akokisa, meaning “river people”, westernmost Atakapa tribe, lived in the mid-18th century in five villages along the lower course of Trinity and San Jacinto Rivers and eastern shores of Galveston Bay.
• Atakapa (proper) groups, divided in two major regional bands:
  • Calcasieu Band, living along Calcasieu River between the Calcasieu Lake in southwest Louisiana and Sabine Lake on the Louisiana-Texas border, also known as Eagle Band for the eagle which could be seen flying over the lakes.
  • Red Bird Band, living on the prairies and coastal areas near present-day Lake Charles in South Western Louisiana, they were represented by the red bird.
• Bidai, around Bedias Creek, ranging from the Brazos River to Neches River, Texas.
• Deadose, a band of Bidai that separated in the early 18th century, living north of the other Bidai between the junction of the Angelina River and Neches River and the upper end of Galveston Bay in east-central Texas, about 1720 they moved westward between the Brazos and Trinity rivers, later they settled near missions on the San Gabriel River (together with Bidai and Akokisa) in the Texas Hill Country, between 1749 and 1751 they gathered (together with Akokisa, Orcoquiza, Bidai, and Patiri) at the short-lived San Ildefonso Mission near the mouth of Brushy Creek, some at Alamo Mission in San Antonio. In the second half of the 18th century the Deadose were closely associated with certain Tonkawan groups (Ervipiame (?), Mayeye, and Yojuane), suffering heavily from measles and smallpox they joined kindred Bidai, Akokisa and Tonkawa and eventually lost their ethnic identity in the latter part of the 18th century.
• Orcoquiza, probably an Akokisa band which lived north of Galveston Bay along the Trinity and Colorado rivers.
• Patiri, Petaros, or Pastia, lived north of the San Jacinto River valley between the Bidai and Akokisa Indians, Texas. This would place them in the Piney Woods of East Texas west of the Trinity River in the area between Houston and Huntsville. Little is known about them.
• Tlacopsel, Acopsel, or Lacopspel, the location of their settlements in southeast Texas are unknown, but it is believed that they lived in the same general area as the kindred Bidai and Deadose Indians. They are known only during the eighteenth century, mainly in connection with Indian requests for missions in east central Texas.

History

Pre-contact distribution of Atakapa

Atakapa oral history says that they originated from the sea. An ancestral prophet laid out the rules of conduct.

The first European contact with the Atakapa may have been in 1528 by survivors of the Spanish Pánfilo de Narváez expedition. They made two barges, which were blown ashore on the Gulf Coast. One group of survivors met the Karankawa, while the other probably landed on Galveston Island. The latter recorded meeting a group who called themselves the Han, who may have been the Akokisa.

In 1703, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, the French governor of La Louisiane, sent three men to explore the Gulf Coast west of the Mississippi River. The seventh nation they encountered were the Atakapa, who captured, killed and cannibalized one member of their party. In 1714 this tribe was one of 14 who came to Jean-Michel de Lepinay, who was acting French Governor of Louisiana between 1717 and 1718, while he was fortifying Dauphin Island, Alabama.

The Choctaw told the French settlers about the "People of the West," who represented numerous subdivisions or tribes. The French referred to them as le sauvage. The Choctaw used the name Atakapa, meaning "people eater" (hattak 'person', apa 'to eat'), for these competitors. It referred to their practice of ritual cannibalism related to warfare. The Gulf coast peoples practiced this on their enemies.

A French explorer, Francois Simars de Bellisle, lived among the Atakapa from 1719 to 1721. He described Atakapa cannibalistic feasts which he observed firsthand. The practice of cannibalism likely had a religious, ritualistic basis. French Jesuit missionaries urged the Atakapa to end this practice.

The French historian Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz lived in Louisiana from 1718 to 1734, a total of 16 years. He wrote:

Along the west coast, not far from the sea, inhabit the nation called Atacapas [sic], that is, Man-Eaters, being so called by the other nations on account of their detestable custom of eating their enemies, or such as they believe to be their enemies. In the vast country there are no other cannibals to be met with besides the Atacapas; and since the French have gone among them, they have raised in them so great a horror of that abominable practice of devouring creatures of their own species, that they have promised to leave it off: and, accordingly, for a long time past we have heard of no such barbarity among them.

— Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz

Detail from a drawing by deBatz, 1735

Louis LeClerc Milfort, a Frenchman who spent 20 years living with and traveling among the Muscogee Creek, came upon the Atakapa in 1781 during his travels. He wrote:

The forest we were then in was thick enough so that none of my men could be seen. I formed them into three detachments, and arranged them in such a way as to surround these savages, and to leave them no way of retreat except by the pond. I then made them all move forward, and I sent ahead a subordinate chief to ascertain what nation these savages belonged to, and what would be their intentions toward us. We were soon assured that they were Atakapas, who, as soon as they saw us, far from seeking to defend themselves, made us signs of peace and friendship. There were one hundred and eighty [180] of them of both sexes, busy, as we suspected, smoke-drying meat. As soon as my three detachments had emerged from the forest, I saw one of these savages coming straight toward me: at first sight, I recognized that he did not belong to the Atakapas nation; he addressed me politely and in an easy manner, unusual among these savages. He offered food and drink for my warriors which I accepted, while expressing to him my gratitude. Meat was served to my entire detachment; and during the time of about six hours that I remained with this man, I learned that he was a European; that he had been a Jesuit; and that having gone into Mexico, these people had chosen him as their chief. He spoke French rather well. He told me that his name was Joseph; but I did not learn from what part of Europe he came. He informed me that the name Atakapas, which means eaters of men, had been given to this nation by the Spaniards because every time they caught one of them, they would roast him alive, but that they did not eat them; that they acted in this way toward this nation to avenge their ancestors for the torture that they made them endure when they had come to take possession of Mexico; that if some Englishmen or Frenchmen happened to be lost in this bay region, the Atakapas welcomed them with kindness, would give them hospitality; and if they did not wish to remain with them they had them taken to the Akancas, from where they could easily go to New Orleans.

He told me: "You see here about one-half of the Atakapas Nation; the other half is farther on. We are in the habit of dividing ourselves into two or three groups in order to follow the buffalo, which in the spring go back into the west, and in autumn come down into these parts; there are herds of these buffalo, which go sometimes as far as the Missouri; we kill them with arrows; our young hunters are very skilful at this hunting. You understand, moreover, that these animals are in very great numbers, and as tame as if they were raised on a farm; consequently, we are very careful never to frighten them. When they stay on a prairie or in a forest, we camp near them in order to accustom them to seeing us, and we follow all their wanderings so that they cannot get away from us. We use their meat for food and their skins for clothing. I have been living with these people for about eleven years; I am happy and satisfied here, and have not the least desire to return to Europe. I have six children whom I love a great deal, and with whom I want to end my days. When my warriors were rested and refreshed, I took leave of Joseph and of the Atakapas, while assuring them of my desire to be able to make some returns for their friendly welcome, and I resumed my Journey.

— Louis LeClerc Milfort

In 1760, the French Gabriel Fuselier de la Claire, coming to the Attakapas Territory, bought all the land between Vermilion River and Bayou Teche from the Eastern Atakapa Chief Kinemo. It was shortly after that a rival Indian tribe, the Appalousa (Opelousas), coming from the area between the Atchalafaya and Sabine Rivers, exterminated the Eastern Atakapa. They had occupied the area between Atchalafaya River and Bayou Nezpique (Attakapas Territory).

William Byrd Powell (1799–1867), a medical doctor and physiologist, regarded the Atakapan as cannibals. He noted that they traditionally flattened their skulls frontally and not occipitally, a practice opposite to that of neighboring tribes, such as the Natchez Nation.

The Atakapa traded with the Chitimacha tribe in historical times. In the early 18th century, some Atakapa married into the Houma tribe of Louisiana. Members of the Tunica-Biloxi tribe joined the Atakapa tribe in the late 18th century.

Culture

The Atakapan ate the rhizomes and seeds of the American lotus

The Atapakan ate shellfish and fish. The women gathered bird eggs, the American lotus (Nelumbo lutea) for its roots and seeds, as well as other wild plants. The men hunted deer, bear, and bison, which provided meat, fat, and hides. The women cultivated varieties of maize. They processed the meats, bones and skins to prepare food for storage, as well as to make clothing, tent covers, tools, sewing materials, arrow cases, bridles and rigging for horses, and other necessary items for their survival.

The men made their tools for hunting and fishing: bows and arrows, fish spears with bone-tipped points, and flint-tipped spears. They used poisons to catch fish, caught flounder by torchlight, and speared alligators in the eye. The people put alligator oil on exposed skin to repel mosquitoes. The Bidai snared game and trapped animals in cane pens. By 1719, the Atakapan had obtained horses and were hunting bison from horseback. They used dugout canoes to navigate the bayous and close to shore, but did not venture far into the ocean.

In the summer, families moved to the coast. In winters, they moved inland and lived in villages of houses made of pole and thatch. The Bidai lived in bearskin tents. The homes of chiefs and medicine men were erected on earthwork mounds made by several previous cultures including the Mississippian.

Today

An Atakapa indian statue in St. Martinville, Louisiana.

It is believed that most Western Atakapa tribes or subdivisions were decimated by the 1850s, mainly from infectious disease and poverty. Armojean Reon, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, who lived at the start of the 20th century, was noted as a fluent Atakapa speaker.

Descendants exist and have begun to organize to be recognized as a tribe. Numerous descendants today share a mixed lineage of Atakapa-Ishak and other ethnic ancestry, but they have maintained a sense of community and culture.

The names of present-day towns in the region can be traced to the Ishak; they are derived both from their language and from French transliteration of the names of their prominent leaders and names of places. The town of Mermentau is a corrupted form of the local chief Nementou. Plaquemine, as in Bayou Plaquemine Brûlée and Plaquemines Parish, is derived from the Atakapa word pikamin, meaning "persimmon". Bayou Nezpiqué was named for an Atakapan who had a tattooed nose. Bayou Queue de Tortue was believed to have been named for Chief Celestine La Tortue of the Atakapas nation. The name Calcasieu is a French transliteration of an Atakapa name: katkosh, for "eagle", and yok, "to cry".

On October 28, 2006, the Atakapa-Ishak Nation met for the first time in more than 100 years as "one nation." A total of 450 people represented Louisiana and Texas. Rachel Mouton, the mistress of ceremony and newly appointed Director of Publications and Communications, introduced Billy LaChapelle, who opened the afternoon with a traditional prayer in English and in Atakapa.

The city of Lafayette, Louisiana is planning a series of trails, funded by the Federal Highway Administration, to be called the "Atakapa-Ishak Trail". It will consist of a bike trail connecting downtown areas along the bayous Vermilion and Teche, which are now accessible only by foot or boat.

Atakapa language

The Atakapa language is a language isolate, once spoken along the Louisiana and East Texas coast and believed extinct since the mid-20th century. John R. Swanton in 1919 proposed a Tunican language family that would include Atakapa, Tunica, and Chitimacha. Mary Haas later expanded this into the Gulf language family with the addition of the Muskogean languages. As of 2001, linguists generally do not consider these proposed families as proven.

See also

• USS Atakapa (ATF-149)
• Attakapas Parish

References

• Newcomb, William Wilmon, Jr. The Indians of Texas: From Prehistoric to Modern Times. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972. ISBN 978-0-292-78425-3.
• Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004. ISBN 0-16-072300-0.
• Nezat, Jack Claude. The Nezat and Allied Families 1630–2007. 2007. ISBN 978-0-615-15001-7.
• Pritzer, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000: 286-7. ISBN 978-0-19-513877-1.

External links

• Tribes in Louisiana
• Handbook of Texas Online
• BP Oil Spill Threatens Future of Indigenous Communities in Louisiana – video report by Democracy Now!
• Atakapa-Ishak Nation