Chitimacha History

Location:

The delta of the Mississippi River and the adjoining Atchafalaya Basin of south-central Louisiana. According to their tribal tradition, the boundary of the Chitimacha homeland was originally defined by four sacred trees: the first was at Maringouin, Louisiana; the second southeast of New Orleans; another at the mouth of the Mississippi; and the last a great cypress located in present-day Cypremort Point State Park. Of the four tribes associated with this group, the Washa in 1699 had in a single village on Bayou Lafourche in Assumption Parish, with the Chawasha just to the south. However, hunters from either of these tribes could be encountered as far south as the mouth of the Mississippi River.With the exception of the Yagenechito (apparently an eastern band of the Chitimacha), the Chitimacha villages were farther west near Grand Lake, lower Bayou Teche, or the natural levees of the Atchafalaya Basin. The Chitimacha's name occurs regularly on the early French maps of Louisiana. Grand Lake was once called Lac des Chetimacha, and Bayou Lafourche was known either as Lafourche des Chetimachas or La Rivire des Chetimachas. The Chitimacha's attachment to their homeland has proven to be unbelievably strong over the years.Although forced to surrender almost all of their land to whites, they are the only one of Louisiana's original tribes that has retained a portion of their ancestral lands. Most Chitimacha today still live on or near their reservation at Charenton, Louisiana.

Population:

As a group, the four tribes of the Chitimacha may have numbered as many as 20,000 in 1492. While their direct contact with Europeans during the next two centuries was virtually nil, Old World epidemics spread west from the Spanish mission system of northern Florida and devastated native populations in the lower Mississippi Valley. In some areas of the Southeast during this period, the numbers of Native Americans dropped to ten percent of their former levels.Based on losses incurred by neighboring tribes, the Chitimacha appear to have fallen to half of their original size when the French first began to settle the lower Mississippi Valley in 1699. Even then, there is no clear indication of exactly how many Chitimacha there actually were.Because their villages were remote, the initial estimates by Bienville and Beaurain were little more than guesses. Depending on whose figures are accepted, the Chawasha and Washa together numbered somewhere between 700 and 1,400, while the Chitimacha are thought to have had a little more than 4,000. No separate estimate seems to have been made for the Yagenechito. Hostilities after 1706 made more accurate estimates impossible, and the French apparently did not become aware of the western groups of Chitimacha until 1727.During a twelve-year war (1706-18), the French almost exterminated the eastern Chitimacha. No figures are available for the western Chitimacha, but by 1718 a battered remnant of 400 was all that remained of the eastern bands. The French resettled them along the Mississippi under the watchful eyes of the 250 Washa and 200 Chawasha that had served as French allies during the war. The new location exposed all three tribes to disease and alcohol, and by 1758 their combined populations had fallen below 400. Only 135 remained in 1784, and shortly after 1805, the Mississippi band of Chitimacha disappeared. The survivors, if any, are thought to have been become part of the Houma.The United States Indian agent that year noted five Chawasha-Washa living among the French settlers in the area, but this was their last mention. Only the western Chitimacha have managed to preserve their tribal identity, but it was "touch and go." By 1880 only six families (less than 100 persons) remained. The 1910 census listed 69 Chitimacha, 19 of which were children at the Carlisle School in Pennsylvania. After federal recognition and the placement of their last 260 acres under trust in 1917, the Chitimacha began a slow recovery. By 1950, 89 Chitimacha were living on the reservation with another 400 residing in the immediate area. Current tribal enrollment is 900.

Names:
Chawasha (Chaouacha, Chauocha) - a Mobilian or Choctaw for "raccoon place." Chitimacha (Chetimacha, Chettimanchi, Chitamacha, Chittamacha, Shetimasha, Shyoutemancha, Tchetimanchan) - sometimes said to come from a Choctaw word for "they have cooking pots," but this explanation seems suspect since just about every tribe in the region used cooking pots. The Chitimacha (who should know something about this) say that their name is taken from their own language "Pantch Pinankanc" meaning "men altogether red."

Washa (Ouacha) - from a Choctaw word for "hunting place."

Yagenechito (Yaknachitto, Yaknechito) - "big earth or "big country."

Language:
Tonikan. However, the relationship of Chitimacha to Tunica, for whom the entire group is named, is distant and indicates that the separation between them was quite ancient. Chitimacha (as well as the related dialects spoken by the Atakapa, Chawasha, Opelousa, Washa) has so many distinctive characteristics that for many years, most linguists considered it an isolate. The Chitimacha have lost their language over the years, and there are no longer any fluent speakers. Many of their elders, however, speak Cajun French

Sub-Tribes:
Chawasha, Chitimacha, Washa, and Yagenechito. The French in 1699 noted that the Chitimacha were a confederation of approximately 15 villages. By the time their war with the French ended in 1718, the Chitimacha had divided into two divisions: the Mississippi (or eastern) band on Bayou Lafourche; and a western band on lower Bayou Teche, Grand Lake, and the Atchafalaya River.

Villages:
Amatpannamu (2), Bitlarouges, Grosse Tetenamu, Hachita, Hipinimshnamu, Kamenakshtcatnamu, Kennipessa, Kushuhnamu, Mahe Hala, Mino, Namukatsi, Nekuntsisnis, Nepinunsh, Okunkiskin, Shatshnish, Shetinamu, Shoktangihanehetcinsh, Tanxibao, Tcatikutinginamu, Tcatkasitunshki, Tsahtsinshupnamu, Waitinimsh, and Yghilbssa.


Culture:
Officially recognized in 1917 after many years of being ignored by the United States government, the Chitimacha were, until recently, the only tribe in Louisiana to achieve federal status. However, their claim to being the oldest tribe in Louisiana can be extended far beyond the last hundred years. Their occupancy of the region appears to be very ancient, and they may well be the original residents of Louisiana. Human occupation of the lower Mississippi Valley has been traced back to 12,000 B.C., but the earliest artifacts found in the Chitimacha's homeland are only 6,000 years old. The reason for this is that the region is an archeological nightmare. Sea levels rose after the last ice age and inundated most of the probable coastal sites. In the interim, floods, changing drainage patterns, and countless tons of silt deposited by the Mississippi River radically altered the adjacent inland topography. Acidic soil destroyed all but the most durable objects, and without an underlying bedrock, artifacts sank ever deeper into the ground through a phenomena known as "subsidence." All this of which combined to make a precise identification of Louisiana's earliest residents almost impossible. However, it can also be said that nothing has been discovered thus far to indicate that the first people to live in Louisiana were not the ancestors of the Chitimacha. When the first anthropological studies were made during the late 1800s, a researcher finally got one of the Chitimacha to admit that his people had originally come from somewhere east of the Mississippi. This might actually have been true for this one individual, since the Chitimacha by this time had absorbed remnants of several tribes from east of the river. However, the Chitimacha themselves have no memory of having lived anywhere else, and their tradition simply states "We have always been here." In any case, there seems little doubt that the Chitimacha have lived in south-central Louisiana for a very, very long time. Bayou Teche has been continuously occupied since at least 800 B.C. by native peoples with cultural characteristics similar to the Chitimacha, and almost no one disputes the Chitimacha occupation of the area after 500 A.D.

When the French arrived in 1699, the Chitimacha, in combination with their Chawasha, Washa, and Yagenechito allies, were probably the most powerful tribe on the Gulf Coast west of Florida. Politically, the Chitimacha were organized into a confederacy of approximately 15 semi-autonomous villages whose central authority was vested with a Grand Chief who lived at the main village near Charenton, Louisiana. Surrounded by a natural fortress of swamps and rivers, the Chitimacha were virtually invulnerable to an attack or invasion by their neighbors. Villages were fairly large (averaging more than 500 people) and were located along the natural levees of streams or lake shores. Fortification was usually unnecessary since nature had already provided them with a natural defense. Housing varied somewhat according to what was available at the location: walls were a framework of poles covered with either mud or palmetto leaves; roofs were thatched or palmetto.

Agriculture was the responsibility of the women and easily provided the majority of the Chitimacha diet. Corn was introduced into the southeast United States from Mesoamerica sometime around 300 B.C. Blessed with several hundred feet of top soil and a 320 day growing season, the Chitimacha had little trouble raising enough for their needs and, unlike some of their neighbors, rarely went hungry. Beans, pumpkins, melons and several varieties of squash were also part of the bounty. The women supplemented this by gathering wild fruits, vegetables, and nuts, while the men provided meat from hunting (deer, buffalo, turkey, alligator) and fishing. The huge shell mounds discovered near former village sites attest to a heavy dependence on shellfish.

For the winter months, each village maintained an elevated community granary to protect their dried corn from rodents and other pests. Beside the granary and chief's house, the typical Chitimacha village had one other public building. Unlike many neighboring tribes, the Chitimacha did not have dedicated temples. Instead, their religious ceremonies and public meetings were held in a building that the French referred to as the "dance house."

In an area crisscrossed with rivers and swamps, dugout canoes were their primary means of transport. Size varied according to purpose, but some Chitimacha canoes were hollowed from huge cypress logs and could hold more that 40 people.The one essential resource that was lacking in their homeland was stone needed for tools and arrowheads, and to acquire this, the Chitimacha frequently exchanged a portion of their agricultural surplus with the Avoyell and other tribes to the north. However, they never seemed to have enough and were forced to compensate. Besides utilizing cane arrows (a shaft without an arrowhead), they also made good use of the blowgun and cane darts for birds and other small game. Fishbones and garfish scales were also effective substitutes as projectile points. The Chitimacha (or more likely, the Washa and Chawasha) also employed the atlatl (spear thrower) long after its use had been abandoned by other tribes in the region.

To enhance their appearance, the Chitimacha flattened the foreheads of their male children. Most men wore their hair long, but there were occasional reports of some of their warriors having a scalplock. With the mild climate, male clothing was limited to a breechcloth which allowed a display of their extensive tattooing of the face, body, arms and legs. Women limited themselves to a short skirt. Their hair was also worn long but usually braided. Socially, the Chitimacha were divided into matrilineal (descent traced through the mother) totemic (named for an animal) clans. The most distinctive characteristic of Chitimacha society was their strict caste system of two ranked groups: nobles and commoners. The separation between them included the use of two distinct dialects with commoners required to address nobles in the proper language.

The Chitimacha were unique among Native Americans with their practice of strict endogamy (a person can only marry someone from their own group). A noble man or woman who married a commoner forfeited their higher status.

Work was divided along gender lines with most of the labor falling to the women. Men usually held all the hereditary chiefships. However, the Chitimacha were strict monogamists, and women exercised considerable authority in the tribe's day-to-day affairs. Many were healing shamans, and some women ruled as Chitimacha queens. Men also dominated the Chitimacha religion that the French chose to describe as sun worship. Before contact the Chitimacha built both effigy (animal shaped) and platform (flat on top to accommodate a building) mounds. However, this practice had been discontinued by 1700 . . . presumably because the weight of the mounds caused them to sink into the underlying mud almost as fast as they were built.During the historic period, the Chitimacha continued to use the simple burial mounds that still dot the region. The dead were initially buried but disinterred a year later so their bones could be stripped by designated "turkey buzzard men." When this task was completed, the remains were placed in a communal burial mound.

After 1719 most Chitimacha adopted the Roman Catholicism and Cajun language of their French neighbors. As a result, most of their culture and language has been lost. However, one especially noteworthy craft that has survived is their renown split-cane basket.The unique "double weave" technique employed results in an intricately woven basket with a different design on the inside and outside. Unfortunately, the creation of these treasures is extremely tedious and is still practiced by only a few Chitimacha women.The result is an object of great utility and beauty, and Chitimacha baskets have the reputation of being in the southeastern United States ... perhaps in all of North America.