Pre-contact distribution of Atakapa
The Atakapa (pronounced "uh-TAK-uh-paw", also spelled Attakapa, Attakapas, Attacapa, formally
known as the Ishaks, pronounced "ee-SHAKS", translated as The People [1] ) were a Southeastern culture of Native American tribes and with a common language that lived along the
Gulf of Mexico.
Their territory ranged from the Trinity River and Galveston Bay in Texas to Bayou Teche
and Vermilion Bay in Louisiana. They hunted small game, and ate fish, roots, berries, and
shellfish and also planted crops. Though the tribe's population at various times was speculated in tens of thousands, historians
agree those numbers had dwindled to mere hundreds when Louisiana was undergoing colonization in the 1700s and different bands migrated westward.
History
The Choctaw Indians told the French settlers about the
"people of the West" and called them Atakapa. The French referred to them as "le savage". The name Atakapa
is a Choctaw name meaning 'people eater' (hattak 'person', apa 'to eat'), which is a reference to the practice of
cannibalism exercised by Gulf coast peoples on their enemies.
In 1528, they saved the Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca and his mates from ship-wreck and starvation. De Vaca remained with them until
1535. [2] Cabeza de Vaca
described Ishaks as "well built". [3]
In 1703, Bienville sent three Frenchmen up the
Sabine River who met the Atakapa and in 1714 the Atakapa are one of 14 tribes that come to De l'Epinay, who was acting
French Governor of Louisiana between 1717 and 1718 [4], while he is fortifying Dauphin Island, Alabama. [5]
French historian Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz, who spent 16 years in Louisiana, from
1718 to 1734, 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 an 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. [6]
Since then the Ishaks consider Atakapa a derogatory name and no proof of cannibalism has ever been found.
The three other tribes in the area, the Opelousas, the Choctaws, and the Alabamans, considered the Atakapas their enemy and together
successfully drove them from their land, almost destroying the entire tribe. [7]
Today
An Atakapa indian statue in St. Martinville, Louisiana.
Many names of present day towns can be traced back to the Ishaks. The town of Mermentau is a corrupted form of the local chief Nementou. The word Plaquemine of
Plaquemine Brûlée means "persimmon" in the Indian language. Bayou Nezpiqué was named for an Indian with a tattooed nose. Bayou Queue de Tortue was believed to have been named for Chief Celestine La Tortue of the
Atakapas nation. [8] The name "Calcasieu" comes from the Atakapa language katkosh, for "Eagle", and yok, "to
cry".
Many historians believed they were eventually decimated in the 1850s mainly from disease and
poverty. However, many descendants still exist and fight for a recognition of their identity. Many descendants today share a mix
lineage of African-American and Atakapas-Ishak Indian making it difficult federal
recognition. [9]
On October 28, 2006, the Atakapa-Ishak nation met for the
first time in over 100 years as "One nation". There were 450 people who represented Louisiana and Texas. The mistress of ceremony
and newly appointed Director of Publications and Communications, Rachel Mouton started out by introducing Billy LaChapelle who
opened the afternoon with an Atakapa prayer in English and in the Atakapa language.
[10]
Subdivisions or tribes
- Western Atakapa
- Akokisa. Trinity Bay and the lower
course of Trinity River
- Bidai. Trinity River about Bidai
Creek.
- Deadose. South central Texas.
- Patiri. Along Caney Creek, Texas.
- Tlacopsel. s.e. Texas
- Eastern Atakapa
- Atakapa-Ishak (Attacapa). Present-day Acadiana parishes of St. Martin, Lafayette,
Iberia, St. Landry,
Vermilion, St. Mary and
Acadia in Louisiana. [11]
See also
References
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