Chitimacha

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.

Culture & History

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.

Nothing has been discovered thus far to indicate that the first people to live in Louisiana were not the ancestors of the Chitimacha. The Chitimacha themselves have no memory of having lived anywhere else, and their tradition simply states "We have always been here."

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.

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 middens 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."

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.

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. 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. During the historic period, the Chitimacha continued to use the simple burial mounds that still dot the region.

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