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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.

Contents

History

Today

Subdivisions or tribes

See also

References

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

Many names of present day towns can be traced back to the Ishaks. The town of Mermentau is a corrupted form of the local cheif ''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

★ Atakapa language

References

1. timesofacadiana.com
2. creolenaturetrail.org
3. lutheransonline.com
4. enlou.com
5. lutheransonline.com
6. thecajuns.com
7. cityofopelousas.com "OPELOUSAS FACTS & HISTORY"
8. thecajuns.com "Arrow points and place names are reminders of Attakapas"
9. timesofacadiana.com "This isn't Cajun Country"
10. www.lutheransonline.com "ATAKAPA ISHAK NATION S.E. TEXAS AND S.W.LOUISIANA Issue No. 1 November 2006"
11. [1]