Table of Contents
Where are the Atakapa located?
The Atakapa (Attakapa, Attacapa) Indians, including such subgroups as the Akokisas and Deadoses, occupied the coastal and bayou areas of southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas until the early 1800s.
What does Atakapa stand for?
The name Atakapa is Choctaw in origin and means. “man eater.” This indicates the reputation of the tribe.2 A.
What did the Atakapa live in?
Originally, Atakapa people lived in brush shelters, which were small huts made of grass and reeds built around a simple wooden framework. These brush houses were not large or fancy, but they were easy to build and move from place to place, so they fit the semi-nomadic Atakapa lifestyle.
What region did the Wichita tribe live in?
Wichita, self-name Kitikiti’sh, North American Indian people of Caddoan linguistic stock who originally lived near the Arkansas River in what is now the state of Kansas. They were encountered by the Spanish in the mid-16th century and became the first group of Plains Indians subject to missionization.
What did the Atakapa eat?
Atakapans and Karankawas along the coast ate bears, deer, alligators, clams, ducks, oysters, and turtles extensively. Caddos in the lush eastern area grew beans, pumpkins, squash, and sunflowers, in addition to hunting bears, deer, water fowl and occasionally buffalo.
What did the Wichita tribe do?
The Wichitas were farming people. Wichita women worked together to raise crops of corn, beans, squash and pumpkins. Men hunted deer and small game and took part in seasonal buffalo hunts. The Wichitas also collected fruits and nuts to eat.
Where did the atakapa live in Texas?
The peoples lived in river valleys, along lake shores, and coasts from present-day Vermilion Bay, Louisiana to Galveston Bay, Texas.
Where are the descendants of the Atakapa tribe?
Their descendants still live in the traditional territory of southern Louisiana and Texas. People identifying as Atakapa-Ishak had a gathering in 2006. Their name was also spelled Attakapa, Attakapas, or Attacapa.
What kind of language do the Atakapa Indians speak?
Most Atakapa people speak English today. Some Atakapas, especially older people, speak a Cajun French dialect. In the past, Atakapa Indians spoke their own Atakapa language. The Atakapa Indian language has not been spoken since the early 1900’s, but some Atakapa people are trying to learn their ancestral language again.
What did the Europeans do to the Atakapa Indians?
The Europeans never fought the Atakapas directly, but European diseases like smallpox devastated the Atakapa population and their villages disbanded. Some survivors joined neighboring tribes like the Caddo, while others intermarried with local Cajun and African-American communities.
What did Atakapa women do for a living?
Atakapa women gathered plants, made clothing, and did most of the child care and cooking. Both genders took part in storytelling, artwork and music, ceremonial dances, and traditional medicine. Only men usually became Atakapa chiefs. What were Atakapa homes like in the past?