Many nations of people inhabited New Orleans prior to European settlement: The four federally recognized tribes are the Chitimacha, Coushatta, the Jena Band of Choctaw, and Tunica-Biloxi Tribes. But there were also the Atakapa, Caddo, Houma, and Natchez.
The largest of these tribes was the Chitimacha, numbering an estimated 20,000 people. They were the most powerful tribe from Texas to Florida. New Orleans was established 300 years ago by European settlers, but the ancestors at the Chitimacha lived in the Mississippi Delta for thousands of years.
These heavily tattooed people established villages along the swamps and bayous of the Atchafalaya basin. They raised corn, beans, squash, melons. They hunted deer, turkey, gator, and fish. They fished from canoes, and developed blow guns and cane darts.
Colonization
When the French arrived they immediately went to war with the Chimaca, from about 1706 to 1718, when the city was founded.
European settlers enslaved and killed many of the Chitimacha, but Eurasian infectious diseases like typhoid, measles, and smallpox did most of the work. The Chitimacha were nearly extinct. These who remained were forced from their land after the Louisiana Purchase.
In the late 1700’s the British defeated the French in the Seven Years War, and deported the Acadians, French colonists in Acadia, in Canada. many settled in New Orleans and are known today as Cajuns. This also displaced many Chitimacha.
In the 1800’s the Chitimacha sued the US government for rights to their ancestral lands and won 1000 acres in the Atchafalaya Basin.
Today
Tchoupitoulas Street, one of the longest streets in New Orleans, follows the Mississippi. The word comes from Choctaw. It means “those who live at the river.”
The Mardi Gras Indians date back to African American slaves who revered the native Americans, who often gave them sanctuary.
Today the Chitimacha have 1300 members. They are the second largest employer in St. Mary Parish. They live on a reservation in the beautiful Atchafalaya Basin about two hours from here. They operate under a constitutional government.
