I.
Native
Americans in Louisiana
A.
Paleo-Indians
(15,000-6,000 BC)
1.
All
plotted by their archeological remains…especially spear points.
2.
Paleo
Indians are largely distinguished by their hunting and gathering economic
system.
3.
Mostly
gathering early on.
a)
Not
much work required of hunters and gathers, but lots of land and occasionally
migration.
b)
Did
they hunt to extinction the mammoth, mastodon, giant ground sloths? (12,000 on)
c)
Evidence
sketchy because of the geologic changes since. Most territory now under water
or alluvium.
d)
The
combination of hunting and gathering…makes the Archaic designation, which
really made life easier and populations larger.
e)
Women
were apparently on the verge of domesticating marsh elder, aramanth and
chenopod
II.
Meso-Indians
(6,000-2,000 BC)
A.
Replaces
the nomadic existence of the H/G cultures.
B.
Still
hunt, but more settled and the domestication of plants begins.
C.
Use
of fire explains some of the forest cover.
Europeans and later tribes copied the practice.
D.
Slash
and burn agriculture…are present day burnings a hold-out?
E.
Complex
social structures and civilization begins.
F.
Pottery,
jewelry, religious ceremonies
G.
Poverty
Point
2.
2000-200
bc
3.
Bayou
Macon in West Carroll parish
4.
Bird
effigy mound
5.
Largest
structure in the US before the 20th century.
6.
The
semicircle mounds have a diameter of 3/4ths a mile…10 times larger than
stonehenge.
7.
Was
the heart of a large regional culture that stretched from Missouri to Florida.
8.
Wide
trading network
9.
5000
people
10. standard: hunter, herdsman, farmer,
city dweller, civilized.
11. geographer: gatherer, farmer and
then became civilized before he moved into a city.
12. Poverty pointers were not farmers
13. But how to produce such
surpluses???
14. No ‘set-up’ culture with a
precedent of this magnitude.
15. Manufacturing site for jewelry,
beads etc. not just a trading site.
16. Probably a diffusion of ideas,
commercial, political and religious from another area, perhaps Mexico around
2000 bc.
17. Urban hierarchy existed within the
poverty point culture.
H.
Tchefuncte
Culture-Lake Ponchartrain
I.
Marksville
culture-Avoyelles Parish-part of the Hopewell culture 100 bc
J.
Troyville
Culture-Jonesville
Maize beans, squash,
melons, sunflowers and tobacco
III.
Historic
Louisiana Indians 1700
A.
Neo-Indians
(2,000 BC – to present)
Were still on hand when
DeSoto arrived.
Intercropping: Hill
tillage, corn in the middle, beans next to them, then squash and pumpkins,
which provide erosion protection…self-sustaining, no weeding, but pollination
sometimes had to be assisted.
Were in a down period socially, politically when
Europeans arrived.
a)
Mostly
lived along rivers and lakes in small villages.
b)
Nucleated
town plan centered around a square where the chief lived.
c)
Agricultural
and fishing, gathering and trade
d)
Mobilian
was the language of commerce, was apparently a Choctawan pidgin
e)
Was
not strictly a barter economy, shells and pearls also served as currency.
f)
Long
history of intertribal warfare
g)
The
arrival of Europeans complicated and aggravated the tribal tensions, brought
disease and eventual elimination of many of the tribes and cultures.
2.
When
the French arrived there were six groups segregated by linguistic
characteristics.
a)
Caddoan
(1)
Adai,
Doustioni, Natchitoches, Ouachita, Yatasi
(2)
Had
connections to the plains tribes of the West and Texas.
(3)
Caddoans
were allied with the French, eventually ceded their land to the US, were moved
to Texas and eventually into Oklahoma.
b)
Tunican
(1)
Koroa,
Tunica and Yazoo
(3)
Tunica-Biloxi
tribe is federally recognized today.
(4)
Koroa,
were allies of the Natchez against the French
c)
Natchezan
(1)
Natchez,
Taensa, Avoyel
(2)
Battled
the French in the early 1700s on a number of occasions.
d)
Muskogean
(1)
Houma,
Bayougoula, Acolapissa, Quinaisa, Okelousa and Tangipahoa
(2)
The
Houma still exist and are recognized by state authorities as a tribe.
e)
Chitimachan
(1)
Chitimacha,
Washa and Chawasa
(2)
Bayou
oriented and remote for sometime
(3)
Chitimacha
are a federally recognized tribe, living near Charenton
f)
Atakapan
(1)
Atakapan
and Opelousa?
B.
Immigrant
Indians
a)
Some
that had allied with the French were moved west across the Mississippi after
1763, when the Fr lost to the Br.
b)
The
Spanish got much of the territory west of the Miss. after 1763, and tried to
employ the Indians to their advantage against the Br.
C.
Downfall
a)
Smallpox,
mumps, yellow fever…concurrent.
b)
Alcohol
c)
Guns,
warfare, reorganization of Indian economy around European ideals
d)
Technology.
D.
Etc.
a)
Really
helped speed the process of Europeanization because the landscape was already
humanized quite well.
(1)
Fire
(2)
Crops
(3)
Willingness
of the British Southerners to accept Indian farming techniques may have given
them a substantial advantage over the Fr. And the Sp.
IV.
Indians
and the Environment
A.
use
of fire
1.
was
used by Indians to:
a)
as a
hunting tool
b)
to
clear forested land
c)
to
improve the fertility of the soil
d)
to
improve grazing for herd animals
2.
fire
techniques adopted by European settlers
3.
Slash
and Burn
4.
frequent
burnings are probably responsible for the prevalence of longleaf pine
B.
adoption
of native crops
1.
corn
2.
lima
and kidney beans
3.
summer
squash
4.
pumpkin
C.
pirogue
adopted from Indians
V.
Place
Names
A.
Generic
1.
Bayou
and Bogue
B.
Specific
1.
Mississippi
2.
Caddo
3.
Ouachita
4.
Atchafalya
5.
etc.
VI.
Settlement
Patterns
VII.
Today
1.
Kosati
in Allen parish retain the most cultural identity
2.
Several
thousand of various other tribes are scattered throughout the state.
3.
Only
593 Indians in the 1900 census, but as many as 12,000 today.
4.
There
is a Louisiana inter-tribal council
5.
American
Indian Center in Baton Rouge
6.
Biggest
news of late is the introduction of gaming onto tribal lands
VIII.
Bibliography
(poverty point)
Broyles, Bettye J. and
Clarence H. Webb (editors)
1970 The Poverty Point Culture. Bulletin No. 12. Southeastern
Archaeological Conference, Morgantown, West Virginia.
Byrd, Kathleen M. (editor)
1986 Recent Research at the Poverty Point Site. Louisiana
Archaeology
No. 13. Louisiana Archaeological Society, Lafayette.
1991 The Poverty Point Culture, Local Manifestations,
Subsistence
Practices, and Trade Networks. Geoscience & Man Vol. 29.
Louisiana
State University, Baton Rouge.
Ford, James A.
1955 The Puzzle of Poverty Point. Natural History
64(9):466-472.
Ford, James A. and Clarence H. Webb
1956 Poverty Point, a Late Archaic Site in Louisiana.
Anthropological
Papers Vol. 46, Pt. 1. American Museum of Natural History, New
York.
Gibson, Jon L.
1987 The Poverty Point Earthworks Reconsidered. Mississippi
Archaeology 22(2):14-31.
Gibson, Jon L. (editor)
1980 Caddoan and Poverty Point Archaeology: Essays in Honor of
Clarence Hungerford Webb. Louisiana Archaeology 6 for 1979.
Louisiana Archaeological Society, Lafayette.
1994 Exchange in the Lower Mississippi Valley and Contiguous
Areas
at 1100 B.C. Louisiana Archaeology No. 17 for 1990. Louisiana
Archaeological Society, Lafayette.
Jackson, H. Edwin
1991 The Trade Fair in Hunter-Gatherer Interaction: The Role
of
Intersocietal Trade in the Evolution
of Poverty Point Culture. In Between Bands and States, edited
by Susan
A. Gregg, pp. 265-286. Occasional Paper No. 9. Center for
Archaeological Investigations. Southern Illinois University,
Carbondale.
Webb, Clarence H.
1968 The Extent and Content of Poverty Point Culture. American
Antiquity 33:297-321.
1977 The Poverty Point Culture. Geoscience & Man Vol. 17.
Louisiana
State University, Baton Rouge. (2nd edition, revised,
published in 1982).
IX.