COUSHATTA
The Coushatta occupied many villages in their Alabama homeland. They lived in towns and farmed the surrounding lands. The tribe was divided into clans. Each clan was allotted specific fields and a portion of their crops were collected for the public granary to protect against poor harvests, war emergencies and to feed the needy and hungry travelers.
The clans elected their best orator as chief who in turn appointed a town chief and war chief for each town. In the center of the town was a square where the tribal leaders met to discuss the religious, political and economic affairs.
The Coushatta were primarily farmers who supplemented their crops of maize, peas, beans, squashes, pumpkins, melons, potatoes, and rice by hunting, fishing and trading with other tribes. They were accomplished archers and were reluctant to accept the use of guns. They also used their bows and arrows for fishing or they used blow guns, hook and lines, spears, traps and handnets.
In 1540 a Spanish exploration party led by DeSoto robbed an outlying Coushatta village, kidnapping the chief and other leaders. They threatened to burn their hostages alive unless the tribe agreed to give future explorers whatever they wanted.
Co-existence with the Spanish and French assumed relatively peaceful proportions and was mutually beneficial until the end of the Revolutionary War when land seeking settlers pushed farther and farther into Coushatta territory.
The years were marked by a continuing struggle over land, warfare, broken treaties, migration away from white settlements and a dwindling Coushatta population. The final blow came when 3,000 warriors were killed and 22 million acres of Indian land lost in the Creek War of 1813-1814.
The Coushatta migrated through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas in their search for unclaimed land where they could re-establish their peaceful agricultural way of life.
By the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, some 250 Coushattas had settled along the Calcasieu River near Kinder. Here the tribe continued its traditions and enjoyed amicable relations with their neighbors, until their peaceful and prosperous existence was again lost when American settlers became interested in Coushatta lands. In 1884 most of the Coushattas remaining in Louisiana moved to a site 15 miles east of the Calcasieu River and 3 miles north of Elton in Allen Parish. Life was hard for the Coushattas, but by 1920 individual tribespeople had carved out an Indian community that encompassed more than 1,000 acres of farmland, forest and lush, green swamps.
In 1898 the United States government placed 160 acres in trust for the tribe and assumed partial responsibility for educating the children. Later a federally sponsored elementary school for grades 1-5 was established and medical services were added for the tribal members. During the repudiated “termination” policy in 1958 the United States government ended its trusteeship of tribal lands and discontinued its meager services. Legally this meant the Coushatta tribe no longer existed.
In 1973 a newly formed corporation, the Coushatta Alliance, Inc. finally succeeded in getting the United States government to legally re-establish recognition of the Coushatta tribe.
With the development of a strong tribal government came the revival of a culture almost lost; a heritage almost forgotten.