On the middle course of Red river Milfort met a body of Cha'hta Indians, who had quitted their country about 1755 in quest of better hunting grounds, and were involved in frequent quarrels with the Caddos (p. 95).
The French found several Cha'hta tribes, as the Bayogoula, Huma and Acolapissa, settled upon Mississippi river. In the eighteenth century the inland Shetimasha on Grand Lake were constantly harassed by Cha'hta incursions. About 1809 a Cha'hta village existed on Washita river, another on Bayou Chicot, Opelousas Parish, Louisiana. Morse mentions for 1820 twelve hundred Cha'hta Indians on the Sabine and Neche rivers, one hundred and forty on Red river near Nanatsoho, or Pecan Point, and many lived scattered around that district. At the present time (1882), encampments of Biloxis, who speak the Cha'hta language, exist in the forests of Louisiana south of Red river.
The Cha'hta nation is formally, though not locally, divided into two íksa (yéksa) or kinships, which exist promiscuously throughout their territory. These divisions were defined by Allen Wright as: 1. Kasháp-úkla or kashápa úkĕla (ókla) "part of the people;" 2. Úkla iⁿhulá'hta "people of the headmen."
Besides this, there is another formal division into three ókla, districts or fires, the names of which were partly alluded to in the passage from B. Romans:
ókla fálaya "long people";
áhepat ókla "potato-eating people";
ókla hánnali "Sixtown people," who used a special dialect.
The list of Cha'hta gentes, as printed in Lewis H. Morgan, Ancient Society,[70] stands as follows:
First phratry: kúshap ókla or Divided People. Four gentes: 1. kush-iksa, reed gens. 2. Law okla. 3. Lulak-iksa. 4. Linoklusha.
Second phratry: wátaki huláta or Beloved People, "people of head-men": Four gentes: 1. chufan íksa, beloved people. 2. iskuláni, small (people); 3. chito, large (people); 4. shakch-úkla, cray-fish people.
Property and the office of chief was hereditary in the gens.
As far as the wording is concerned, Morgan's list is not satisfactory, but being the only one extant I present it as it is.