Chitimacha Notebook: Writings of Emile Stouff—A Chitimacha Chief

by Emile Stouff

In the beginning, the Great Spirit looked at a great mass of water. So he said, “There should be something solid for animals with blood.” So he called upon the crawfish to dig down and bring up some dirt, which they did. As they brought up the dirt, the water receded. The crawfish is still working at it. The Great Spirit was pleased. So he took the dirt and made all living things with it. When he ran out of objects, he said, “This is good, but I must make one to control these animals. I will make man.” So he chose some good clay and made a clay man, but it was soft. “I shall bake it in the fire from the sun,” he said. So he baked it, and when he took it out, it was pale. So he just blew on it and set it aside. Then, the more he looked at it, the more he was displeased with it. So he said, “I will let it live, but I will make another one and leave it longer to darken it.” He left it twice as long as before and when he took this one out, it was black. So he set it aside and said, “I shall make another,” and when he baked this one he cut the time in half, and it came out exactly as he wanted it. So he made three—one white, one black, and one red. He named that one pinikan, meaning Red.

Then he saw man needed a helpmate. “I made man out of dirt so I will take part of man to make his helpmate so they will be as one, and she will be known as female as she is part of the male.” After looking the male over, he decided to make her out of bone. So he took a rib from the rib case, right in front of the chest, leaving a bone dangling. When man woke up, he saw this female sitting there. He noticed she was built different and beautiful. When he started to her, he cried, “Wo Man,” and they committed the first sin (as we know it). The man said, “You should cover yourself up.” The female said, “And so should you. I know, I will take the large leaves from this tree and make each a cover.” She made the covers and tied them on with a vine known today as the white vine. When they heard the Great Spirit coming, they were ashamed, and hid from him. So he called for them to “Come out wherever you are.” Then the Great Spirit asked them, “Why are you hiding?” Then the male said, “She looked so enticing that I went into her without your permission.” The Great Spirit said, “For that you shall go out on the earth and earn your living by the sweat of your brow. If you do not work, you do not eat, and you, woman, you shall bear his offspring in great pain. I did not intend to have but you two, but since it is this way, you will be fruitful and multiply so your seed may be many, and now that you are smart, I will give you the earth, but remember you are made of her dirt and you shall return to her. She is your mother. She will feed you and clothe you. She will give you the trees to give you nuts and fruits for you to eat and at seasons for birds to live in, and fur bearing animals. You will also enjoy its shade. When you are tired, you may rest on the soft grass that will grow. The tree will have many uses. It will be used to warm you in the winter, to make rafts to float on the waters, and it will make your homes for your protection against the cold winter. It will heat you when it is cold. It will cook your food and its fire will be a blessing as the flames leave by small parts into the skies. It will also tell you the direction you must go so you need not ever get lost while you are traveling. The seed you shall plant, the earth will help them grow so you will have something to eat. She will separate and make streams to harbor the fishes you will eat and for you to drink and bathe. So protect the waters and keep them clean. Your life depends on its purity just like the air you breathe. You may have my breath in you, and if you disobey me, I will withdraw my breath and you will be no more. And through my breath, I will be with you always. When you are sick, the earth will bear roots and herbs for you to use. I will not inflict any sickness that will not have herbs to cure. I will speak to your medicine man through a coma only and only to this man I shall designate the cures. I will speak to him only through a vision. No one else shall see me again, and this man shall choose someone of his kind and reveal this secret to any man worthy of him. To avoid conflict, there will be only one in each group to speak to me. His power strength will be as strong as his faith in me. I shall keep the mother earth in my custody so I may destroy it any time that you have lost faith in me and disobey my teaching. You will, at any time I choose for you, return your body to the mother earth, but if you love me and keep the faith your spirits will go to the Happy Hunting Ground, where everything will be for your taking, and you will die no more. But if you do not, your carcass will remain in mother womb and return to dirt of which you were created.

“The earth will be for your use. Use it in any way you choose. But no one can claim it as their own. It is not to be bought, sold, or rented, because the earth is mine. Misuse it, and you shall repent for any wrong use of the land or its streams. This I command you to live by, so go out in the world that you have made for yourself and be fruitful and multiply.”

That is the way the Indians said the Great Spirit gave it to the first man, and it was in practice when the white man came into this country. The Great Spirit showed them how to make coverups out of animal skin, called breachcloths, and they were happy. Now the man who was to do the treating found a certain herb that would put him into a coma, so he would build a fire and drink a tea made from this herb and dance around this fire chanting until this herb took effect. Then he would pass out. While in this stage, he would communicate with the Great Spirit which would tell him what to do or what to use or whatever his desire was. Someone asked the medicine man to describe the Great Spirit since he claims he saw him. The medicine man said he would be hard to describe since he has no shape, and yet he has many shapes. “The way I saw him is like a heavy mist. He had no eyes, yet he saw everything. He has no ears, yet he hears everything, even the unspoken word within you. He has no mouth, yet he speaks. You have heard him speak to you within your head, something to not do that is wrong, or he will say do do that that is good. He is watching you always. You cannot hide from his sight no matter where you are or what you are doing.”

Now the Indians had no Hell, no Devil. They thought that returning to dirt and not going to the Happy Hunting Ground was the worst thing that could happen to them. It was their code, not religion. They lived by sort of Moses’ law—an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Their chief and councilmen would decide. Now the white man says that they found them worshipping the moon or some stars. True, they knew he was up there somewhere, so some would think he was the man in the moon, and thought he was some bright star. They did not know. Nonetheless, they knew that there was a power stronger than them. They could feel him in their mind. They did not teach fear to their children like they would go to hell. They taught them bravery, to fear no one. As long as they obeyed the Great Spirit, they would be content.

A long time ago, no definite date, came among the Chitimacha a strange, fair complected man who spoke their language, which amazed the Indians. He was very smart. The Indians said he knew everything. He taught them to make better crops by using fish byproducts and even fish by their plants, and it would make them grow healthy and strong. He helped them to substitute herbs when one was not available at different seasons. Then came one day, he told the Indians it was time for him to leave the Chitimacha and go do his father’s work. He picked out a cypress tree and climbed to the top. Then he told the Chitimachas, “Whenever you need rain for your crops, come and wet this tree and it will rain according to your needs.” And until this day, it works. It has been proven by many, many people, white and black. All over South Louisiana, people know about it and believe in it strongly. That is how the Indians were blessed by the Great Spirit. He gives and he takes. The Chitimacha did not think it feasible to ask the Great Spirit for anything. All they taught their children was how to thank him for all the good things they got from him. If something went wrong along the way, you just checked the past—you have done something to displease the Great Spirit. It has always been and still is until today. So the Indians would punish themselves to try and please the Great Spirit.

Now the Indian has been ridiculed for talking to the Great Spirit which is an Indian belief. The white prophets of old spoke to their gods. Why should it be unreasonable for an Indian to do the same under the Great Spirit? Guidance as afore stated, the Chitimacha do not believe Adam and Eve naked in the Garden of Eden ate an apple; however, the white man says so, so the Indians do not deny it, since they had to accept the white God, which is the same Supreme Being with different names. They are both sacred to the Chitimacha. Since the Indians could not read or write, all this was handed down mouth to mouth. So many things might be left out and some could have been added. We do not know for sure, yet some of your strongest and oldest organizations do not have anything written and are still going strong.

We do know that the Indians did not preach religion. They live it. They have a ceremonial for everything, and it was all done with respect to the Great Spirit. Their dances, their chanting was somewhat like your unknown tongue of today, and it was always done around a fire because we believe that fire has life. If you watch a fire, you will notice part of the flame leaves the fire and goes up to carry the message to the Great Spirit, thanking him for a good harvest, good hunt, a good fish catch, and many other things.

The council would meet and decide what punishment should be for a wrongdoer, such as if one committed murder and they decided he should die also, the chief would tell him. So having no jail, he would be free until his time came. Time was measured by the moon. The council would decide how many moons he had left. Then the criminal would return to meet his execution and if he did not return, his mother or father or brother or his son would have to pay for his crime, someone very close to him. Now in the killing of one in a brawl, the living was not punished by death. He had to see that the family of the deceased was fed and clothed until all were capable of taking care of themselves. If he had only enough for one family, he had to do without, so the dead man’s family would not suffer hunger. Now if a squaw committed adultery, she was punished by cutting the tip of her nose. She would be forever marked as an unfaithful squaw. There is no punishment known today for the man.

Once an Indian had an eye sore the medicine man could not cure. So he had to go into a coma and seek the aid of the Great Spirit. After the preparation that the Great Spirit had instructed them to do, he passed out, so to speak. The Great Spirit told him where to find the herb that would cure any sore eye. It seems that the chief’s little girl had died and was buried. The Great Spirit told him to go to the grave of this little girl, and he will find a small vine growing from her eye. Use that vine and leaves, and make an eye wash with it. He did and the eyes were cured (and we were still using it till we were forbidden by the medical association to use any herb), and many herbs were found, like moner, and until today only one of the tribe knows the herbs that were used since the beginning, which will not be revealed to anyone. The Indians of today do not meet the standard that the Great Spirit set, nor will they follow the ritual that goes with it, so it will die out just like the other things the white man deprived the Indians of, their way of living.