INDIANS OF LOUISIANA
SPONSORED BY THE INTER-TRIBAL COUNCIL OF LOUISIANA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
[PREHISTORIC LOUISIANA INDIANS] [1. Lithic Period] [2. Archaic Period] [3. Poverty Point Period—Late Archaic] [4. Tchefuncte Period] [5. Marksville Period] [6. Troyville—Cole Creek Period] [7. Plaquemine Period] [8. Mississippian Period] [9. 1540-Present] [HISTORIC PERIOD] [I. ATAKAPA] [1. Atakapa] [2. Opelousa] [II. CHITIMACHA] [1. Chitimacha] [2. Chawasha] [3. Taensa (Tensas)] [4. Washa (Quacha)] [III. CHOCTAW] [1. Choctaw] [2. Jena Band] [IV. COUSHATTA] [V. HOUMA] [1. Houma] [2. Acotapissa] [3. Bayogoula] [4. Mugulasha] [5. Okelousa] [6. Quinipissa] [7. Tangipahoa] [VI. KADOHADACHO (CADDO)] [1. Caddo] [2. Addi (Adai)] [3. Doustian] [4. Nasoni] [5. Natasi] [6. Natchitoches] [7. Nanatsoho] [8. Soacatino (Xacatin)] [9. Washita (Ouachita)] [10. Yatasi] [VII. TUNICA] [1. Tunica] [2. Avoyel] [3. Biloxi] [4. Grigra (Gris)] [VIII. INTER-TRIBAL COUNCIL OF LOUISIANA]
PREHISTORIC LOUISIANA INDIANS
Paleo-lithic Period (approximately 12,000-5,000 BC):
According to anthropologists there have been people in Louisiana for at least 12,000 years. They probably migrated from the northern United States in search of game as more and more of the northern areas fell under sheets of advancing ice. Louisiana was much cooler and the plant-life very different from modern times.
These early men hunted bison, mastodon, camels, and horses with simple spears made by attaching a sharpened rock flake to the end of a spear. They were the true pioneers of this state. They came here without benefit of guides to show them the best hunting farm lands.
One of their villages has been discovered on Avery Island. Artifacts found among extinct animal bones indicate the area was inhabited when mastodons, bison, and camels, roamed Louisiana. *(Cabildo)