Coushatta
historyThe Coushatta (also Koasati) are a Native American people living primarily in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Most Coushatta live in Allen Parish, just north of the town of Elton, Louisiana, though a smaller number share a reservation near Livingston, Texas with the Alabama people. There is also an Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town in Brandon. The new Leatherwood Museum in Oakdale, the largest community in Allen Parish, contains an exhibit on the Coushatta.
History
The Coushatta were traditionally agriculturalists, growing maize and other food crops, and supplementing their diet by hunting game. They are also known for their skill at basketry. In the 20th century they began cultivating rice and crawfish on tribally owned farms. Once part of the Creek confederacy, the Coushatta tribe split and went to South Louisiana where they still reside.
The Coushatta language, in the Muskogean family, is still spoken by some 400 people, hoe in the early 21st century fewer young people are learning it.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, some of the Coushatta (Koasati) joined the emerging Muscogee Confederacy, where they became known as part of the "Upper Creeks". They were said to be closely related to the Alabama Indians. They had moved from eastern lands under pressure of European settlers.
Earlier, nearly all the Spanish expeditions (including the 1539 to 1543 Hernando de Soto Expedition) into the interior of Spanish Florida recorded encountering the original town of the tribe. They referred to them as "Coste", with their nearby neighbors being the Chiaha, the Chiska,the Yuchi, the Tasquiqui, and the Tali. This town was most likely in the Tennessee Valley. Click here for a list of towns encountered by the Hernando de Soto Expedition.
In the 1990s, they became involved in the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal after they hired Jack Abramoff to assist them in gambling-related interests.
- Rediscovering America: The Legends and Legacy of Our Past, part 2: Indians Among Us (1992). Produced and directed by Jonathan Donald; written by Roger Kennedy. Discovery Communications, Inc.
- ''Aircraft Registered to the tribe: N800PL is registered to the COUSHATTA TRIBE OF LOUISIANA of ELTON, LA
- »Sovereign Nation of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana official site
- »Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas official site
- »Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town official site