Chapter 4
The First Inhabitants
Themes:
• Louisiana and the World Timeline (pp. 7475)
• Archaeology in Louisiana (pp. 76-77)
• Archaic Period (pp. 78-79)
• The Neo Period (pp. 80-85)
• Historic Indians (pp. 86-88)
• Historic Indian Culture (pp. 89-91)
• Louisiana’s Native Americans Today (pp.
92-93)
• Review (pp. 94-95)
I. Archaeology in Louisiana
• Knowledge of prehistoric Native Americans
culture comes through the careful study of
artifacts.
• European explorers recorded observations in
letters, diaries, and government reports.
• Those first-hand accounts, along with
sketches and artifacts, provide more detailed
information about historic Indian cultures.
GLEs: 74, 78
Archaeologist
Landbridge from Asia
II. Paleo Period (10000-6000 B.C.)
• Last great Ice Age ends.
• Paleo Indians arrive in Louisiana.
• Ice Age animals become extinct.
A. The Paleo People
• Lived from 10,000-6.,000 B.C.
• During the Ice Age when ocean levels dropped, Siberian
people migrated across the land bridge to Alaska in search
of game.
• Some moved down the coast all the way to the tip of
South America.
• Paleo Indians spoke a developed language, made fine
clothing of skins, baskets of split cane, spear points, and
tools of flint and wove cloth from palmetto fibers.
• They were nomads who hunted big game and traveled in
small extended-family groups of 30-40 people.
Mammoth Hunt
III. Archaic Period (6000-2000 B.C.)
• Modern Louisiana climate and landforms
are in place.
• Indians become hunter gatherers.
• First Indian mounds are built in America.
• Stonehenge and Egyptian pyramids are
constructed in the Old World.
GLEs: 64, 70, 74,
78
A. Archaic Indians
•
•
•
They were hunter gatherers who enjoyed a
rich, varied diet.
The warming climate made this diet possible.
Food was plentiful, so they didn’t need to
travel as much and probably moved with the
seasons over a smaller area.
B. Archaic Genius
•
•
Practiced maximum forest efficiency and
developed a variety of new weapons and
tools, including the atlatl
They were the original mound builders.
C. Watson Brake
•
•
•
•
Located near the Ouachita River
Eleven mounds were discovered to have
organic material dating back to 3500 B.C.
Among the oldest mounds in the United
States
Indian Mounds were also found on
Louisiana State University campus.
Louisiana
Archaeology
Sites
**A Short Painful Life
(Read more about it on page 79)
IV. Neo Period (2000 B.C.-1492 A.D.)
• Last prehistoric period of Native
Americans
• Poverty Point and other cultures rise and
fall.
• Pottery and bow and arrow are introduced.
• Agriculture is adopted.
• Mound building reaches its peak.
• Greek and Roman civilizations rise and fall
in the Old World.
GLEs:64, 65, 70,
73, 74, 75, 76, 78
A. The Poverty Point Culture
• Located in East Carroll Parish near Epps
• Today, it is a historic site.
• Six huge earthen ridges built in a semicircle next to Bayou Macon
• The people were hunter-gathers; Poverty
Point was a major trading center.
• The Poverty Point culture dominated the
Mississippi Valley.
Arrowheads
Bird Mound
**Poverty Point Figurines
(Read more about it on page 81)
B. The Tchefuncte Culture (600 B.C.200 A.D.)
• Hunting-gathering people who appeared after the
collapse of the Poverty Point culture
• Sites on the Gulf Coast have thick shell middens,
which were created when people lived in one place
for a long time. They ate thousands of mussels
and clams and tossed the shells into piles. Over
the years, these piles of shells formed ridges called
shell middens.
• First Louisiana Indians to make large amounts of
pottery
C. The Hopewell and Marksville
Cultures (200 B.C.- 400 A.D.)
•
•
•
•
Lived in the Ohio River Valley
Established a complex trade system, built
large mounds and earthworks, buried artifact
and their dead, and organized powerful
governments.
Culture spread and was adapted by the
Marksville culture.
Marksville State Historic Site
Marksville
Burial Mound
D. The Troyville-Coles Creek
Culture (400-1100 A.D.)
•
•
•
•
•
Replaced the Marksville culture
Built larger mounds inside an earthen
rampart (levee)
Began cultivating plants such as squash,
sunflowers, and gourds
Marked the beginning of agriculture, which
ended Indians’ nomadic lifestyle
Introduced bow and arrow
Cross-Section of a Burial Mound
2,000-Year-Old Pottery
E. The Caddo Culture (800 A.D.Present)
• Indians in northwest Louisiana
• Very sophisticated
• Complex social class system
and powerful rulers
• Farmers and traders
F. The Plaquemine-Mississippian
Culture (1000-1500 A.D.)
•
Farmed and lived in villages
**Louisiana Indian Mounds
(Read more about it on page 84)
V. Historic Indians
•
•
Six Indian language groups and many
tribes occupy Louisiana.
Europeans arrive in America.
GLEs: 70, 74, 76,
78
Historic
Louisiana
Indians
A. The Caddo
•
•
Six tribes in northwest Louisiana,
southwest Arkansas, east Texas, and
southeast Oklahoma
Trading was important.
B. The Attakapas “Man-Eater”
•
•
Lived in southwest Louisiana and the
Texas Gulf Coast
They were cannibals, which means they
ate human flesh.
C. The Chitimacha
•
•
Lived in south-central Louisiana along
Bayou Teche and the Atchafalaya River
They farmed, hunted, and fished.
D. The Muskogean
•
•
Lived in southeast Louisiana around
Lake Pontchartrain and the Florida
Parishes
Tribes include the Choctaw, Bayougoula,
Tangipahoa, Coushatta, Houma, and
Quinipissas-Mugalashas.
E. The Natchez
•
•
•
Main village was located near modernday Natchez, Mississippi.
Farmers with a complex class system
Worshipped the sun
F. The Tunica
•
•
•
They were great traders.
Lived in modern-day Angola Parish
Joined with another tribe and became
Tunica-Biloxi
VI. Historic Indian Culture
GLEs: 75, 78, 79,
81
A. Agriculture
•
•
•
Grew three basic crops—corn, beans,
and squash
Indians used a method called mound
farming.
Historic Indians rotated crops because
some crops robbed nutrients from the
soil, and other crops replaced those
nutrients.
Fish remained
an important
part of the
Indians’ diet—
even after they
began farming.
B. Diet
•
•
•
•
Indians probably ate a healthier diet than
most Europeans.
Soups, breads, cakes, dumplings,
hominy, and corn dishes were their
favorite foods.
They ate fish, deer, and buffalo.
They wasted nothing.
The Three
Sisters
(Corn, Beans,
Squash)
C. Villages
•
•
•
Some settlements were large cities,
while others were just a few homes.
The settlements included family
dwellings as well as larger public
buildings.
The construction of a dwelling varied
according to the tribe and the season.
D. Personal Appearance
• Men were about five-and-a-half feet tall.
• Women were about five feet tall.
• Both men and women wore breechcloths or
skirts and were bare-chested.
• Hairstyles were very important and had
significant social meaning.
• The people adorned themselves with shell,
stone, pearls, and large spools and had
elaborate tattoos.
E. Religion
•
•
•
They believed in animism, which teaches
that people associate with spirits every
day.
Most groups had a creation story.
Shamans are priests or holy people who
interact with spirits to ask for help and
special favors.
F. Society and Women
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Some tribes had several chiefs.
They has a complex class system.
It was relatively easy for Indians to move up
through the class system.
Women had great power and influence and did
most of the physical labor.
They had a matriarchal system, so women
usually owned the houses, fields, and crops.
Chiefs and property descended through the
mother’s bloodline.
A woman had the right to divorce her husband.
G. Clans & Family:
• Each family believed it descended from a
particular animal.
• Within each tribe were different clans that were
like large extended families.
• Ancestors were honored, and elders were
respected.
• Children were never whipped, but they were
punished in other ways.
• Children were usually raised by their mother’s
brother, who taught and disciplined them.
• A child’s biological fathers was like an uncle, not
like a father. He spent most of his time raising his
sister’s children.
H. Crime and Punishment
•
•
•
Thieves might be beaten or forced to
replace stolen items.
Minor crimes were sometimes settled by
the guilty party giving the victim a gift.
Only rape, incest, murder, or witchcraft
were punished with the death penalty.
VII. Louisiana’s Native Americans
Today
GLEs:70, 75, 80,
81
A. Federal Recognition
• Our state has one of the largest Indian
populations in the entire Southeast.
• Four Louisiana tribes have earned federal
recognition.
• In order to get recognition, the nation must
provide historical documents that show it has
always existed as a distinct community.
• It must prove it has maintained continuous
culture and an unbroken line of leadership.
• The nation also must prove it descended from a
historic group and show where the group lived
in the past.
B. The Chitimacha
•
The group has a 260-acre reservation at
Charenton with a fish-processing plant, a
school, and a museum.
C. The Coushatta
•
•
•
Have about 1,000 acres of land.
Make split cane baskets.
Speak one of the most complete Indian
languages in the United States.
**The Chitimacha Cypress
Bayou Casino
(Read more about it on page 92)
D. The Choctaw
•
•
Moved during the Trail of Tears
Have a 62-acre reservation near Jena
E. The Tunica-Biloxi
•
•
Have a 132-acre reservation at
Marksville.
The Reservation has a casino, cattle
herds, a large museum, a conservation
laboratory, a housing project, and a
police and court system
F. State Recognition
LA has recognized six Native American
tribes:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Caddo-Adais
Choctaw-Apache Community of Ebarb
Clifton Choctaw
Four-Winds Cherokee
United Houma Nation
Louisiana Band of Choctaw
Louisiana’s
Indian
Reservations
Review and Assessment
(page 94-95)
GLEs: 7, 8, 65,
70