The Quinipissa (sometimes spelled Kinipissa in French sources) were an

Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, Southeastern cultures, or Southeast Indians are an ethnographic classification for Native Americans who have traditionally inhabited the area now part of the Southeastern United States and the no ...

who were living on the lower

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

, in present-day

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, as reported by

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (; November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687), was a 17th-century French explorer and North American fur trade, fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada ...

in 1682. In 1682, La Salle encountered a group of Quinipissa living with the

Koroa The Koroa were one of the groups of Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands who lived in the Mississippi Valley before French colonization. The Koroa lived in the Yazoo River basin in present-day northwest Mississippi. Language The Kor ...

in a village on the western bank of the

. The Quinipissa joined the Mougoulacha. The combined group shared a village with the Bayagoula. In 1700, the Bayagoula massacred both the Quinipissa and Mougoulacha, and they were not mentioned again by chroniclers of the time.

Language

The Quinipissa may have spoken the same language as the Mougoulacha and Bayagoula. The Bayagoula language is only attested with a single word. Albert Gatschet considered Quinipissa a

Muskogean Muskogean ( ; also Muskhogean) is a language family spoken in the Southeastern United States. Members of the family are Indigenous Languages of the Americas. Typologically, Muskogean languages are highly synthetic and agglutinative. One docume ...

language ''Coast Choctaw'' ("Coast Chaʼhta") based on evidence that many peoples of this area spoke the

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

Mobilian Jargon Mobilian Jargon (also Mobilian trade language, Mobilian Trade Jargon, Chickasaw–Choctaw trade language, Yamá) was a pidgin used as a lingua franca among Native American groups living along the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico around the time ...

and have names that appear to be

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

s of Mobilian Jargon or Muskogean origin. This is repeated by John W. Powell and John Swanton. However, a map by Nicolas de Fer states that all nations of this region spoke different languages and barely understood each other. Thus, there is no real linguistic evidence to conclude that the Quinipissa are Muskogean.

References

External links

Indian Tribal Histories Quahatika-Quinipissa

Bibliography

* de Fer, Nicolas. (1701). ''Les costes aux environs de la Riviere de Misisipi, decouverte par Mr. de la Salle en 1683, et reconnues par Mr. le chevallier d'Yberville en 1698 et 1699''. * Gatschet, Albert S. (1884). ''A migration legend of the Creek Indians'' (Vol. 1). Philadelphia: D. G. Brinton. * Goddard, Ives. (2005). The indigenous languages of the Southeast. ''Anthropological Linguistics'', ''47'' (1), 1-60. * Margry, Pierre (Ed.). (1876-1886). ''Découvertes et établissements des Français dans l'ouest et dans le sud de l'Amérique septentrionale (1614-1754)'' (Vols. 1–6). Paris: D. Jouaust. * Powell, John W. (1891). ''Indian linguistic families of America north of Mexico''. Bureau of American Ethnology annual report (No. 7, pp. 1–142). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. * Swanton, John R. (1911). ''Indian tribes of the lower Mississippi Valley and adjacent coast of the Gulf of Mexico''. Bureau of American Ethnology bulletin (No. 43). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. {{authority control Extinct Native American tribes Native American tribes in Louisiana Pre-statehood history of Louisiana Unclassified languages of North America