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The Tangipahoa were a Native American tribe that lived just north of
Lake Pontchartrain Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from wes ...
and between the
Pearl River The Pearl River, also known by its Chinese name Zhujiang or Zhu Jiang in Mandarin pinyin or Chu Kiang and formerly often known as the , is an extensive river system in southern China. The name "Pearl River" is also often used as a catch-all ...
and the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
.


Etymology

The name Tangipahoa is derived from the
Muskogean Muskogean (also Muskhogean, Muskogee) is a Native American language family spoken in different areas of the Southeastern United States. Though the debate concerning their interrelationships is ongoing, the Muskogean languages are generally div ...
words ''(tonche pahoha)'' which translates to "corncob people" or "people of the corn" or "corncob". It is from this Native American tribe that the modern Tangipahoa Parish gets its name, as well as the
Tangipahoa River The Tangipahoa River ( ) originates northwest of McComb in southwest Mississippi, and runs south U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 20, 2011 through Lake Tangipahoa i ...
and the village of
Tangipahoa The Tangipahoa were a Native American tribe that lived just north of Lake Pontchartrain and between the Pearl River and the Mississippi River. Etymology The name Tangipahoa is derived from the Muskogean words ''(tonche pahoha)'' which translate ...
.


Population

Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville (16 July 1661 – 9 July 1706) or Sieur d'Iberville was a French soldier, explorer, colonial administrator, and trader. He is noted for founding the colony of Louisiana in New France. He was born in Montreal to French ...
wrote that in the year 1650 the population of both the Acolapissa and Tangipahoa combined consisted of 250 families and around 150 men. However the research by
James Mooney James Mooney (February 10, 1861 – December 22, 1921) was an American ethnographer who lived for several years among the Cherokee. Known as "The Indian Man", he conducted major studies of Southeastern Indians, as well as of tribes on the G ...
determined that a more accurate count was proposed by
Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe (4 February 1683 in Saint-Malo – 26 September 1765) was a French explorer who is credited with the discovery of Little Rock, Arkansas. He was the first known French explorer to set foot in the future state of Ok ...
when he found that the tribe population was around 1500 people.


Language

The Tangipahoa language was closely related to
Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
and
Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as ...
, which are both
Muskogean languages Muskogean (also Muskhogean, Muskogee) is a Native American language family spoken in different areas of the Southeastern United States. Though the debate concerning their interrelationships is ongoing, the Muskogean languages are generally div ...
.


History

On March 31, 1682
Henri de Tonti Henri de Tonti (''Birth name, né'' Enrico Tonti; – September 1704), also spelled Henri de Tonty, was an Italy, Italian-born France, French Officer (armed forces), military officer, Exploration, explorer, and ''Voyageurs, voyageur'' who assis ...
on a journey with René-Robert Cavelier and
Sieur de La Salle Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seigno ...
wrote that they camped at Maheoula, a Tangipahoa settlement.
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville (16 July 1661 – 9 July 1706) or Sieur d'Iberville was a French soldier, explorer, colonial administrator, and trader. He is noted for founding the colony of Louisiana in New France. He was born in Montreal to French ...
claimed that the Tangipahoa settlement was an Acolapissa settlement and that they were of the same tribe. The Tangipahoa settlement was destroyed sometime in the 17th century. When La Salle reached the village he said he saw that it was burned and that there were bodies laying in the village. La Salle wrote that when he asked the Bayogoula tribe what had happened they claimed that the Tangipahoa village was destroyed by the
Houma people The Houma () are a historic Native American people of Louisiana on the east side of the Red River of the South. Their descendants, the Houma people or organization "The United Houma Nation", have been recognized by the state as a tribe since ...
. The remaining Tangipahoa tribe members are believed to have reunited with the Acolapissa and eventually merged with the Bayogoula and then the Houma.


References


Further reading

* Swanton, John R.
The Indians of the Southeastern United States
' as ''U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 137'' (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1946
p. 190
{{authority control Native American tribes in Louisiana Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands