The Yatasi (

Caddo The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language. The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, wh ...

: Yáttasih) are Native American peoples from northwestern

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

that are part of the

Natchitoches Confederacy The Natchitoches (Caddo: Náshit'ush) are a Native American tribe from Louisiana. They organized themselves in one of the three Caddo-speaking confederacies along with the Hasinai (between the Sabine and Trinity rivers in eastern Texas), and Kadoh ...

of the

Caddo Nation The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language. The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, wh ...

. Today they are enrolled in the

Caddo Nation of Oklahoma The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language. The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, who ...

History

Prior to European contact, the Yatasi lived in the area south of modern

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population o ...

.Kniffen et al, p. 47 In 1686, French explorer

Henry de Tonti Henri de Tonti (''né'' Enrico Tonti; – September 1704), also spelled Henri de Tonty, was an Italian-born French military officer, explorer, and '' voyageur'' who assisted René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, with North American explora ...

visited Yatasi settlements on the Red River. They welcomed the French expedition but did not provide him with guides. At the time, the Yatasi were fighting the

Kadohadacho The Kadohadacho ( Caddo: Kadawdáachuh) are a Native American tribe within the Caddo Confederacy. Today they are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. History The Kadohadacho traditionally lived at the borders of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, an ...

. In the early 18th century, the

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 ...

tribe fought with Yatasi and killed a great number of them. With their numbers reduced, they joined the Ouachita,

Doustioni The Doustioni or Dotchetonne were a tribe of American Indians somewhere in the region around the Gulf of Mexico; they are known only from records of the expedition of the Sieur de la Salle, which identify them as allies, in the late 17th century, ...

, and Natchitoches Indians at the Natchitoches trading depot.Perttula, 218 During this time the Yatasi traded with the French, then later the Spanish. The Yatasi provided bear fat and buffalo and deer hides for cloth, blankets, metal tools and weapons, combs, glass beads, flints, ammunition, vermillion dye, mirrors, and copper. On 21 April 1770, French-born Indian agent of Spanish Louisiana, Athanase De Mézières y Clugny (c. 1715–1779) presented the Yatasi chief with a medal and presents from the King of Spain. That day the Kadohadacho and Yatasi both agreed to allow Spain proprietorship of their lands and promised not to supply the

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...

, Wichita,

Tawakoni The Tawakoni (also Tahuacano and Tehuacana) are a Southern Plains Native American tribe, closely related to the Wichitas. They historically spoke a Wichita language of the Caddoan language family. Currently, they are enrolled in the Wichita a ...

, and

Kichai The Kichai tribe (also Keechi or Kitsai) was a Native American Southern Plains tribe that lived in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Their name for themselves was K'itaish. History The Kichai were most closely related to the Pawnee. French explo ...

tribes with weapons or ammunition. After the United States took over control of Louisiana, Dr. John Sibley became the Indian agent who oversaw relations with the Yatasi and neighboring tribes.Perttula, 39 They continued participating in the

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

, providing bear, deer, beaver, otter, and other furs.

Language

The Yatasi spoke a

Caddoan The Caddoan languages are a family of languages native to the Great Plains spoken by tribal groups of the central United States, from present-day North Dakota south to Oklahoma. All Caddoan languages are critically endangered, as the number of ...

language and were culturally similar to surrounding groups such as the Adai. The Yatasi language is attested only in a nine-page vocabulary collected by

Albert Gatschet Albert Samuel Gatschet (October 3, 1832, Beatenberg, Canton of Bern – March 16, 1907, Washington, D.C.) was a Swiss-American ethnologist who trained as a linguist in the universities of Bern and Berlin. He later moved to the United States and s ...

in the 1880s and now archived at the

National Anthropological Archives The National Anthropological Archives is a collection of historical and contemporary documents maintained by the Smithsonian Institution, which document the history of anthropology and the world's peoples and cultures. It is located in the Smi ...

Synonymy

"Yáttasih" is a

term, meaning, "Those other people." They were also called the Yataché, Natasse, Yatache, Yattasses. Nada and Choye might be two additional Yatasi groups.Sturtevant, 630

Notes

References

* Carter, Cecile Elkins
''Caddo Indians: Where We Come From''.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. . *Edmonds, Randlett. ''Nusht'uhtitiʔ Hasinay: Caddo Phrasebook.'' Richardson, TX: Various Indian Peoples Publishing, 2003. . * Kniffen, Fred B., Hiram F. Gregory and George A. Stokes. ''The Historic Indian Tribes of Louisiana from 1542 to the Present'' (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987) * Perttula, Timothy K
''The Caddo Nation: Archaeological and Ethnohistoric Perspectives.''
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997. . * Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast''. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004. . * Swanton, John Reed
''Source material on the history and ethnology of the Caddo Indians''.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Yatasi Caddoan peoples Native American tribes in Louisiana Native American history of Louisiana