The Acolapissa were a small tribe of Native Americans of North America, who lived in the Southeast of what is the present-day United States. They lived along the banks of 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-a ...

, between present-day

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 bord ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

. They are believed to have spoken a Muskogean language, closely related to the

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 classif ...

spoken by other Southeast tribes of the Muskogean family.

Early history

The Acolapissa had at least six villages.

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 additional Acolapissan settlement. In 1699, a band of 200

, led by two English slave traders, attacked several Acolapissa villages, intending to take captives as slaves to be sold in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

. Around 1702 the Acolapissa moved from Pearl River and settled on a bayou on the north side 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 w ...

. Shortly afterward, Louis Juchereau de St. Denis sent the Natchitoches tribe to live with the Acolapissa, who welcomed them and allowed them to settle close to their own village. After that time, in the year 1722 they moved farther west, into the area around the future

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

along the Mississippi River. Pressured by French settlement in the area and suffering high mortality from new infectious diseases carried by the Europeans, the Acolapissa tribe eventually merged with the Bayogoula. By the year 1739 these remnants were absorbed into the Houma people and ceased to exist separately as tribes. Their descendants intermarried.

Population

wrote that in the year 1699 the population of the Acolapissa consisted of 250 families and around 150 men. However the research by anthropologist

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 ...

in the 20th century 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 ...

, who found that the tribe population was around 1500 people. In 1722, Father

Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, S.J. ( la, Petrus Franciscus-Xaverius de Charlevoix; 24 or 29 October 1682 – 1 February 1761) was a French Jesuit priest, traveller, and historian, often considered the first historian of New France. He ha ...

wrote that the Acolapissa tribe had 200 warriors.

Etymology and spelling

According to

Allen Wright Allen Wright ( cho, Kiliahote, italic=no) (born November 1826 – December 2, 1885) was Principal Chief of the Choctaw Republic from late 1866 to 1870. He had been ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1852 after graduating from Union Theolog ...

, the word Acolapissa ''(okla pisa)'' means "those who look out for people" in the

Choctaw language The Choctaw language (Choctaw: ), spoken by the Choctaw, an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, is part of the Muskogean language family. Chickasaw is separate but closely related language to Choctaw. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahom ...

, one of the

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 ...

. Other spelling versions of the tribe's name included: Aquelou pissas (a French transliteration), Quinipissa, Cenepisa, Colapissa, Coulapissa, Equinipicha, Kinipissa, Kolapissa, and Mouisa.

Culture

The Acolapissa adorned their bodies with

tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing ...

s. Given the warm and humid climate, they wore very little clothing. They built dwellings from local resources, with reed and thatch roofs. Some sources indicate that the Acolapissa may have been the same tribe as the Quinipissa or the Tangipahoa. According to several sources related to the Houma, several tribes in the area of Lake Pontchartrain were called Mougoulacha.

Language

The Acolapissa language was one of the

and was closely related to the

and

Today

The tribe is classified as extinct. Their descendants now live in and around

Houma, Louisiana Houma ( ) is the largest city in, and the parish seat of, Terrebonne Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is also the largest principal city of the Houma– Bayou Cane–Thibodaux metropolitan statistical area. The city's government ...

. Estimates put the population of the Houma tribe at around 11,000 people. In 1994, the U.S. government denied their petition for federal recognition as a tribe.Acolapissa
DickShovel website,

References

External links

* Shovel, Dick.

Access Genealogy {{DEFAULTSORT:Acolapissa Extinct Native American peoples Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands Native American tribes in Louisiana Native American tribes in Mississippi Muskogean languages