Description
The Avoyel people were a small tribe Natchez-speaking band who called themselves Tamoucougoula. The word Avoyel is of French derivation and means either “Flint People” or “the people of the rocks,” reflecting their active trading of flint for tools. The Avoyel or Avoyelles were a small Native American tribe who at the time of European contact inhabited land near the mouth of the Red River at its confluence with the Atchafalaya River near present-day Marksville, Louisiana. At the time of European contact they lived in a number of villages on the Red River in locations near present-day Alexandria and a palisaded village near Marksville. They controlled the river to its confluence with the lower Black River, Upper Atchafalaya River and the Mississippi.
Language
The Avoyel language may have been related to the Natchez language.
Culture
Living in villages, they cultivated maize and vegetables and practiced the arts common to the tribes of the Gulf region. Like their neighbors, they had come into possession of horses, which they bred, and later they obtained cattle. During the general displacement of the tribes throughout the Gulf states, which began in the 18th century, the Avoyel country proved to be attractive. When the French made contact with the Avoyel tribe, it was recorded that the tribe numbered 280 people, which would make them one of the smallest tribes to make contact with the Europeans.