Description
The Chitimacha are a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans who live in the U.S. state of Louisiana, mainly on their reservation in St. Mary Parish near Charenton on Bayou Teche. Early in the 18th century the Chitimacha went to war with the French for 12 years. The French prevailed, with the result that French slaves in the early days of the Louisiana colony were mostly Chitimacha. They are the only Indigenous people in the state who still control some of their original land, where they have long occupied areas of the Atchafalaya Basin, "one of the richest inland estuaries on the continent." In 2011 they numbered about 1100 people. The Chitimacha Indians and their ancestors inhabited the Mississippi River Delta area of south central Louisiana for thousands of years before European encounter. Tradition asserts that the boundary of the territory of the Chitimacha was marked by four prominent trees. Archaeological finds suggest that the Chitimacha and their indigenous ancestors have been living in Louisiana for perhaps 6,000 years. Prior to that they migrated into the area from west of the Mississippi River.
Language
The people historically spoke the Chitimacha language, a unique language isolate. The last two native speakers died in 1948. In 2008, the Tribe worked with Rosetta Stone, the makers of language learning software, to develop a program to re-teach the Chitimacha their language. The Tribe has implemented immersion classes for children in their Tribally?run school and provides adult language classes.
Culture
According to the Chitimacha, their name comes from the term Pantch Pinankanc, meaning "men altogether red," also meaning warrior. Chitimacha were sun worshipers who reinterred the bones of their dead and practiced ritual head deformation. The men used nose ornaments, wore their hair long, and tattooed their arms, legs, and faces. Their dwellings were the cabinlike structures common to many of the southeastern tribes. The Chitimacha were noted for the skill of their basket weaving, employing a “double-weave” technique resulting in different designs on two surfaces. They subsisted on maize, beans, and squash; wild fruits and berries; deer and bear; and fish.