COUSHATTA

 

·       The Coushatta People (also known as “Koasti, Kowassaati, or Kowassa) are a Muskogean speaking Native American People who lived in Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma.

 

·       Their first contact with Europeans was in the territory of present day Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama.

 

·       They were historically, closely allied and inter-married with the Alabama People who are also members of the Creek Confederacy.

 

·       After Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto encountered in 1540, the Coushatta People began a long series of moves aimed at avoiding European encroachment.

 

·       By the 1700’s, the Coushatta had resettled near the convergence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, in Alabama and became part of the powerful Creek Confederacy.  Despite this association the Coushatta People they were able to maintained their own culture and language.  Throughout the eighteenth century Coushatta tribal leaders played an important role in the Creek politics.

 

·       After the “Seven Year War” they began to move west into Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, which was at that time under Spanish rule.

 

·       In 1797, Coushatta Chief Stilapihkachatta or “Red Shoes” led a group of 400 followers to Spanish Louisiana and in the spring of 1804, another 450 Coushatta people joined them in the territory.

 

·       Some Coushatta and other Alabama People were ‘removed’ west to Indian Territory present day Oklahoma in the 1830’s with other Muscogee (Creek) people.

 

·       Notable leaders among the Coushatta-Alabama People were: Stilapihkachatta or “Red Shoes”; Chief Long King and Chief Colita “Koasati”.

 

·       In the twentieth century the Coushatta People of Louisiana began cultivating rice and crawfish on tribally-owned farms on the reservation.

 

·       It is estimated about 200 people can still speak the Coushatta language which is in the Muskogean language family.

 

·       The Coushatta People live primarily in Allen Parish, Louisiana, just north of Elton, Louisiana and east of Kinder, Louisiana.