The Coushatta Tribe: Heritage and Origin

Historically the Coushatta Tribe was known as Koasati. The tribe was part of the Creek alliance known to have been established in villages near the junction of the Alabama, Coosa, and Tallapoosa Rivers near the present-day Wetumpka, in northwest Alabama. They were gradually pushed off their land by colonial expansion and migrated to Louisiana in the 1760s. Many members continued on to Texas, but a small group remained behind inhabiting Indian Village near the town now known as Kinder in Allen Parish, Louisiana. Some other Koasati who did not move to Louisiana and Texas were taken to Oklahoma during the Indian Removal of the 1830s.  The Koasati or Coushatta now consists of three federally recognized tribes, the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, and the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town in Wetumpka, Oklahoma.

By 1861 the Louisiana tribe was living along the Calcasieu River near Kinder. As land-hungry settlers forged into that area, the tribe purchased land near Elton in Allen Parish and moved there in 1884. Tribal members live in both locations today, continuing to follow their matriarchal clan system like their Creek ancestors.  The clans are family units among the tribe in which each clan has its own speaker who in turn works with the chief.  The seven large Coushatta clans still in existence are those of the Deer, the Panther, the Beaver, the Daddy Long Legs Spider, the Bear, the Turkey, and the Bobcat.

The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana boasts of maintaining its culture and heritage. Their emphasis on the maintenance of the Koasati language, emphasis on the clan system, their heritage and culture, and agriculture are inherent in their present day lives. Many of today’s Coushatta still craft baskets, use medicinal plants to supplement modern medicine and supplement their strong Christian faith with traditional beliefs. Today’s Louisiana Coushatta still speak the Koasati language of their ancestors. Remarkably, of the 175 indigenous languages remaining on the entire North American continent, only 20 are spoken by people of all ages as vigorously as the Coushatta. Koasati language is taught to all ages in their language school and is spoken in offices, homes and at social gatherings. The Koasati Language Center Training Program is among the most prominent of all North American Tribes.