The Acolapissa were a small tribe of

Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, Southeastern cultures, or Southeast Indians are an ethnographic classification for Native Americans who have traditionally inhabited the area now part of the Southeastern United States and the no ...

of North America. They lived along the banks of the

Pearl River The Pearl River (, or ) is an extensive river system in southern China. "Pearl River" is often also used as a catch-all for the watersheds of the Pearl tributaries within Guangdong, specifically the Xi ('west'), Bei ('north'), and Dong ( ...

, between present-day

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

. They are believed to have spoken a

Muskogean language Muskogean ( ; also Muskhogean) is a language family spoken in the Southeastern United States. Members of the family are Indigenous Languages of the Americas. Typologically, Muskogean languages are highly synthetic and agglutinative. One document ...

, closely related to the

Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...

and

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is ...

spoken by other Southeast tribes of the Muskogean family.

Name

The name Acolapissa is likely an anglization of ''háklo-pisa'', meaning "those who listen and see", or ''okla pisa'', meaning "those who look out for people", according to anthropologist John Reed Swanton.

Early history

17th century

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 The Tangipahoa were a Native American tribe that lived just north of Lake Pontchartrain and between the Pearl River and the Mississippi River. Etymology The name Tangipahoa is derived from the Muskogean words ''(tonche pahoha)'' which translat ...

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 List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

18th century

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 Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis (; September 17, 1676 – June 11, 1744) was a French-Canadian soldier and explorer best known for his exploration and development of the Louisiana (New France) and Spanish Texas regions. He commanded a smal ...

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 (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

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 The Houma () are a historic Native American people of Louisiana and Mississippi on the east side of the Red River of the South. They once spoke a Western Muskogean language. Language The Houma spoke the Houma language, which is poorly attest ...

and ceased to exist separately as tribes. Their descendants intermarried.Swanton, John R. ''The Indians of the Southeastern United States'', published as ''Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology'' bulletin 137 (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1946) p. 82

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 Great ...

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 using the name "Little Rock" in 1722 for a stone outcropping on the bank of the Arkansas River used by early travele ...

, who found that the tribe population was around 1,500 people. In 1722, Father

Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, S.J. (; ; 24 or 29 October 1682 – 1 February 1761) was a French Jesuit priest, traveller, and historian, often considered the first historian of New France. Name Charlevoix's name also appears as Pier ...

wrote that the Acolapissa tribe had 200 warriors.

Etymology and spelling

According to

Allen Wright Allen Wright () (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 Theological Seminary in New Yor ...

, 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, US, is a member of the Muskogean languages, Muskogean language family. Chickasaw language, Chickasaw is a separate but closely related l ...

, one of the

Muskogean languages Muskogean ( ; also Muskhogean) is a language family spoken in the Southeastern United States. Members of the family are Indigenous Languages of the Americas. Typologically, Muskogean languages are highly synthetic and agglutinative. One documen ...

. Other spelling versions of the tribe's name included: Aquelou pissas (a French transliteration),

Quinipissa The Quinipissa (sometimes spelled Kinipissa in French sources) were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands who were living on the lower Mississippi River, in present-day Louisiana, as reported by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Sa ...

, 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, 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 processes ...

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

or the

. 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.

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

* Shovel, Dick.
''Acolaphissa History.''

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 tribes