The Bayogoula (also known as the Bayagoula, Bayagola, or Bayugla) were a Native American tribe from

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 ...

in the southern

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. John Reed Swanton translated the name to mean "

bayou In usage in the Southern United States, a bayou () is a body of water typically found in a flat, low-lying area. It may refer to an extremely slow-moving stream, river (often with a poorly defined shoreline), marshy lake, wetland, or creek. They ...

people" and wrote that they lived near Bayou Goula in Iberville Parish, Louisiana. Their name has been written as .

Language

The Bayogoula language is undocumented and hence also unclassified. They may have spoken a Southern Muskogean language, related to 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 ...

and Houma language.

History

17th century

Ethnologist

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 ...

estimated that the Bayagoula,

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 ...

, and Mugulasha had a combined population of 1,500 in 1650. In 1699, the Bayagoula were one of the first tribes in Louisiana to meet French colonist

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 ...

. They shared a village with the Mugulasha, a related tribe. The Houma that winter, and next spring in 1700, the Bayagoula attacked and destroyed the Mugulasha.

18th century

In 1706, Taensa refugees who had settled with the Bayogoula attacked them. Surviving Bayogoula settled near

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 ...

and then moved to

Ascension Parish Ascension Parish (; ) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 126,500. Its parish seat is Donaldsonville. The parish was created in 1807. Ascension Parish is part of the Baton Rouge metr ...

. In 1715, they had an estimated 40 warriors. By 1739, they settled in between the Houma and Acolapissa. The Tunica tribe moved into the community soon thereafter. In 1706, the Tunica

ambush An ambush is a surprise attack carried out by people lying in wait in a concealed position. The concealed position itself or the concealed person(s) may also be called an "". Ambushes as a basic military tactics, fighting tactic of soldi ...

ed the Bayagoula and almost killed all of them. By 1721, the rest of the tribe had suffered many deaths from

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

, a new infectious disease carried by the French and other Europeans, among whom it was endemic. The remaining Bayagoula are believed to have moved to the area of the present-day

of Louisiana. Some likely joined nearby villages of the Houma and Acolapissa who lived in the area, whilst others likely intermarried with neighboring French, Spanish, and German colonists.Swanton, John R. (1911). ''Indian tribes of the lower Mississippi valley and adjacent coast of the Gulf of Mexico''. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin (No. 43). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

Language

History

17th century

18th century

References

Further reading