The Pascagoula (also Pascoboula, Pacha-Ogoula, Pascagola, Pascaboula, Paskaguna) were an
indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology)
In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...
group living in coastal
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 ...
on the
Pascagoula River
The Pascagoula River is a river, about 80 miles (130 km) long, in southeastern Mississippi in the United States. The river drains an area of about 8,800 square miles (23,000 km²) and flows into Mississippi Sound of the Gulf of Mexico. ...
.
The name ''Pascagoula'' is a Choctaw term meaning "bread eater".
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 ...
native Americans using the name Pascagoula are named after the words for "bread eaters".
History
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 ...
encountered the tribe in 1699 and was impressed by the beauty of Pascagoula women.
According to local Euro-American legend, the peace-loving tribe walked single file into the river because the local Biloxi tribe were planning to attack. Anola, a Biloxi "
princess
Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for ...
", eloped with the Pascagoula chief Altama, although she was engaged to a Biloxi chieftain. Anola's angry would-be husband led his soldiers into battle with the Pascagoula. Outnumbered and fearing enslavement by the Biloxi, the tribe joined hands and walked into the river singing a death song. The river became known as the "Singing River" because of this death song, which reportedly can still be heard at night.
Language
John Sibley reported that they spoke their own language which was different from neighboring languages in addition to
Mobilian Jargon
Mobilian Jargon (also Mobilian trade language, Mobilian Trade Jargon, Chickasaw–Choctaw trade language, Yamá) was a pidgin used as a lingua franca among Native American groups living along the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico around the time ...
. Their language is undocumented.
References
External links
Pascagoula Indian Tribe HistoryPascagoula Indians
Bibliography
* Goddard, Ives (2005). The indigenous languages of the Southeast. ''Anthropological Linguistics. 47'' (1): 1–60.
* Higginbotham, Jay (Trans., Ed.). (1969). ''The journal of Sauvole''. Mobile: Colonial Books.
* McWilliams, Richebourg G. (Ed., Trans.). (1981). ''Iberville's gulf journals''. University: University of Alabama Press.
*
Le Page du Pratz, Antoine Simon. (1758). ''Histoire de la Louisiana'' (Vols. 1-3). Paris: De Bure.
* Sibley, John. (1806). Historical sketches of the several Indian tribes in Louisiana, south of the Arkansas River, and between the Mississippi and River Grand. In T. Jefferson (Ed.), ''Message from the President of the United States communicating the discoveries made in exploring the Missouri, Red River, and Washita'' (pp. 48–62). New York: G. F. Hopkins.
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Native American tribes in Mississippi
Unclassified languages of North America