All about the ancient tribes
The Choctaw used the name Atakapa, meaning “people eater” (hattak ‘person’, apa ‘to eat’), for them. It referred to their practice of ritual cannibalism related to warfare.
Atakapa (/əˈtækəpə, -pɑː/, natively Yukhiti) is an extinct language isolate native to southwestern Louisiana and nearby coastal eastern Texas. It was spoken by the Atakapa people (also known as Ishak, after their word for “the people”). Atakapa language.
Atakapa | |
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Glottolog | atak1252 |
Pre-contact distribution of the Atakapa language |
Most of their diet was fish and seafood (including oysters, shrimp, and crabs.) Atakapa men also hunted big game like deer, buffalo, and alligators, and women gathered fruit, nuts, and wild honey. Here is a website with more information about Indian food.
The Bidias did live much like the Caddo. They farmed and lived in permanent villages. This means they were sedentary farmers.
The Louisiana Indians are the inheritors of ancient traditions. They consist of Alabama, Koasati ( Coushatta ), Choctaw (four groups: Jena, Bayou LaCombe, Clifton, and an urban group in East Baton Rouge Parish), Chitimacha, Houma, and Tunica-Biloxi.
According to some sources, the Karankawa practiced ritual cannibalism, in common with other Gulf coastal tribes of present-day Texas and Louisiana. The Karankawa people were shocked at the Spanish cannibalism, which they found to be repugnant.
Two Apache groups settled in Texas. These are the Lipan and Mescalero. Apaches were organized into bands that traveled, hunted and fought together. The Apaches were skilled horsemen and often teamed up when hunting buffalo.
Karankawa, several groups of North American Indians that lived along the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, from about Galveston Bay to Corpus Christi Bay.
Herein, what crops did the atakapa grow? They grew corn, beans and other crops. They also hunted when they could for meat. The area they lived in was on the southern edge of the East Texas Piney Woods.
During much of the 18th century, the Karankawas were at war with the Spaniards in Texas. They then fought unsuccessfully to stay on their land after it was opened to Anglo-American settlement in the 1800s. The last known Karankawas were killed or died out by the 1860s.
They lived in tall, grass-covered houses in large settlements with highly structured social, religious and political systems. The Caddos raised corn, beans, squash and other crops. They also hunted the bear and deer of East Texas and headed west for annual buffalo hunts.