USA > Louisiana > Louisiana; comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and persons, Volume I > Part 68
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Up to the year 1880. immigration and agricultural matters of the state had been supervised by two distinct governmental bodies- the "bureau of immigration" and the "bureau of agriculture." On Mar. 23, 1880. these two departments were combined under the title of the "commission of agriculture and immigration." which was to be composed of three members, viz: the governor, the sec- retary of state. and a commissioner to be appointed by the gov- ernor by and with the consent of the state senate. Among other
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things the act provided for a system of land registration, by means of which a general description of all salable lands, whether private or public, were recorded and retained in the principal office of the bureau at New Orleans, where all such registers were subject to free examination by all immigrants. Act No. 54, passed by the legislature of 1884, again placed agricultural and immigration matters under separate departments of government. The "bureau · of immigration" was to be composed of a commissioner, to be ap- pointed by the governor by and with the consent of the senate, the governor himself, the presidents of the cotton and sugar exchanges, and the maritime association of New Orleans. The "bureau of agriculture" was to be composed of a commissioner, to be ap- pointed by the governor by and with the consent of the senate, the professor of agricultural chemistry of the state university, and the president of the latter institution. Under these two commissions the governmental affairs of immigration and agriculture were sepa- rately conducted up to the year 1894, when the two departments were again united by legislative enactment, which provided for the establishment of a commission to be composed of a "commissioner of agriculture and immigration," the governor of the state, and the vice-president of the state university. The first was to be ap- pointed by the governor, was to receive an annual salary of $2,500, and was to hold office for a term of 4 years. The other two officials were to be ex-officio members of the commission, and the chief burden of executive matters was to rest on the shoulders of the commissioner. The bureau thus remained up to the time of the convening of the constitutional convention of 1898, which decided to change the composition of this bureau by providing in Article 307 of the constitution that the "State board of agriculture and Immi- gration" should be. composed of one member from each congres- sional district of the state, to be appointed by the governor for a term of 6 years (two members to retire every 2 years), the regular commissioner of agriculture and immigration provided for by the act of 1894, the governor of the state, the president of the state uni- versity, the director of the state experiment stations, and the vice- president of the board of supervisors of the state university. The next article of this constitution (308) well expresses the general sentiment of the state at that time in regard to immigration as follows: "The paramount importance of our agricultural interests and the necessity of peopling with a desirable population the vacant unoccupied areas of our fertile lands, require an enlargement of the duties and an expansion of the scope of the work of this board for which the general assembly shall enact such laws as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this article." In response to this the legislature of 1904 provided that when in the opinion of the state commissioner of agriculture and immigration it shall be expedient to render the police jury of any parish state financial aid for the purpose of advertising the merits of the climate and natural resources of such parish he may do so to the extent of $500 per annum. Another act of the same legislature made the office of
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commissioner of agriculture and immigration elective, and he is now chosen by the voters of the state at the regular state election. He still holds for a term of 4 years and receives his annual salary of $2,500, as under the old law. The other members of the State board of Agriculture and Immigration, provided for by the consti- tution, are still chosen by appointment. Charles Schuler was the first citizen of the state to be elected to the commissionership men- tioned above, having been chosen for that office in April, 1900. His administration of the office has been a successful one, as he is admirably equipped for the position. A short time ago he published a comprehensive article on the opportunities awaiting the sturdy working man in this state. from which the following pithy extracts are taken: "There is no section of the United States that is de- veloping more rapidly or presents greater opportunities for invest- ments or more inducements to a sturdy class of farmers than the Southern states, comprised of the Carolinas, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. Louisiana is not opposed to the right kind of immigrants so they come with the intention of becoming citizens and settlers. The relation of Louisiana to the question of immigration is different from other states of the Union. There is no congestion in here nor is there likely to be for generations to come, as there are plenty of undevel- opened lands and work for all who decide to cast their lot with us." In issuing the Farmers' Institute Bulletin No. 11 to the public, Mr. Schuler also submitted a letter to Gov. Blanchard, which contains the following concerning immigration: "My trip to Europe in the interest of immigration was one of hard, faithful work, from which I, however, derived the satisfaction of establishing important busi- ness connections with a number of very reliable and experienced men, who now represent the state of Louisiana in Europe, and are engaged in distributing literature translated into foreign languages concerning the resources, opportunities and advantages of coming to a state offering the very best inducements." The department of agriculture and immigration is behind a good roads movement now receiving attention all over the state, and as a result Louisiana is rapidly acquiring a system of smooth, substantial and durable highways.
Independence, a village located in the western part of Tangipahoa parish, is on the Illinois Central R. R., 6 miles south of Amite, the parish seat. It has a money order postoffice, express office, tele- graph station, telephone facilities and a bank. It is in the great garden and fruit raising district that furnishes the northern markets with early vegetables and fruits, and is a considerable business town. In 1900 it had a population of 208.
Indian Bayou, a post-hamlet of Vermilion parisli, is situated ou the Queue de Tortue, in the northwest corner of the parish. Rayne, on the Southern Pacific, 8 miles north, is the nearest railroad station.
Indianmound, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of East Baton Rouge parish, is near the Amite river, abont 6 miles south-
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east of Milltown, the nearest railroad station, and 15 miles north- east of Baton Rouge. the parish seat.
Indians .- The early annals of Louisiana during the French and Spanish dominations abound in references to various Indian tribes. Wherever the French penetrated in their work of exploration and colonization these primitive peoples were found in possession of the soil, and it is the purpose of this article to give some account of those tribes and confederacies, whose history is most closely inter- woven with that of Louisiana. The domain of French and even Spanish Louisiana embraced the major portion of the great Missis- sippi valley, and the limits of this article preclude more than a pass- ing reference to the more distant tribes, far removed from the center of French and Spanish influence at New Orleans. The sei- ences of ethnology and archaeology have now pretty well estab- lished the essential ethnic unity of the whole race of Indians of the Western Hemisphere, from Alaska to Patagonia, so that the Indians of Louisiana will be found to differ from the others of their race in no fundamental particulars. True, when first encountered by the whites, they were living in various stages of progress, but gener- ally speaking these southern Indians, when the whites first knew them, were still a people of stone culture, like their fellows all over the continent. If there were instances of arrested development, due perhaps to a variety of causes such as wars, disease, elimate, etc., the variations were similar to those met with among all races in the progress of their development. Uneven progress marks the onward march of every race and people. As everywhere the south- ern Indians were village dwellers and their main dependence for the means of livelihood was upon some primitive form of agricul- ture, hunting and fishing. Numerous tribes east of the Mississippi such as the Natchez, Choctaw and Creek, had long attained to a fixed habitat, and chiefly because of this were further advanced in agriculture than were many of their brethren west of the great river. The religion of the southern Indian was zootheism, their gods being deified men and animals. The heavenly bodies were also personified as men or animals and were worshiped as such. Each tribe and nation differed in its form and ceremonial of wor- ship, each had its own peculiar superstitions and forms of religious observance, but none of the tribes had advanced to the monothe- istie conception, and the idea of a single "Great Spirit" was con- veved to them by the European. Many of their religious cere- monials were quite elaborate and occurred at stated times, such as the famous green corn rites of the Natchez, Creek and Choctaw. In the matter of government the confederacy represented their highest development, while most of the tribes had the clanship organization and reckoned their descent in the female line. The southern Indians, in common with others of their race, lacked do- mestic animals, beasts of burden, fire-places or chimneys. inside stairs and wheeled vehicles of any description. Some effort was made by many of the early elironiclers to weave a web of romance and former glory about some of the tribes and attribute to them a
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degree of power and civilization unwarranted by the facts. Espe- cially was this true of the vanished nation of the Natchez -- a re- markable people in many ways, but one that conformed neverthe- less in all essential particulars to the foregoing general statements.
When the French first arrived in Louisiana in 1699, the more im- portant tribal groups or linguistic stocks found within the limits of the present state and in the regions contiguous thereto were the following: Adaizan, in western Louisiana; Attacapan, in southern Louisiana ; Caddoan, the southern group thereof dwelling along the lower Red river and its tributaries in Louisiana, Arkansas and Eastern Texas; Muskhogean, embracing the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and numerous lesser tribes, dwelling for the most part in eastern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee: Chitimachan, in southern Louisiana; Natchesan, in western Mississippi and northern Louisiana, a small remnant now in Indian Territory ; Siouan, occupying for the most part the region extending from northern Louisiana to the province of Saskatchewan, and with numerous scattered tribes in Wisconsin, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and along the Mississippi Sound; Tonikan, in eastern Louisiana and western Mississippi. The above dstribution and classificaton of these tribal groups on the basis of language has been found to be the most scientific and accurate by modern schol- ars, having been adopted by such eminent investigators as Gallatin, Halbert, Powell, Dellanbaugh and others, and is the arrangement adopted by the U. S. bureau of ethnology, which has succeeded in distinguishing at least 65 of these separate stock languages in North America. The subdivisions of these stocks were not always contiguously distributed, and certain tribes will be found widely separated from the main body of their kindred. For instance, within the horizon of the Muskhogcan stock, were found at the coming of the whites, many small tribes speaking languages en- tirely alien and distinct, such as the Chitimachas, Biloxis. Pasca- goulas, Taensas and Natchez. Says Brinton: "We may reason- ably suppose them to have been the debris of the ancient population who held the land before the Muskokis had descended upon it from the north and west."
Such various and different titles were sometimes applied by the early French, Spanish and English writers to the same tribe, it has not always been possible to identify these tribes with any of the list as classified by modern scholarship. As a rule only the modern spelling has been adopted in the present instance, with an occa- sional reference to some of the earlier designations for the purpose of identification.
Of the various tribes forming the so-called Muskhogean stock the following is believed to be a nearly complete list: Alibamu. Apa- lachi, Bayagoula, Chatot, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Coosa, Coshatta. Creek, Hitchitee, Huma, Koasati, Mobile, Muskoki. Tunglas, Sem- inole, Yamacraw and Yamasi. Only a portion of these, by reason of their geographical location. are germane to this article. Speak- ing in general terms of the Muskhogean (also termed the Masku-
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kian or Muskokian, and the Choctaw-Muskhogean) linguistic fam- ily of tribes, it may be said to have occupied for many centuries prior to the coming of the white races ail that vast area of land extending from the Savannah river and the Atlantic west to the Mississippi river, in a few instances, some of the region beyond that great barrier, and from the Gulf of Mexico north to the Tennessee river, with the exception of certain small areas in the possession of the Yuchi, Natchez and some small settlements of Shawni (7th An. Rep., Bureau of Ethnology, p. 94, J. W. Powell). A. S. Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend of 1884 says: "Among the various nation- alities of the Gulf territories the Maskoki family of tribes occupied a central and commanding position. Not only the large extent of territory held by them, but also their numbers, their prowess in war, and a certain degree of mental culture and self esteem, made of the Maskoki one of the most important groups in Indian history. From their ethnologic condition of later times, we infer that these tribes have extended for many centuries back in time from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and beyond that river, and from the Appalachian ridge to the Gulf of Mexico." He declares that they caused much trouble to the English and French colonies, and some of the tribes constantly wavered in their allegiance between the English and French cause. The American government, after the end of the Revolutionary war, overcame their opposition easily, when necessary (Seminoles excepted), as the various tribes were never able to unite successfully. The two main branches of the stock, the Creek and Choctaw Indians, were constantly at war, the circum- stantial proof of which is embodied in their folklore. From the main people the Choctaws settled in the middle portions of the present state of Mississippi, and by process of segmentation the Chickasaws and several smaller tribes became separated from the parent tribe. The strongest evidence for a community of origin of the Maskoki tribes is furnished by the fact that their dialects belong to one linguistic family. The English came to speak of them as Creeks, because the early English traders in entering their country from Charleston or Savannah were compelled to cross a large number of creeks and streams. Gatschet also says, "In the southern part of the Choctaw territory several tribes represented to be of Choctaw lineage appear as distinct from the main branch. and are always mentioned separately. The French colonists called them Mobilians. Tohomes, Pascagoulas, Biloxis, Mougoulachas, Bayagoulas, and Houmas (Oumas). All have disappeared except the Biloxis, of whom scattered remnants live in the forests of Louisiana, south of Red river." (H. S. Halbert has located surviv- ors of both the Biloxi and Pascagoula tribes.)
The Choctaw nation, one of the great branches of the Musk- hogean stock, as before stated, lived farthest west in the central part of the present state of Mississippi. They were the most pow- erful tribe with whom the French came in contact and early writers state that they could muster 10,000 warriors. The English trader, James Adair, estimated their numbers after the cession of West
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Florida to the English at less than 4,500 warriors. All writers unite in saying that the Choctaws were gathered on their eastern frontier into compact villages for purposes of defense, but lived widely separated within the interior of their country. Adair wrote in 1775: "The Choctaw country lies in about 33 and 34 deg. north latitude. According to the course of the Indian path, their western lower towns are situatead 200 computed miles to the northward of New Orleans; the upper ones, 150 miles to the southward of the Chickasaw nation, 150 miles to the west of the late dangerous French Alabama garrison in the Muskhogee country (Fort Tou- louse), and 150 to the north of Mobile, which is the first settlement and only town, except New Orleans, that the French had in West Florida. Their country is pretty much in the form of an oblong square. The barrier towns, which are next to the Muskhogee and Chickasaw countries, are compactly settled for social defense, ac- cording to the general method of other savage nations; but the rest, both in the center, and toward the Mississippi, are only scat- tered plantations, as best suits a separate easy way of living."
Koosalı (Coosa) was the largest town in the nation, and was distant from Mobile about 180 miles, "at a small distance from the river which glides by that low and unhealthy old capital." (Adair). The same author also speaks of a remote, but considerable town, called "Yowanne," that lay 40 miles below the 7 southernmost towns of the nation, towards Mobile, which was distant 120 miles. "As it is a remote barrier, it is greatly harassed by the Muskhogee, when at war with them." When Adair wrote, the town was ruled by the Mingo Humma Echeto, the Great Red Chieftain, and was defended by a palisaded fort. The Choctaw were always somewhat uncertain in their allegiance. but as a rule were friendly to the French and hostile to the English. By reason of their strength they were much courted by the French. Spanish and English governors. Adair, who was doubtless prejudiced against them, has character- ized this people as "of a base, ungrateful and thievish disposition- fickle and treacherous-ready-witted, and endued with a surprising flow of smooth artful language on every subject within the reach of their ideas ; in each of these qualities, they far exceed any society of people I ever saw. .. Except the intense love they bear to their native country, and their utter contempt of any kind of danger in defense of it, I know of no other virtue they possess." llc further declares that "having no rivers in their country (though it abounds with springs and creeks), few of them can swim like other Indians, which often proves hurtful to them when high freshets come on while they are out at war." They "flatten their foreheads with a bag of sand, which with great care they keep fastened on the skull of the infant, while it is in its tender and imperfect state. Thus they quite deform the face, and give themselves an appear- ance which is disagreeable to any but those of their own likeness." The Choctaws, by reason of the genial nature of the climate where they lived and the fertile plains and gently sloping hills of their
native land, excelled most North American tribes in their devotion
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to agricultural pursuits. They cultivated extensive fields of maize, beans, squashes and tobacco, and placed but limited dependence on the chase. Choctaw tradition asserts that after their creation, they subsisted for a long time on the spontaneous productions of the earth until they discovered maize a few miles distant from their sacred mound. Nanih Waiya. One version of the corn-finding myth is thus given by Halbert : "A long time ago it thus happened. In the very beginning a crow got a single grain of corn from across the great water (Gulf of Mexico), brought it to this country and gave it to an orphan child, who was playing in the yard. The child named it tauchi (corn). He planted it in the yard. When the corn was growing up. the child's elders merely had it swept around. But the child, wishing to have his own way, hoed it, hilled it up, and laid it by. When this single grain of corn grew up and matured, it made two ears of corn. And in this way the ancestors of the Choctaws discovered corn." Scholars unite in assigning a common origin to the Choctaws and Chickasaws, based on language, tradi- tion, religion and customs. The numerous versions of their famous migration legend all agree in certain general facts, such as the migration of their ancestors from the west and the northwest, the prophet and his sacred pole, and the final settlement at Nanih Waiya, their great sacred mound, in the southern part of Winston county, Miss. Another legend also describes Nanih Waiva, the Bending Mount, as the place where they separated from their kins- men, the Chickasaws.
The botanist. William Bartram, wrote of the Muskhogee (Creek) that "some of their most favorite songs and dances they have from their enemies the Choctaws ; for it seems that these people are very eminent for poetry and music ; every town among them strives to excel each other in composing new songs for dances ; and by a cus- tom amongst them, they must have at least one new song for exhibition, at every annual busk." (Bartram's Travels, p. 516, London, 1792).
Among the Choctaw, as well as the other Muskhogean tribes, and, indeed, among the North American Indians generally. the gentile or elanship system prevailed. These gentes or family groups were based upon 3 principal conceptions, says Morgan, viz: "the bond of kin, a pure lineage through descent in the female line, and non-intermarriage in the gens." According to Gallatin there were 2 great divisions among the Choctaws, each of which were sub- divided into 4 clans; and no man could marry into any of the 4 clans belonging to his division. In the case of the Cherokee, Creek and Natchez tribes, the restriction upon marriage did not extend beyond the clan to which the man belonged. "According to ancient custom, if an offense was committed by one against another mem- ber of the clan, the compensation to be made on account of the injury was regulated in an amicable way by the other members of his clan. Murder was rarely expiated in any other way than by the death of the murderer; but the nearest male relative of the de- ceased was the executioner, acting under authority of the clan, and
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there was no further retaliation." Each clan could elect or depose its sachem or chief, could adopt strangers into the gens, maintained common religious rites and a common burial place. and had its own council. The sign of clan or gens membership was the totem. all members of the same gens having the same totem, and his or her name usually indicating this totem (Dellenbaugh). After the Federal government assumed jurisdiction over the various Indian tribes subsequent to the Revolutionary war, the Choctaws were induced to cede gradually all their lands east of the Mississippi to the government by a series of treaties extending down to 1832, and to remove to lands specially appropriated to their use in the Indian Territory. In 1836 their numbers were estimated by the war de- partment at 18,500. They have prospered in their new home. and like the Cherokee and Chickasaw tribes have become a highly civilized people.
The Chickasaw nation, one of the important branches of the Muskhogean family, was doubtless descended from the same primi- tive stock as the Choctaw nation, but had separated therefrom long before the coming of the whites. Their country adjoined that of the Choctaws on the north. Throughout the colonial period they were known as a brave and warlike tribe, possessed of an inveter- ate hatred for the French, but firm and faithful allies of the English. Their country reached nearly to the Ohio on the north, to the Mississippi on the west, and was bounded on the east by a line drawn from the bend in the Cumberland river to the Muscle shoals of the Tennessee, extending south into the present state of M. sippi to the land of the Choctaws. This region. as happy as any beneath the sun, was intensely loved by the Chickasaws, and thes ever fought to maintain their hold upon it with an intrepidhits and daring which gained them a reputation of being the ablest watthe. in the south. It was their boast that they never suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of the whites. The colony of Louisiana was forced to carry on war against this tribe for several years at the close of Bienville's administration, as the remmant of the hostde Natchez had sought and received an asylum among the Chickasaw .. (See Indian Wars.)
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