{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_62803/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_62803","id":"gutenberg_62803","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62803","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: Biographies","Category: History - Other","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Chitimacha Indians","Indians of North America -- Louisiana"],"text":"CHITIMACHA NOTEBOOK\n              Writings of Emile Stouff\u2014A Chitimacha Chief\n\n\n                        Edited by Marcia Gaudet\n\n    [Illustration: Basket pattern]\n\n            Lafayette Natural History Museum and Planetarium\n                          Lafayette, Louisiana\n                                  1986\n\n    [Illustration: Page facsimile]\n\n    [Illustration: Page facsimile]\n\n    [Illustration: Emile Stouff, Chief of the Chitimachas]\n\n    [Illustration: Chitimacha Chief Benjamin Paul and the Chitimacha\n    children are pictured with a pirogue near the Chitimacha reservation\n    in Charenton. The little girl is Jane Bernard Wilson, the boy in the\n    center is Arthur Darden, and the boy sitting in the pirogue is\n    Gabriel Darden.\n\n    (M.R. Harrington, 1908. Photo courtesy of Museum of the American\n    Indian, Heye Foundation)]\n\n\n\n\n                           TABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n\n  I. Introduction                                                      3\n  II. The Chitimacha Story of Creation                                 5\n  III. History of the Chitimacha Indians                              11\n  IV. Previous Publications about the Chitimachas                     15\n\n\n\n\n                          LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS\n\n\n  I. Chitimacha Chief Benjamin Paul with children and canoe  facing page\n                                                                       1\n  II. Chitimacha family\u2014Regis Darden                                   2\n  III. Chitimacha group\u20141908                                           4\n  IV. Three members of a Chitimacha family                            10\n\n    [Illustration: The Regis Darden Chitimacha family. Pictured from\n    left to right are Lucy Mora Darden, Delphine Stouff (in back),\n    Adelle Darden, Gaston Darden, Regis Darden (in back), and Stacy\n    Darden. Adelle Darden, wife of Regis Darden, was known as \u201cGum\n    DaDa.\u201d Lucy Mora Darden was the wife of Gaston Darden. Chitimacha\n    baskets are pictured in front of the group. Basket weaving is a\n    traditional craft of the Chitimacha Indians.\n\n    (M.R. Harrington, 1908. Photo courtesy of Museum of the American\n    Indian, Heye Foundation)]\n\n\n\n\n                              INTRODUCTION\n\n\nEmile Stouff was Chief of the Chitimachas of Charenton, Louisiana, from\n1948 to 1968. After Chief Stouff died in 1978, his widow, Faye Roger\nStouff, discovered two notebooks in which he had recorded some of the\nthings about the Chitimachas that he had learned from oral tradition.\nThe two manuscripts were written in Emile Stouff\u2019s handwriting. Though\nChief Stouff had no formal education, Mrs. Stouff, who is not a Native\nAmerican, taught him to read and write after they were married and she\ncame to live with him on the Chitimacha land.\n\nMrs. Stouff said that her husband told her he had learned most of the\nlegends, stories, and myths that he knew from an aunt who would sit him\ndown and beat him with a cane to make him listen. She would tell him,\n\u201cYou\u2019ve got to learn this.\u201d Learning the history, religious beliefs,\nlegends, and traditions of the tribe was apparently a very important\npart of the education and development of the Chitimachas.\n\nThere are two separate notebooks with writings by Emile Stouff. One\nbegins with the story of creation and deals with the beliefs of the\nChitimachas. The other deals more with the history since the white man\ncame. Previous publications about the Chitimachas have presented parts\nof the legend about the cypress tree in Lake Dauterive and the legend\nabout the little bird of the Chitimachas. Since Chief Stouff\u2019s version\nof the history is from the perspective of the Chitimachas, it differs\nsomewhat from previously published accounts. This is particularly\nevident in a comparison of the Chitimacha account of the murder of St.\nCosme with accounts that rely on French historical sources.\n\nChief Stouff\u2019s notebooks give an account of the Chitimacha beliefs and\nhistory as they were passed down by oral tradition. He recognized that\nthis tradition would perhaps not be maintained, and he attempted to\nrecord some of his knowledge of the people and their culture. As such,\nhis writings are of value and interest to anyone who would like to know\nmore about the Chitimachas.\n\nIn editing the notebooks, I have made as few changes as possible in\norder to maintain the style and tone of Chief Stouff\u2019s writing. The\nchanges from his original manuscript have been mainly to standardize\nspelling and punctuation for clarity. For example, Chief Stouff spelled\nChitimacha several different ways (Chetamacha, Chetimacha, Chitamacha)\nin his writing, and he usually used no punctuation at all. Thus, he was\nwriting just as he would have told these stories orally to the next\ngeneration of Chitimachas.\n\n                                                           Marcia Gaudet\n\n    [Illustration: Chitimacha Group with finished Chitimacha baskets.\n    Pictured left to right are Delphine Darden Stouff, the\n    child\u2014Constance Marie Stouff (died at age 13), Clara Darden, and\n    Octave Stouff, Sr. They are, respectively, Emile Stouff\u2019s mother,\n    sister, great-aunt, and father.\n\n    (M.R. Harrington, 1908. Photo courtesy of Museum of the American\n    Indian, Heye Foundation)]\n\n\n\n\n                       MANUSCRIPT OF EMILE STOUFF\n                     Last Chief of the Chitimachas\n\n\n\n\n                         THE STORY OF CREATION\n\n\nIn the beginning, the Great Spirit looked at a great mass of water. So\nhe said, \u201cThere should be something solid for animals with blood.\u201d So he\ncalled upon the crawfish to dig down and bring up some dirt, which they\ndid. As they brought up the dirt, the water receded. The crawfish is\nstill working at it. The Great Spirit was pleased. So he took the dirt\nand made all living things with it. When he ran out of objects, he said,\n\u201cThis is good, but I must make one to control these animals. I will make\nman.\u201d So he chose some good clay and made a clay man, but it was soft.\n\u201cI shall bake it in the fire from the sun,\u201d he said. So he baked it, and\nwhen he took it out, it was pale. So he just blew on it and set it\naside. Then, the more he looked at it, the more he was displeased with\nit. So he said, \u201cI will let it live, but I will make another one and\nleave it longer to darken it.\u201d He left it twice as long as before and\nwhen he took this one out, it was black. So he set it aside and said, \u201cI\nshall make another,\u201d and when he baked this one he cut the time in half,\nand it came out exactly as he wanted it. So he made three\u2014one white, one\nblack, and one red. He named that one _pinikan_, meaning Red.\n\nThen he saw man needed a helpmate. \u201cI made man out of dirt so I will\ntake part of man to make his helpmate so they will be as one, and she\nwill be known as female as she is part of the male.\u201d After looking the\nmale over, he decided to make her out of bone. So he took a rib from the\nrib case, right in front of the chest, leaving a bone dangling. When man\nwoke up, he saw this female sitting there. He noticed she was built\ndifferent and beautiful. When he started to her, he cried, \u201cWo Man,\u201d and\nthey committed the first sin (as we know it). The man said, \u201cYou should\ncover yourself up.\u201d The female said, \u201cAnd so should you. I know, I will\ntake the large leaves from this tree and make each a cover.\u201d She made\nthe covers and tied them on with a vine known today as the white vine.\nWhen they heard the Great Spirit coming, they were ashamed, and hid from\nhim. So he called for them to \u201cCome out wherever you are.\u201d Then the\nGreat Spirit asked them, \u201cWhy are you hiding?\u201d Then the male said, \u201cShe\nlooked so enticing that I went into her without your permission.\u201d The\nGreat Spirit said, \u201cFor that you shall go out on the earth and earn your\nliving by the sweat of your brow. If you do not work, you do not eat,\nand you, woman, you shall bear his offspring in great pain. I did not\nintend to have but you two, but since it is this way, you will be\nfruitful and multiply so your seed may be many, and now that you are\nsmart, I will give you the earth, but remember you are made of her dirt\nand you shall return to her. She is your mother. She will feed you and\nclothe you. She will give you the trees to give you nuts and fruits for\nyou to eat and at seasons for birds to live in, and fur bearing animals.\nYou will also enjoy its shade. When you are tired, you may rest on the\nsoft grass that will grow. The tree will have many uses. It will be used\nto warm you in the winter, to make rafts to float on the waters, and it\nwill make your homes for your protection against the cold winter. It\nwill heat you when it is cold. It will cook your food and its fire will\nbe a blessing as the flames leave by small parts into the skies. It will\nalso tell you the direction you must go so you need not ever get lost\nwhile you are traveling. The seed you shall plant, the earth will help\nthem grow so you will have something to eat. She will separate and make\nstreams to harbor the fishes you will eat and for you to drink and\nbathe. So protect the waters and keep them clean. Your life depends on\nits purity just like the air you breathe. You may have my breath in you,\nand if you disobey me, I will withdraw my breath and you will be no\nmore. And through my breath, I will be with you always. When you are\nsick, the earth will bear roots and herbs for you to use. I will not\ninflict any sickness that will not have herbs to cure. I will speak to\nyour medicine man through a coma only and only to this man I shall\ndesignate the cures. I will speak to him only through a vision. No one\nelse shall see me again, and this man shall choose someone of his kind\nand reveal this secret to any man worthy of him. To avoid conflict,\nthere will be only one in each group to speak to me. His power strength\nwill be as strong as his faith in me. I shall keep the mother earth in\nmy custody so I may destroy it any time that you have lost faith in me\nand disobey my teaching. You will, at any time I choose for you, return\nyour body to the mother earth, but if you love me and keep the faith\nyour spirits will go to the Happy Hunting Ground, where everything will\nbe for your taking, and you will die no more. But if you do not, your\ncarcass will remain in mother womb and return to dirt of which you were\ncreated.\n\n\u201cThe earth will be for your use. Use it in any way you choose. But no\none can claim it as their own. It is not to be bought, sold, or rented,\nbecause the earth is mine. Misuse it, and you shall repent for any wrong\nuse of the land or its streams. This I command you to live by, so go out\nin the world that you have made for yourself and be fruitful and\nmultiply.\u201d\n\nThat is the way the Indians said the Great Spirit gave it to the first\nman, and it was in practice when the white man came into this country.\nThe Great Spirit showed them how to make coverups out of animal skin,\ncalled breachcloths, and they were happy. Now the man who was to do the\ntreating found a certain herb that would put him into a coma, so he\nwould build a fire and drink a tea made from this herb and dance around\nthis fire chanting until this herb took effect. Then he would pass out.\nWhile in this stage, he would communicate with the Great Spirit which\nwould tell him what to do or what to use or whatever his desire was.\nSomeone asked the medicine man to describe the Great Spirit since he\nclaims he saw him. The medicine man said he would be hard to describe\nsince he has no shape, and yet he has many shapes. \u201cThe way I saw him is\nlike a heavy mist. He had no eyes, yet he saw everything. He has no\nears, yet he hears everything, even the unspoken word within you. He has\nno mouth, yet he speaks. You have heard him speak to you within your\nhead, something to not do that is wrong, or he will say do do that that\nis good. He is watching you always. You cannot hide from his sight no\nmatter where you are or what you are doing.\u201d\n\nNow the Indians had no Hell, no Devil. They thought that returning to\ndirt and not going to the Happy Hunting Ground was the worst thing that\ncould happen to them. It was their code, not religion. They lived by\nsort of Moses\u2019 law\u2014an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Their chief\nand councilmen would decide. Now the white man says that they found them\nworshipping the moon or some stars. True, they knew he was up there\nsomewhere, so some would think he was the man in the moon, and thought\nhe was some bright star. They did not know. Nonetheless, they knew that\nthere was a power stronger than them. They could feel him in their mind.\nThey did not teach fear to their children like they would go to hell.\nThey taught them bravery, to fear no one. As long as they obeyed the\nGreat Spirit, they would be content.\n\nA long time ago, no definite date, came among the Chitimacha a strange,\nfair complected man who spoke their language, which amazed the Indians.\nHe was very smart. The Indians said he knew everything. He taught them\nto make better crops by using fish byproducts and even fish by their\nplants, and it would make them grow healthy and strong. He helped them\nto substitute herbs when one was not available at different seasons.\nThen came one day, he told the Indians it was time for him to leave the\nChitimacha and go do his father\u2019s work. He picked out a cypress tree and\nclimbed to the top. Then he told the Chitimachas, \u201cWhenever you need\nrain for your crops, come and wet this tree and it will rain according\nto your needs.\u201d And until this day, it works. It has been proven by\nmany, many people, white and black. All over South Louisiana, people\nknow about it and believe in it strongly. That is how the Indians were\nblessed by the Great Spirit. He gives and he takes. The Chitimacha did\nnot think it feasible to ask the Great Spirit for anything. All they\ntaught their children was how to thank him for all the good things they\ngot from him. If something went wrong along the way, you just checked\nthe past\u2014you have done something to displease the Great Spirit. It has\nalways been and still is until today. So the Indians would punish\nthemselves to try and please the Great Spirit.\n\nNow the Indian has been ridiculed for talking to the Great Spirit which\nis an Indian belief. The white prophets of old spoke to their gods. Why\nshould it be unreasonable for an Indian to do the same under the Great\nSpirit? Guidance as afore stated, the Chitimacha do not believe Adam and\nEve naked in the Garden of Eden ate an apple; however, the white man\nsays so, so the Indians do not deny it, since they had to accept the\nwhite God, which is the same Supreme Being with different names. They\nare both sacred to the Chitimacha. Since the Indians could not read or\nwrite, all this was handed down mouth to mouth. So many things might be\nleft out and some could have been added. We do not know for sure, yet\nsome of your strongest and oldest organizations do not have anything\nwritten and are still going strong.\n\nWe do know that the Indians did not preach religion. They live it. They\nhave a ceremonial for everything, and it was all done with respect to\nthe Great Spirit. Their dances, their chanting was somewhat like your\nunknown tongue of today, and it was always done around a fire because we\nbelieve that fire has life. If you watch a fire, you will notice part of\nthe flame leaves the fire and goes up to carry the message to the Great\nSpirit, thanking him for a good harvest, good hunt, a good fish catch,\nand many other things.\n\nThe council would meet and decide what punishment should be for a\nwrongdoer, such as if one committed murder and they decided he should\ndie also, the chief would tell him. So having no jail, he would be free\nuntil his time came. Time was measured by the moon. The council would\ndecide how many moons he had left. Then the criminal would return to\nmeet his execution and if he did not return, his mother or father or\nbrother or his son would have to pay for his crime, someone very close\nto him. Now in the killing of one in a brawl, the living was not\npunished by death. He had to see that the family of the deceased was fed\nand clothed until all were capable of taking care of themselves. If he\nhad only enough for one family, he had to do without, so the dead man\u2019s\nfamily would not suffer hunger. Now if a squaw committed adultery, she\nwas punished by cutting the tip of her nose. She would be forever marked\nas an unfaithful squaw. There is no punishment known today for the man.\n\nOnce an Indian had an eye sore the medicine man could not cure. So he\nhad to go into a coma and seek the aid of the Great Spirit. After the\npreparation that the Great Spirit had instructed them to do, he passed\nout, so to speak. The Great Spirit told him where to find the herb that\nwould cure any sore eye. It seems that the chief\u2019s little girl had died\nand was buried. The Great Spirit told him to go to the grave of this\nlittle girl, and he will find a small vine growing from her eye. Use\nthat vine and leaves, and make an eye wash with it. He did and the eyes\nwere cured (and we were still using it till we were forbidden by the\nmedical association to use any herb), and many herbs were found, like\nmoner, and until today only one of the tribe knows the herbs that were\nused since the beginning, which will not be revealed to anyone. The\nIndians of today do not meet the standard that the Great Spirit set, nor\nwill they follow the ritual that goes with it, so it will die out just\nlike the other things the white man deprived the Indians of, their way\nof living.\n\nThe chief duty was to see that everyone had something to eat before he\nwould eat. If some did not have any through no fault of their own,\neveryone had to share what they had with the one that had none. These\nwere the unwritten laws that the Chitimacha lived by. As far as this\nwriter knows that is the way it was related a long time ago. (I make no\nexcuse for adding some or leaving some of it out. As time goes on,\nperhaps some more will come to mind. If so, it will be added to this\nbrief resume of the one and only Great Spirit as the Indians knew him\nbefore the white man came.)\n\nThe Indians knew how to make rain without the rain tree and how to make\nthe north wind blow to dry up the weather when necessary. I have seen it\nwork time after time. It is a secret given by the Great Spirit for their\nuse, but they were warned never to abuse it nor use it to harm your\nfellow men. But such rituals cannot and will not be revealed to the\nIndians of today. They are too well integrated with the white man and\nhis ways. It may not work for them, so let it die out like so many\nrituals have. Like an old Indian chief once said, \u201cThe campfire is dying\nout, the hunt is almost over.\u201d But what will happen to the songs and the\nfolklore? They will soon die out also. Everything an Indian does is done\nin a circle because all things are round. The moon, the stars, the sun,\nthe sky, the world is round. So he must also do everything in a circle.\nThe sun rises and circles overhead until it disappears and returns to do\nthe same thing again. So does the moon. The stars do the same thing.\nTheir homes were built in circles. Their lives were lived in a circle\nfrom birth to death to birth after death.\n\nThe extremely beautiful creation of the Chitimacha Indians is amazingly\nsimilar to the Biblical Genesis. The animal was created before man. So\nin this Divine Origin, they have a certain proximity to the Great Spirit\nhimself which serves the same function as revealed scriptures in other\nreligions. There are intermediators or links between man and the Great\nSpirit. The Great Spirit comes to the Indian vision involving animal\nforms. One old Indian, the last we know of, received his spiritual power\nfrom visions of a wolf and when he died in the house where an Indian\nstill lives, a pack of wolves came and ran around the house several\ntimes and then left never to return as far as we know. We as Indians\nhave lost the communication with the Great Spirit. Then we still have a\nvery small bird that lives with the Indians, and it peeps things Indians\nunderstand. It tells when someone is coming, when it is going to rain,\nand many other things only an Indian understands. No Indian was allowed\nto harm this little bird.\n\nIndians see signs from all the wild animals\u2014have some trait\u2014an Indian\nnotices them very close, thinking they are the love of the Great Spirit.\nSince he created them first, we regard all created beings as sacred and\nimportant for everything.\n\nThis is the way it was told to me many years ago. So be it.\n\n    [Illustration: Three members of a Chitimacha family. Pictured left\n    to right are Felicia Mora Darden, Ernest Jack Darden, and Emma\n    Darden Bernard.\n\n    (M.R. Harrington, 1908. Photo courtesy of Museum of the American\n    Indian, Heye Foundation)]\n\n\n\n\n                   HISTORY OF THE CHITIMACHA INDIANS\n\n\nI will try to write here what I know of the Chitimacha Indians as I know\nit and what I heard from the old people.\n\nThe tribe once lived on Grand Lake from Bayou Portage, as that is where\nthe Sacred tree now stands, to the shell beach here in Charenton. That\nis where they were living when one day a large boat came up from where\nthe sun rises. It stopped out in the lake a distance from shore. The\nIndians were amazed at its size and stood on shore looking when some men\ncame ashore to see about coming ashore. Since they did not speak the\nsame language, they were chased back to their ship. (They were Spanish.)\nNext day they decided to come ashore by force, but the night before the\nchief consulted the medicine man to find out what should he do. The\nmedicine man took some kind of herbs and burnt them and gathered the\nashes and told the chief if he would spread the ashes on the shore line,\nnot one would put the foot on land. So it was done by the chief. They\ntried, but the warriors held them off as the chief stood on the shell\nknolls with the ashes in hand throwing bits in the air. They Spaniards\nwere so badly defeated, they went off in their ship. The Chitimacha,\nthinking they had chased them off for good, forgot about them and again\nwere enjoying life like it was.\n\nNot too many moons later, the Spaniards came back to the Indians on\nBayou de Chittamach (known now as Bayou Lafourche) and gathered the\nHouma Indian which they had defeated and enslaved to fight the\nChitimachas. Somehow they came up Bayou Teche and attacked from that\nside. While they were fighting the Houma Indians, the Spaniards came and\nlanded on the lake side, which is known now as the Shell Beach and\nattacked from that side. The Chitimacha did not have a chance. Thousands\nwere killed and wounded and nothing to eat. We had to give up.\n\nThe enemy told the few remaining Chitimachas, \u201cThis is what we will give\nyou. You may remain here on this bayou and live. No harm will come to\nyou, but any Indian caught in the woods or lakeshore will be shot on\nsight.\u201d\n\nThis parcel of land we now hold is the very same place that they were\ntalking about.\n\nWe have no record of what happened to the Houmas that survived the war.\nPerhaps the Spaniards took them home or they remained here and\nintermixed with us. I do not know.\n\nHunting along the Bayou Teche was not so very good, so the Indians had\nto eat whatever they could find such as acorns, wild fruit, and some\ngrass was edible until they could grow some vegetables. Then life became\nmore bearable.\n\nNow that is the way I heard, true or not.\n\nI do know that the Houma Indians were hated by all the old Indians as\nlate as the twenties. Few Houma Indians came over and were not received\nby the old Indians with the exception of two women. I will cover them\nlater.\n\nAfter the Spaniards settled, they had their first governor by the name\nof Galvez. The year 1763, Galvez signed a treaty with the Chitimachas\nfor living so peaceful. He granted them 1100 acres of land on both sides\nof Bayou Teche.\n\nThere is no record I can find how they built the town of Charenton in\nthe middle of the grant. The older Indians did not say what happened\nfrom then to the time when Spain sold out to France.\n\nWhen the Frenchmen came over, they started to take over the land that\nwas donated to the Chitimachas which they claimed the French had bought\nit all from Spain. The treaty was no more good.\n\nThen the French started killing Indians. The Indians tried to fight\nback, but were no match for Frenchmen who nearly wiped out the Indians.\nThey killed them like animals, slaughtered, murdered until a few that\nremained gave up. So the French took them and made slaves out of them,\nthose able to work in the fields. The women were made servants, the\nyoung ones taken by the French as concubines. They were forced to lay\nwith the men, as young as ten years old. There were more men than there\nwere Indian women, so one Indian woman would satisfy the lust of five or\nsix Frenchmen.\n\nThen half breeds were born to the Indian women. Some of us still have\nFrench names.\n\nThere were only about fifty Indians escaped to Plaquemine, Weeks Island,\nand all about. Some of them came back here and lived pretty peaceful\nwith the French. They populated well.\n\nBy that time the Frenchmen decided that the Indian worship of the Great\nSpirit was wrong. They must forget their way of living and live like the\nFrenchmen. So they sent a missionary among the Indians to teach them\ntheir invisible God. The Indians, ready to believe anything to help\ntheir plight, believed what this man was saying. His name was St.\nCosmos. He was so pleased with his work, he talked the Chief into\nletting him take some Indians to meet the General to show him how they\nhad accepted the white God. So the Chief consented to let them go. He\ntook six of the Indian braves and left. It was not known where the\nFrench army was located. Anyhow, when they got there the soldiers killed\nall the Indians. The priest was outdone, so to speak, so he returned to\nthe reservation. When the Chief asked where were his men, the priest\ntold him they were all dead, shot by the French army. The chief was so\nvery angry, he ordered the priest killed and brought back to the French.\nSo be it. When the French woke up the next morning, there was the dead\npriest. That is when all hell broke loose. The French hunted the\nChitimachas down and killed everyone in sight. Some Chitimachas ran and\nhid all over the woods. Some went to what is now Weeks Island, some got\nto Plaquemine. There were about fifty Chitimachas remaining on the same\nland that is now the reservation.\n\nAt that time, O\u2019Reilly was governor of Louisiana. He issued a\nproclamation that the Indians could live there as long as they remained\npeaceful and that they were on their own and that parcel of land would\nshow as a body of water on the map of Louisiana. This map can be found\nin the archive of the state Capitol today.\n\nNow about that time, Negro slaves were brought into the South. The white\nplantation owners brought black slaves and began to let the Indians go\nas they were not too good at work. So the free Indians had no place to\ngo but back to the Indian reserve with their half breed French and\nIndian. It was assumed that is how the Chitimachas got their names until\ntoday. Some of the ones that had escaped started to come back and some\ndid not. Some remained in Plaquemine where some of them still show the\nIndian trace. Of course, they are whites today. And that is how we of\ntoday are descendants of that bunch of Indians. There is no record of\nhow many there were. We are a small tribe today.\n\nNow there is not much said about the Chief. It seems like they lived\nwithout a chief until the late 1700\u2019s when one Chief, Soulier Rouge,\nseems like he acquired a pair of red shoes. Somehow the French started\ncalling him Soulier Rouge. His first name was Eugene. Nothing was said\nabout his reign. Only when he died, his squaw took over (Euginie) and\nthat is when the land started to disappear. She seems to be one of those\nIndians that lick white man\u2019s boots just to be with them. It is recorded\nthat she sold Rose Pecot 610 acres for $9.00 per acre and a man by the\nname of Alex Frere 640 acres of land. The record shows that some of the\nmoney was divided among some Indians at $40.00. That is the way it was\nrecorded in the Court House. The names on the record do not jive with\nany name of the now Chitimachas. Somebody gave her an old Mexican silver\ncrown for a large acreage, but we cannot find out where, but we have the\ncrown. And it is recorded that in 1817 they leased 610 acres of 99\nyears. That was 168 years ago. It is also recorded that land was sold\nthe same year it was leased\u2014which the sale is no good. Now my lawyer\ntold me that after the lease expires it cannot be re-leased by the same\nparty.\n\nBut we Chitimachas are a nation of people that are afraid to venture as\nwe may make the whites mad, and we seem as we do not want that. We have\nthe money to regain that property, but we do not trust lawyers in this\nvicinity as we think they would work for the white instead of the\nIndians, which was proven in the period of 1903 to 1910. One white\nlawyer named George Demerest and one civil engineer named Fusilier\ncontacted the Indians stating that (the agreement with) Soulier Rouge\nand Alex Dardenne was illegal as they could not read or write, that they\ncould gain all that land back for the Chitimachas. (I think John Paul\nmight have been Chief then.) The Indians had no money, so it was agreed\nthat Demerest would work for part of the land. It would not cost the\nIndians one penny. So I guess the tribe, thinking that the land was lost\nanyhow, so whatever they got back would be okay. So it was agreed that\nDemerest would get 4/9 of the land for the Indians. The legal papers\nwere drawn and signed by both parties. So Demerest took to court in\nFranklin. As to be expected, he lost the case. So the Indians must have\nbeen a little outdone, but they figured the case was closed. But they\nhad signed to give George Demerest 4/9 of the land, win or lose. So\nDemerest took all of Georgetown.\n\nFusilier surveyed the land and found that it was three acres short of\n4/9, so he came over and started to measure three acres on Uncle Regis\u2019\nland. He was stopped by a shotgun pointing at his head and ordered to\nget off. So he did, and they thought that was the end of it. I can\nremember that incident. They would laugh when they said Regis was going\nto shoot Fusilier. But what they did not know was that Demerest took out\na lien on the land. The Indians ignored the judgement until 1916, when\nDemerest foreclosed on the land, which by now included all of the\nChitimacha\u2019s land. The lien was to be sold on the courthouse steps. Now\nTante MiMi was Chief Ben Paul\u2019s wife. She was in cahoots with one Sarah\nMcIlhenny at Avery Island in a basket trade. Miss Sarah would buy all\nthe baskets the Chitimacha women would make. The basket makers gathered\nat Tante MiMi\u2019s and decided to write to Miss Sarah and ask her help.\nBeing a very rich woman, they were sure that she would help. She did not\nsay she would or would not. She sent her lawyer to Franklin to pay off\nthe mortgage, and there was no sale. The land belonged to Avery Island.\nMiss Sarah then made arrangements with Chief Ben Paul to rent the land\nto some farmers and pay her back, as she did not want the land. She only\nwanted her money back. So this was done. The chief let some Negro\nfarmers work on share as they had no money to pay rental. Come harvest\ntime, the Chief had a barn full of corn and sweet potatoes and no\nmarket. The stuff just stayed there and rotted. He sold some. Up to\n1918, he had sold and paid back $600.00, more or less.\n\nIn the meantime, McIlhenny lawyers were checking the title of the\nproperty and found that the sale was illegal as some of the people had\ntitle to the land, and the best thing for her to do was to petition the\nB.I.A. (Bureau of Indian Affairs) to pay her back and take the land in\ntrust for the Indians. The B.I.A. hired a lawyer in Franklin named C.J.\nBoatner to transact the deal in which he had all the Indians sign the\nland over to the government, except some were not available at the time.\nWhat the ignorant Indians did not know was that this property was not a\nreserve any more. They were giving title to the land, and were paying\ntaxes on their property. The then Chief who made the deal with Demerest\ndid not have the authority to sign any deal with anyone. So the\ngovernment took over some private land which is not lawful. This\nstatement is recorded in the courthouse and can be made available\nanytime. These records are not in Franklin, as Franklin is twenty miles\nfrom here.\n\n\n\n\n              PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS ABOUT THE CHITIMACHAS\n\n\nHoover, Herbert T. _The Chitimacha People._ Phoenix: Indian Tribal\n      Series, 1975.\n\nKniffen, Fred. _The Indians of Louisiana._ Baton Rouge: Louisiana Bureau\n      of Educational Materials, Statistics and Research, College of\n      Education, Louisiana State University, 1965.\n\nOrso, Ethelyn and E. Charles Plaisance. \u201cChitimacha Folklore,\u201d\n      _Louisiana Folklore Miscellany_, vol. III, no. 4 (1975 for 1973),\n      pp. 35-41.\n\nStouff, Faye. _The Chetimachas of Charenton._ Booklet published by\n      Lafayette Natural History Museum, 1974.\n\nStouff, Faye and W. Bradley Twitty. _Sacred Chitimacha Indian Beliefs._\n      Pompano Beach, Florida: Twitty and Twitty, Inc., 1971.\n\nSwanton, John R. _Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and the\n      Adjacent Coast of the Gulf of Mexico._ Washington, D.C.:\n      Smithsonian Institute, Bureau of American Ethnography, Bulletin\n      43, 1911; Reprinted 1970, Johnson Reprint Corp.\n\nTaylor, Gertrude. \u201cEarly History of the Chitimacha,\u201d _Attakapas\n      Gazette_, vol. XVI, no. 2 (Summer 1981), pp. 65-69.\n\n\n\n\n                          Transcriber\u2019s Notes\n\n\n\u2014Silently corrected a few typos.\n\n\u2014Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook\n  is public-domain in the country of publication.\n\n\u2014In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by\n  _underscores_.","title":"Chitimacha Notebook: Writings of Emile Stouff\u2014A Chitimacha Chief","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":6134}