Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast of the Gulf of Mexico Page: 26
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26 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [B'LL. 43
rockc' appears to be used and in the other the word for ' flint.' Still
other evidence is furnished by Iberville in the journal of his second
voyage to Louisiana. Under date of the 5th of March, when he was
in the Houma village, he says, "There were with them about 40
Little Taensas, who had come to see them and to offer their services
against the Bayogoulas. These Tai;nsas are wanderers, living ordinarily
three days' journey west of this village. * * *" a The
position indicated would place them on lower Red river or its
southern effluents, and since there was no good location for a tribe
short of Marksville prairie and we nowhere hear of such a tribe again,
it is a fair preslumption that the " Little Tains as" were one and the
same people with the Avoyel. That being the case. the relationship
of the latter to the Taensa proper. or" (Great Taninsas," and therefore
to the Natchez, becolnes almost a matter of course.
Our first information regarding the interrelationship of the Muskhogean
tribes proper is the following iii Iberville's journal of his first
expedition to Louisiana: " The Ounmas. Bavogoulas, Theloil [i. e.,
Natchez]. Tai;nsas, the Coloas, the Chycacha, the Napissa, the Ouachas
[i. e., Washal . Choultymaclls, Yagenechito, speak the same language,
and they andl tle Biloclhy and Iascoboula understand each other." b
This is erroneous. since it incllu(les. besides Muskhogean tribes proper,
the Natchez and Tainsa of tlle Natc(ez group. and the Chitimacha.
His reference to the Biloxi can not be so justly criticised, however,
since he merely states that they and1 the I'ascagmoula made themselves
understood 1b the rest. Ilerville's error is evilently due first to the
fact that all of these tribes could converse with oine another in the
Mobilian trade language. and seconlllly to, Ils; i'lgnorance of most of the
tribes of which he speaks. lie had vi-ited tlhe ITomllla and the Bayogoula
in person, and had met some fBiloxi. I(asc(lagolla, and Washa,
and a single Tainsa, but his acquaintance with thlese 1:had extended over
only a few hours and gave him very little opl)ortuniity to hear them
converse among themselves. The others lie knew merely by report.
The journalist of Iberville's second vessel, Le Jnari,, says "The village
[of the Bayogoula] is composed of two nations, which are the Mongoulachas
and the Bayogoulas, which have the same language."'
Three months after this time the missionary priests De Montigny and
Davion descended the Mississippi from their posts higher up to
Biloxi, and in an unpublished letter narrating the events of this
voyage De Montigny says, " The 14 [of June, 1699] we arrived among
the Oumats, who are much lower down than the Natchez. * * *
This village is of about one hundred cabins; their language is the
same as that of the Kinipissas, the Chicachas, and many other naMargry,
Decouvertes, Iv, 408-409, 1880.
bIbid., 184.
o Ibid., 262.
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Swanton, John Reed. Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast of the Gulf of Mexico, book, 1911; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth29404/m1/34/: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .