The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-03
PASSING Of 4 GREAT RACE
DESCENDANTS OF ONCE POWER
Full AND INTREPID TRIBES
DYING OFF
LIVE NEAR NEW ORLEANS
The Few Survivors of Aboriginal
Inhabitants Are Mostly SuIIen
and UnapprOachable-AIl
SkilIfuI Craftsmen.

As everything connected with the state
of Louisiana is at this jCncture Of spe-
cial interest, because Of the exposition
at ST. Louis, which is, to memoriaiize
as it were, it's original purchase, it may
not be inarposite to give cursory
sketch of the remnant of a race, still
living near New Orleons, but which, like
the dying embers of a once luminous fire,
are gradually fading away from human
existence.
Few who visit the Crescent City, with
its quaint, old landmarks, making the
inevitable round of the French. market,
that curiosity shop of races, habits,
wares, etc, have any conception of the
romantic history, interviewer with the
lives of the fifteen or twenty ChoctaW
women, who sit within its pales, in stolid
silence, patiently waiting the sale Of the
pounded laurel and sassafras leaves
Their baskets are wrought of the stalks
and leaves Of the '1atarier' strongly in
tertwined, and their medicine Of herbs
and simples, are a portion Of their little
stock in trade. With the males of their
families, they are the sole surviving of
The Indian race, which inherited the land
fl ON their progenitorS. A strange cir
cumstance, too, connected with the rep
resentatives Of the Aborigines is that
they belong to the Choctaw nation,
-
imical to the French.
In early colonial times, the French had
friendly relations with the Illinois and
Alabaman tribes, but were always nos
tile to the Choctaws and Chickasaws
Within a period, say, within the mem
Dry of men, still living, some of the
aboriginal inhabitants of Louisiana, fire.
quently visited the city during the win
ter season. Under the Spanish DONNA
of ba oct 10 to
assemble once a year, in the city to
receive a certain allowance of mer-
chandise and presents, as tokens of good
will and friendship. These bands camp
ed out, lived within huts beyond the
city limits, covered with the skins OF
deer and bears, as well as with the
leaves Of the '1atanier." During the
day they sauntered about the city, but
almost invariably returned to their
grounds in the evening. The women
then, as now, brought their small wares
to market while the men were hunters
of deer, duck, squirrel and other game.
At that time the men wore Upon their
heads a sort Of helmet, set off with large
feathers, painting their faces on a sort
of background of VermiliOn, with VIVA
has been described, as spiral and trans
verse lines In blue which in conjunction
with their fantastic costume was in
harmony with the carnival season, the
time about which they most frequented
the city.
SEVERAL SCATTERED SETTLE
MENTS.
Several Of these Indian settlements are
located more or less contiguous to the
Crescent City. There is a village at the
Bayou Lacombe, one at Bayou LacroiN
and another on the Teche. On one of the
most secluded spots of this bayou, where
the picturesque stream takes a turn, a
number of small cabins appear at short
distances from each other, built of
cypress, with roofs made of what are
termed the arge shingles, of the past
Creole days. The locality is one which
nature has touched with the charming
large oaks, from the venerable boughs
OF which sweep trails of Spanish moss
tinging the landscape with a somber hue
At Indian Bend, about twenty-five miles
Teche, runs into the Atchafalaya, So
called from a little batch of cabins clus-
tered there, live the last of the once
great tribes of Attakopos. This remnant
OF the powerful race has dWelt here for
over a century, and there is no doubt
but that it was source of terror to all
on account of its fierce and barbarOuS
nature, devouring in true cannibal style
the flesh of its conquered enemies.
SULI.EN AND UNAPPROACHABLE
The few remaining families now living
at Indian Bend are survivors of the Che
umache tribe, an offshoot of the At
lakdpOS, WHO, as rencS OF a WhllOm great
nation, are subjects of interesting
study. Difficult of approach and uncom-
municative, the little learned of them
was not acquired without considerable
trouble. They are held in awe by their
neighbors, being in general principles of
habit and nature reticent, inaccessible
and unconciliatory. Every ruse is re-
sorted to py the denizens of the places
adjacent to this Indian settlement to
prevent the intrusion of visitors These
Chetlmaches seem to drag out a sort of
hermetical existence in the calm atmos
phere of the solitude that encompasses
them. Around their reservation are evil
dences of civilization, and the cultivat on
of the soil, fair fields of bright, waving
sugar cane hemming them in But they
seem tnsensate to even this proximate
touch of higher culture and drag along
the days in leaden apathy or suilen ST.
fence, as though no pulsation beat with
IN them. 1t is said that at the sight
OF stranger the women skulk away
and a man IS only visible when the win
dow or cabin is approached
In personal appearance they differ
somewhat from the Choctaws. The
men men are a little darker than those who
come to the city to sell their wares
Their cheek bones are very high and
their eyes keen and quick Of movement
PurSY S6QSuOuS mouth indicate a.