The Avoyel or Avoyelles was a small Natchez-speaking tribe who inhabited land near the mouth of the Red River in the area of present-day Marksville, Louisiana. The indigenous name for this tribe is Tamoucougoula. The word Avoyel is of French derivation and means either "Flint People" or "the people of the rocks." [1]
History [edit]
The Avoyelles were neighbors of the Tunica people.[2] Avoyelles Parish is named for the Avoyelles tribe.[3] The traditional homeland for the Avoyel was near the mouth of the Red River and included lakes and bayous.[4]
Numbering 280 in 1698, as recorded by the French, the tribe declined markedly after that. They were likely affected by the same drastic decimation as were other tribes, by new infectious diseases unwittingly carried by Europeans, to which the natives had no acquired immunity. By 1805 they were said to have been reduced to only two or three women. The Avoyel survivors were likely absorbed into the neighboring Tunica people through marriage.
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