Houma people

Houma

United Houma Nation flag
Total population
10,837 (2010, US Census)
Regions with significant populations
United States (Louisiana)
Languages
English, French, formerly Houma
Related ethnic groups
Choctaw and other Muscogeean peoples

The Houma people are a Native America tribe. They belong to the United Houma Nation, a state recognized tribe in Louisiana. They primarily live in East and West Feliciana, and Pointe Coupee Parishes, about 100 miles (160 km) north of the town of Houma named for them, west of the mouth of the Mississippi River.

History

Origins

The Houma tribe, thought to be Muskogean speaking like other Choctaw tribes, was recorded living along the Red River on the east side of Mississippi River, by the French explorer La Salle in 1682. Because their war emblem is the saktce-ho’ma, or Red Crawfish, anthropologist John R. Swanton has speculated that the Houma are an offshoot of the Yazoo River region’s Chakchiuma tribe, whose name is a corruption of saktce-ho’ma.

Individuals in the tribe maintained contact with other Choctaw communities after settling in lower Lafourche-Terrebonne. It is not certain exactly how the Houma came to settle near the mouth of the Red River, formerly called the River of the Houma. The French explorers found them at the site of present-day Angola, Louisiana.

Language

The indigenous Houma language is no longer used regularly and is thought to have fallen out of use by the late 19th century. As a result of a language shift which began during the French colonial period in Louisiana, a majority of Houma people today speak Cajun French. American English is also widely spoken by the community. Additionally, it is estimated that in light of their distinct society and the isolated geography in which they reside, as many as 3,000 mostly elderly people living on Houma tribal lands in the Lafourche Basin are monolingual speakers of French.

In 1907, Swanton interviewed an elderly Houma woman to collect vocabulary from her Houma language. It was very similar to standard Choctaw. This has led some linguists to conclude that the Houma spoke a Western Muskogean language (akin to Choctaw or Chickasaw) although it has also been suggested that the data in Swanton's vocabulary is Mobilian Jargon. Some unidentified words may be from other languages spoken on the Mississippi. The Tunica called Mobilian Jargon húma ʼúlu -- "Houma's language".

French era

In 1682 the French explorer Brinson noted in his journal passing near the village of the “Oumas”. This brief mention marks the entry of the Houmas into recorded history. Later explorers, such as Henri de Tonti and Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, give a fuller description of the early Houma. Iberville reported the Houma village to be some six to eight miles inland from the east bank of the Mississippi near the mouth of the Red River.

When the Europeans arrived in greater number in the area, they thought each settlement represented a different tribe. While being guided through the area north of Lake Pontchartrain, Iberville and his men asked their Bayougoula guides the identity of a group on the far bank of a particular bayou. The guides responded that these were the mugulashai, meaning “the people on the other side (of the bayou).” The French thought the term was the name of the group, and called them the Mugulasha tribe.^{[citation needed]} They were more likely a band of the Bayougoula people who, like the Houma, were of Choctaw origin. In historic times, several bands of Choctaw migrated into the Louisiana area. Today they are known as the Jena, Clifton, and Lacombe bands.

By 1700, the Houma were in a border conflict with the Bayougoula over hunting grounds. Mediation by Iberville’s brother, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, settled the conflict in March of that year. The tribes placed a great red pole in the ground on the bank of a bayou, at a place now known as Scott’s Bluff, establishing a new border between their peoples. Called Istrouma by the natives and Baton Rouge by the French, this marker, some five miles above Bayou Manchac on the east bank of the Mississippi, was the site of modern Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In 1706, the Houma left their villages in the Red River region for more southern areas. One account was that they wanted to move closer to their new French allies and away from the English-allied tribes to the north. From the 1730s to the French-Indian war (1754–1763) (also known as the Seven Years War), European wars were played out in North America. Numerous Native American bands formed protective alliances to deal with the conflicts. As early as 1739, the French reported that the Houma, Bayougoula, and Acolapissa were merging into one tribe. Though the tribe would remain predominantly Houma, the last remnants of many nations would find refuge with them.

Because of increasing conflicts between the English, French, and the Spanish, the Houma migrated south to their current location in Lafourche-Terrebonne. Oral history and modern scholars agree that the ancestors of the Lafourche-Terrebonne Houma tribe settled originally near the modern town of Houma, Louisiana, at a place the natives called Chukunamous (meaning roughly Red House.)

Early United States era

Napoleon agreed to sell the Louisiana colony to the United States, which would double the size of the new republic. On April 30, 1803, the two nations signed a treaty confirming the Louisiana Purchase. With respect to native inhabitants, article six of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty states

The United States promise to execute such treaties and articles as may have been agreed between Spain and the tribes and nations of Indians, until, by mutual consent of the United States and the said tribes of nations, other suitable articles shall have been agreed upon.

Although the United States signed the treaty, they failed to uphold the policy. Dr. John Sibley was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson as Indian agent for the region. He did not visit any villages in the swamps of southern Louisiana and the Houma had no official representation to the federal government.^{[citation needed]}

In 1885, the Houma lost a great leader, Rosalie Courteau. She had helped them survive through the aftermath of the American Civil War. She continues to be highly respected.

Modern era

By the end of the 19th century, the Houma language had merged with the French language of the former colony. The Houma-French language which the Houma people speak today is a mix between the French spoken by early explorers and Houma words, such as shaui (“raccoon”). Yet, Houma-French language is still French language, because anybody who speaks French from Canada, France, Rwanda or Louisiana can understand each other. There are some differences in vocabulary, for example, chevrette to say crevette (shrimp). The accent of the Houma Nation French-speaker is not more different than the difference between an American English-speaker and an English-speaker from England; every linguistic group develops many different accents; the Houma Nation is no different.

While the modern world slowly began to edge its way into south Louisiana, the Houma remained relatively isolated in their bayou settlements. The population of the Houma at this time was divided among six settlements. Travel between settlements was made by pirogues and the waterways; the state did not build roads connecting the settlements until the 1940s.

In 1907, John R. Swanton, an anthropologist from the Smithsonian Institution, visited the Houma.

The Houma of today continue to have a hunter-gatherer type economy, cultivating small subsistence gardens and depending on the bayous and swamps for fish and game. It was not until 1964 after the Civil Rights Act was passed that Houma children were allowed to attend public schools. Before this time Houma children only attended missionary schools.

Federal recognition

One of the most important issues of the Houma people is the still unresolved matter of their federal recognition. The Houma tribe has been in the federal recognition process since 1979 when it first filed its letter of intent to petition with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The petition was rejected in 1994, and the tribe rebutted in 1996. The Houma tribe waits for their application to be reviewed again for final determination.

Coastal erosion

As many of tribal communities are in coastal areas and depend on the swamps and bayous as a source of food and economic resource, the ongoing coastal erosion is the other main problem that the Houma tribe faces. This coastal erosion is mainly due to oil companies placing piping under the ground and not properly covering it afterward, as well as salt water intrusion caused by navigation canals dug by those same oil companies.

Currently the community of Isle de Jean Charles is eroding away; scientists estimate that within the next 15 years, the island will disappear if nothing is done. The Houma tribe is looking for land to buy in the area to relocate and resettle the community together. Coastal erosion has also adversely affected the quality of fishing, and the tribe has suffered from a decrease in fish, as saltwater intrusion has taken over many of the old fishing holes.

Future perspectives

The Houma people face many challenges: coastal erosion, the threat of hurricanes and the continuing struggle for federal recognition among them. They stand determined, as a people, to meet those challenges with the same strength and determination that brought them through the last 300 years of colonization.^{[citation needed]}

Family names

Many Houma Indians have the family name Billiot. This is usually pronounced by family members as "Be-Yo" [bi-jo]. It is sometimes alternately spelled as Beo to reflect this. English speakers have historically had a difficult time pronouncing the name Billiot correctly even according to English rules of pronunciation. The most common English pronunciation is [bi-li-at] but [bil-yat] is popular with younger populations.

The origin of the name is unclear but several theories are popular. One is that it is a French adaptation of a Houma word, reflecting the French colonial period. The surname Billiot is prevalent in eastern France, along the German border; it is related to the German name Billiad, meaning "sword carrier". The Houma encountered German speakers during their migration south, when they passed the communities that would eventually establish Hahnville and other ethnically German areas. However and despite hypothetical encounter with German speakers, the family name Billot or Billaut is well established name for Canadian settlers during the French-Colonial era; thus, it is possible that a Canadian might have come down the Mississippi to trade and decided to form a family with a Houma woman which would have led to the propagation of the name Billot as a family name.

In the location of lower Terrebonne and surrounding parishes, the mixed Indian–French names are Dardar, Naquin, Verrett, Verdin, Theriot, Gregoire, Solet, Soulet, Picou, Parfait, and Dion. Francis and Fitch are also common. These are common names of Houma families around the "bayou country". These have also been very difficult for Anglo-Americans to pronounce or read. English-only policies in the United States that used to forbid the teaching of either French or Houma have had an impact on the Houma in taking away many Houma Indians' abilities to read or write their family names correctly.

Today the right to learn, teach, speak, read and write in both French and Houma is guaranteed in the Louisiana constitution. In the 1980s the tribe led a language revival effort in which Houma children are instructed in their native language; many such students showed significant improvement in educational progress. Some of these Houma students have become distinguished as university graduates: linguists, scientists, musicians, Linux programmers, animators.

Further reading

• Brown, Cecil H.; & Hardy, Heather K. (2000). What is Houma?. International Journal of American Linguistics, 66 (4), 521-548.
• Dardar, T. Mayheart (2000). Women-Chiefs and Crawfish Warriors: A Brief History of the Houma People, Translated by Clint Bruce. New Orleans: United Houma Nation and Centenary College of Louisiana.
• Goddard, Ives. (2005). "The indigenous languages of the Southeast", Anthropological Linguistics, 47 (1), 1-60.
• Miller, Mark Edwin. "A Matter of Visibility: The United Houma Nation's Struggle for Federal Acknowledgment," in Forgotten Tribes: Unrecognized Indians and the Federal Acknowledgment Process. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.

Media

• Hidden Nation, a one-hour documentary video by Barbara Sillery & Oak Lea, Keepsake Productions (New Orleans), 1994.

External links

• United Houma Nation, official website
• Lee Sultzman, "Houma History"
• Greg English, "History of the United Houma Nation", Louisiana 101