CHAPTER FIVE 



LOUISIANA INDIAN ANIMAL STORIES 



THE first Indians met by Iberville in 1699, when he 

 came to our shores to establish a permanent Louisiana 

 settlement, were the members of a tribe who called 

 themselves Ta'neks aya, which meant, in their tongue, 

 "First people." 



Iberville said the Bayogula Indians called these Taneks 

 "Bilocchy," so has come down the word "Biloxi." The 

 village of this tribe, however, was not on what we now 

 call Biloxi Bay, as has been erroneously stated, but was 

 on the banks of the Pascagoula river several miles to the 

 eastward, near two other tribes, called the Pascagoula and 

 the Moctobi. 



It is believed by Dr. John R. Swanton 11 that the Biloxi 

 Indians were related linguistically to such Siouan tribes 

 as the Tutelo of Virginia; the Ofo, of the lower Yazoo delta; 

 the Dakota, Mandan, Crows, Winnebago, Hidatsa, and other 

 Sioux Indians of the west. 



Our present interest in the Biloxi is the legends and 

 folk tales they have left us and, more particularly, in those 

 dealing with the very species we are considering in this 

 bulletin on fur animals. 



It must be remembered that the religion of the Southern 

 Indians was zootheism, their gods being deified men and 

 animals; the heavenly bodies were also personified as men 

 or animals, and were worshipped as such. In their folk 

 tales we find such examples as Xyinixkana, "Ancient of 

 Otters;" Tumotohkana, "Ancient of Wild Cats;" Tumotch- 

 kanadi, "Ancient of Opossums;" Atckahona, "Ancient of 

 Crows;" Adiiskana, "Ancient of Wood Rats;" Peskana, 

 "Ancient of Tiny Frogs," etc. 



The deified animal, bird or reptile became an "Ancient" 

 and many amusing things are told of them, why the buzzard 

 has a bald head, why the opossum has a hairless tail, why 

 the wild turkey has a tuft of hair hanging from his breast 



".4 Dictionary of the Biloxi and Ofo Languages, p. 10. 



