SWANTONJ INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 361 



Ashnoya and his son Bernard also appear frequently as parties to 

 the sale of lands in the same neighborhood and probably belonged 

 to the same division, though they may have had a separate village." 

 In November, 1760, it is recorded that a Mr. Fusilier de la Clair pur- 

 chased from Rinemo [Kinemo], chief of the Atakapa village, called 

 in French " Lamonier,"" the said village and land depending thereon 

 of 2 leagues in front from north to south, limited on the west by the 

 river Vermilion and on the east by the river Teche. About the same 

 time three or four other purchases were made from the Atakapa 

 Indians, by which a very large proportion of the land of that district 

 and nearly or quite all of the valuable lands on the river Teche were 

 embraced. The Spanish governor, O'Eeilly, however, passed regu- 

 lations or ordinances by which no grant of land in Oi)elousas, Ataka- 

 pas, or Natchitoches, could exceed 1 league square, and this ordinance 

 ajjpears to have been applied to a certain degree to purchases already 

 made. Many tracts of land were purchased from the Atakapa In- 

 dians about the time Louisiana was transferred to the United States, 

 and some subsequent to that change at a time wh^n it was known on 

 good information that those Indians were reduced to a single village, 

 the inhabitants of which were short of one hundred. In some in- 

 stances six or eight distinct tracts were sold by the same individual 

 Indian. 



In spite of the sales above alluded to, the Vermilion village was 

 not abandoned until early in the last century. In 17T0 this band 

 furnished 60 men to Galvez's expedition against the British forts on 

 the Mississippi.^ 



The next important band of Atakapa toward the west lived on 

 Mermentou river and its branches. They furnished 120 men to Gal- 

 vez's expedition.'' In 1787 we are informed that the principal Ata- 

 kapa village in that district was at the " Island of Woods," later 

 known as " the Island of Lacasine," from an Indian reputed to be its 

 chief. It extended the entire length of this island, but the principal 

 settlement was at the upper end. About 1799 it was abandoned and 

 the people moved to a village on the Nementou (Mermentou). It was 

 probably shortly after this that Lacasine was succeeded by Celestine 

 la Tortue. The latter appears to have been before that time chief 

 of a village " on the prairie of Nezpique." His father, who had been 

 chief before him, was named La Tortue, whence the son's last name. 

 Mention is also made of a chief Nementou, but it is uncertain whether 

 this was the native name of Celestine, a title derived from the name 

 of his village, or another person altogether. It is stated plainly that 

 this was the last Atakapa village among the eastern Atakapa, and 



" According to the Cbitimacha there was once an Atakapa village on the site of 

 Loreauville. 



'' Amer. State Papers. Pub. Lands, in, 111. 



