362 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 4.-5 



Indians are cited as living here down to 1836." Later a few at least 

 went west to reside with the Calcasieu band, but most appear to have 

 scattered. At Washington, La., is a woman whose father belonged to 

 the Vermilion band, and somewhere in Oklahoma is another eastern 

 Atakapa named Felix Wartell. 



The Calcasieu band lived along the river of that name and the 

 lakes through which it flows. In plate 32, «, a characteristic scene in 

 the old Atakapa country is given. Nearly all of the surviving Ata- 

 kapa belong to this band. The survivors were interviewed by Doctor 

 Gatschet in 1885 and a considerable vocabulary of their language col- 

 lected, besides several texts. In 1907 and 1908 the writer visited them 

 and found that there are still nine who remember something of the 

 language. Almost all of these are living apart, however, and they 

 use it so seldom that old grammatical distinctions are being lost or 

 confused. It Avill not be long, therefore, before it sinks to the level 

 of a vocabulary and finally disappears. The following are the names 

 of those who still speak Atakapa : Teet Verdine and Eliza Verdine, 

 his sister, who live near Westlake, La.; Armojean Reon (pis. 19, h 

 and 32, h) and Mrs. Delia Morse, who are in Lake Charles, but in dif- 

 ferent parts of the city ; Delphine Williams, wife of J. R. Williams, 

 Beaumont, Tex., and Ellen Sclovon or Esclovon, sisters of Armojean 

 Reon's mother; Eugene Reon, brother of Armojean, a Sanctification 

 preacher, last reported from Wichita, Kans. ; Mary Jones, nee Cam- 

 eron, Armojean's cousin, wife of a preacher of the same sect ; and Felix 

 Wartell, already referred to, whose mother, Victorine, belonged to the 

 eastern Atakapa, and who at one time took up land in Oklahoma. 



From the statements of various writers it appears that there were 

 representatives of this stock on the Sabine. On the Neches and 

 lower Trinity, as well as the country between, was a small tribe 

 called Orcoquisac by the Spaniards. A mission was founded among 

 them, but lasted only a short time. This tribe became noted as that 

 among which M. de Belle-Isle was abandoned and among whom he 

 lived for a number of years.'' Unfortunately he has not left a record 

 of any of the words of their language, and Ave are unable to affirm 

 their relationship positively, but there is good reason to believe that 

 it was with the Atakapa of Louisiana. There can be little question 

 that it differed from that of any of their other neighbors.'' In 1805, 

 according to Sibley, the Atakapa numbered about 80 men, including 

 30 Tunica and Houma w^ho had settled among them.'* They seem to 



« Most of the information in what goes before has been obtained from the Amer. State 

 Papers Relating to Public Lands, iii, 96, 114, 18.S4. 

 ''Margry, Decoiivertcs, vi, 320-347. 



<■ For a full discussion of the relationship of these people, see pp. SS-.SG. 

 ''Ann. 9th Cong., 2d sess., 1086, 1852. 



