114 



ATTACAPA 



[b. a. e. 



valleys, Cal. Their language is quite di- 

 vergent from thatofthe Achomawi, from 

 whom they regard themselves as distinct. 

 Very few of them survive, (r. b. d. ) 

 Adwanuqdji. — Curtin, MS. Ilmawi vocab., B. A. 

 E., 1889 (Ilmawi name). Atsugei. — Powell in 6tli 

 Rep. B. A. E., xxxvii, 1888. Atsuge'wi. — Dixon, 

 inf'n, 1905. Chenoya, — Curtin, MS. vocab., B. A. 

 E., 1885 (Yana name). Chenoyana. — Ibid. Chu- 

 noiyana. — Dixon, inf'n, 1903 (Yana name). Hat 

 Creek Indians. — Hanson in Ind. Aff. Rep. 1862, 

 311, 1803. Tcunoiyana. — Dixon, inf'n, 1903 (Yana 

 name; /c=eh). 



Attacapa (Choctaw: Jiatak 'man,' apa 

 'eats,' hence 'cannibal': a name applied 

 by the Choctaw and their congeners to 

 different tribes inhabiting s. w. La. and s. 

 and s. E. Tex. ; see Cannibalism). A tribe 

 forming the Attacapan linguistic family, 

 a remnant of which early in the 19th 

 century occupied as its chief habitat the 

 Middle or Prien lake in Calcasieu parish, 

 La. It is learned from Hutchins (Geog. 

 U. S., 1784) that "the village de Skun- 

 nemoke or Tuckapas" stood on Vermil- 

 ion r. , and that their church was on the 

 w. side of the Tage (Bayou Teche). The 

 Attacapa country extended formerly to 

 the coast in s. w. Louisiana, and their 

 primitive domain was outlined in the 

 popular name of the Old Attacajja or 

 Tuckapa country, still in use, which com- 

 prised St Landry, St Mary, Iberia, St 

 Martin, Fayette, Vermilion, and, later, 

 Calcasieu and Vernon parishes; in fact 

 all the country between Eed, Sabine, and 

 Vermilion rs. and the Gulf (Dermett, 

 Louisiana, 1876) . Charlevoix states that 

 in 1731 some Attacapa with some Hasi 

 nai and Spaniards aided the French com- 

 mander. Saint Denys, against the Nat- 

 chez. Penicaut (Margry, Dec, v, 440) 

 says that at the close of 1703 two of the 

 three Frenchmen whom Bienville sent by 

 way of the Madeline r. to discover what 

 nations dwelt in that region, returned and 

 reported that they had been more than 

 100 leagues inland and had found 7 dif- 

 ferent nations, and that among the last, 

 one of their comrades had been killed and 

 eaten by the savages, who were anthropo- 

 phagous. This nation was called Attacapa. 

 In notes accompanying his Attacapa vo- 

 cabulary Duralde says that they speak 

 of a deluge which engulfed men, ani- 

 mals, and the land, when only those 

 who dwelt on a highland escaped; 

 he also says that according to their law 

 a man ceases to bear his own name as 

 soon as his wife l)ears a child to him, 

 after which he is called the father of such 

 and such a child, but that if the child 

 dies the father again assumes his own 

 name. Duralde also asserts that the 

 women alone were charged with the la- 

 bors of the field and of the household, 

 and that the mounds were erected by the 

 women under the supervision of the 

 chiefs for the purpose of giving their 



lodges a higher situation than those of 

 other chiefs; Milfort (Mem., 92, 1802), 

 who visited St Bernard bay in 1784, be- 

 lieved that the tribe came originally from 

 Mexico. He was hospitably received by 

 a band which he found bucanning meat 

 beside a lake, 4 days' march w. of the 

 bay; and from the chief, who was not an 

 Attacapa, but a Jesuit, speaking French, he 

 learned that 180, nearly half the Attacapa 

 tribe, were there, thus indicating that at 

 that time the tribe numbered more than 

 360 persons; that they had a custom of 

 dividing themselves into two or three 

 bodies for the purpose of hunting buf- 

 falo, which in the spring went to the w. 

 and in the autumn descended into these 

 latitudes; that they killed them with 

 bows and arrows, their youth being very 

 skilful in this hunt; that these animals 

 were in great numbers and as tame as 

 domestic cattle, for "we have great care 

 not to frighten them;" that when the 

 buffaloes were on the prairie or in the 

 forest the Attacapa camped near them 

 "to accustom them to seeing us." Sib- 

 ley (Hist. Sketches, 82, 1806) described 

 their village as situated "about 20 m. w. 

 of the Attakapa church, toward Quelque- 

 shoe;" their men numbered about 50, 

 but some Tonica and Huma who had in- 

 termarried with the Attacapa made them 

 altogether about 80. Sibley adds: "They 

 are peaceable and friendly to everybody; 

 labor, occasionally for the white inhabit- 

 ants; raise their own corn; have cattle 

 and hogs. They were at or near where 

 they now live, when that part of the coun- 

 try was first discovered by the French." 

 In 1885 Gatschet visited the section for- 

 merly inhabited by the Attacapa, and 

 after much search discovered one man 

 and two women at Lake Charles, Calca- 

 sieu j)arish. La., and another woman 

 living 10 m. to the s. ; he also heard of 5 

 other women then scattered in w. Texas; 

 these are thought to be the only survivors 

 of the tribe, (j. n. b. h.) 

 Atacapas. — Berquiii-Duvallon. Trav. in La. and 

 Fla., 97, 1806. Atac-Apas.— Le Page du Pratz, 

 Hist. Louisiane, ii, 231, 1758. Atacapaz. — Mez- 

 ieres (1778) quoted by Bancroft, No. Mex. States, 

 I, 661, 1886. Atac-assas, — .lefferys, French Dom., 

 I, 163, 1761. Atakapas,— Robin, Voy., map, 1807. 

 Attacapacas.— Keane in Stanford, Compend., 502, 

 1878. Attacapas.— Brown in West. Gazetteer, 

 152, 1817. Attacappa.— Hutchins. Hist. Nar., 43, 

 1784. Attakapas.— Penicaut (1703) in French, 

 Hist. Coll. La., n. s., 87, 1869. Attakapo,— Lewis, 

 Trav., 193, 1809. Attaquapas.— Butel-Dumont, 

 Mi5m. sur la Louisiane, 1. 134, 1753. Attencapas. — 

 Gallatin in Trans. Am. Ethnol. See, n, 76, 1848. 

 Attuckapas.— Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes, vi, 35, 1857. 

 Hattahappas.— McKenney and Hall, Ind. Tribes, 

 III, 81, 1854. Hattakappas.— Romans, Hist. Fla., I, 

 101,1775. Maneaters.— Penicaut (1703) in French, 

 Hist. Coll. La., n. s,, 87, 1869. Skunnemoke.— 

 Hutchins (1784) in Imlay, West. Ter., 421, 1797. 

 Takapo ishak, — Gatschet, Attakapa MS., B. A. E., 

 (adopted from whites: with ishak 'people'). 

 Tuckapas,— Hiitchins (1784) in Imlav, West. Ter., 

 421,1797. Tuckapaus.—Ker, Trav., 300, 1816. Tuk- 

 pa'-ha"-ya-di.— Dorsey, Biloxi MS. Diet., B. A. E., 



