16 SIOUAN TRIBES OF THE EAST. [ethnology 



known as Mobilian — a corrupt Choctaw — but had a distinct language 

 of their own, without, however, giving any hint as to what that lan- 

 guage might be (Am. S. P., 2). It remained for Gatschet to prove that the 

 Biloxi are the remnant of an isolated Siouan tribe. In 1886, while 

 pursuing some linguistic researches in the southwest, in the interest of 

 the Bureau of Ethnology, Mr Gatschet came acrcjss a small band of 

 Biloxi still living near Laraourie bridge on Bayou Boeuf, in Rapides 

 parish, Louisiana, sixteen miles south of Alexandria. They numbered 

 only 25 all told, including several mixed bloods, and hardly half a 

 dozen were able to speak the language fluently; but from these he 

 obtained a vocabulary which established their Siouan affinity beyond 

 a doubt. Although on the verge of extinction, poor, miserable, and 

 debilitated from their malarial surroundings, they yet retained all the 

 old pride of race, insisting on being called Taneks, and refusing to be 

 known as Biloxi. 



Following up this discovery, Dorsey, the specialist in the Siouan 

 tribes, visited the Biloxi of Louisiana in 1892 and again in 1893, and 

 has succeeded in collecting from this small remnant a valuable body 

 of linguistic and myth material. A synopsis of the results obtained 

 appears in his paper on the Biloxi, published in 1893 in the proceedings 

 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He 

 states that in 1892 the only survivors of the tribe remaining in Louisi- 

 ana were about a dozen individuals living near Lecompte, in Rapides 

 parish. One of his informants said, however, that toward the close of 

 the civil war, or about 18C5, a large party of Biloxi and Paskagula 

 removed to a place in Texas which he called "Comishy." This is, 

 doubtless, Kiamishi river, a northern tributary of Red river, in the 

 Choctaw nation, and an old settlement nucleus for Choctaw, Caddo, 

 and other emigrant tribes from Louisiana. From personal inquiry 

 among the Caddo, Creek, and Choctaw, I am led to believe that 

 these Biloxi are now with the mixed band of Alabama, Coasati, 

 and Muskogee living near Livingston, in Polk county, Texas, and in 

 a smaller settlement nearer Houston. There are none now in the 

 Choctaw nation or among the Caddo in Oklahoma, but one or two 

 individuals are said to be living near Okmulgee, in the Creek nation. 

 All three of these tribes are perfectly familiar with the name. 



Their former neighbors, the Choctaw, say that the Biloxi were orig- 

 inally cannibals. The statement must be taken with some allowance, 

 however, as the charge of cannibalism was the one most frequently 

 made by Indians against those of an alien or hostile tribe. From 

 information obtained by Mr Uorsey it appears that the Biloxi formerly 

 dressed in the general style of other eastern tribes, and that tattooin. 

 was sometimes practiced among them. They made wooden bowls, horn 

 and bone implements, baskets, and pottery. They still remember the 

 names of three gentes, the deer, grizzly bear ( ?), and alligator, and 

 probably had others in former times. Descent,, as usual, was in the 



