SWANTON] INlDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTEiIlN' UNITEiD STATES 93 



Ir'amasee War, 214, including 64 warriors, in 2 villages. Later cen- 

 suses give the following numbers of warriors: 105 in 1738 (in 2 vil- 

 lages of 60 and 45 respectively) ; more than 30 in 1750; 60 in 1760; 

 20 in 1761; 100 in 1792 (including the Chiaha) ; and a total popula- 

 tion of 239 in 1832-33 (in 2 settlements) . (See Timucua.) 



ATAKAPA 



By the French this name was applied to all of the bands of the 

 Attacapan linguistic family of Powell except the Opelousa, Bidai, 

 and one or two other tribes in Texas of which they had no knowledge, 

 but as the term Akokisa, used by Spanish writers for those Atakapa 

 on the lower Trinity Eiver and on Trinity and Galveston Bays, has 

 become current in Texas literature, I have considered the Texas 

 Atakapa under that head. Besides the Opelousa, which will be con- 

 sidered separately, there were bands of Indians of this tribe on Ver- 

 milion Bayou, on Mermentou River, on the lakes near the mouth of 

 the Calcasieu, and probably on the lower Sabine. Mention has been 

 made of an exploring party sent westward by Bienville which pene- 

 trated the country for 100 leagues and finally reached a tribe of canni- 

 bals. These were undoubtedly some one of the Atakapa groups. As 

 these Indians lay at some distance from the Mississippi and from the 

 early European colonies, they did not suffer seriously from white 

 intrusion until well along in the eighteenth century, though individ- 

 uals frequented the French posts along with other Indians. In 1760 

 Skunnemoke (Skenne-mok, "Short Arrow"), often called Kinemo, sold 

 the land on which his village stood and a strip of territory 2 leagues 

 wide between Bayou Teche and Vermilion Bayou to a Frenchman 

 named Fusilier de la Clair, and from this time on the lands of the 

 tribe were steadily alienated in spite of efforts to protect them. Not- 

 withstanding the sale above mentioned, the Vermilion village was not 

 abandoned until early in the nineteenth century, and in 1779 it sup- 

 plied 60 men to Governor Galvez to assist him in his expedition against 

 the British forts on the Mississippi. The Mermentou band furnished 

 120 men to Galvez in that expedition. In 1787 the principal Atakapa 

 village was at the "Island of Woods," later known as the "Island of 

 Lacasine" from an Indian reputed to be its chief. It was abandoned 

 about 1799 and the Indians moved to a village on the Mermentou. 

 This was the last village of the Eastern Atakapa and is said to have 

 been occupied as late as 1836, but this is not certain. Some of these 

 Indians united with the Western Atakapa about Lake Charles, but 

 others scattered as far afield as Oklahoma. The last village of the 

 Western Atakapa was on Indian Lake, later called Lake Prien, 

 which must have been occupied until after the middle of the nine- 

 teenth century. In 1885 Dr. Gatschet learned of two women living 



