Story of A People (continued)
FACTS:
The following was extracted from the petition of the United Houma Nation for federal acknowledgement.
Like other tribes of the lower Mississippi River Valley, the Houmas were affected by shifts of the colonial balance of power in the Louisiana and West Florida settlement areas. They were regarded as a distinct, soverign people by the French, Spanish and English rulers but have historically been denied their right to exist as a sovereign nation by the United States.
First actual contact with the tribe by a Western observer was recorded by Chevalier de Tonti on his trip up the Mississippi in 1686.
He wrote:
Forty leagues above the Quinipissas tribe, we discovered a nation in those lands we had missed in our previous descent. This was the Oumas tribe, the bravest of all the savages. As soon as they saw us, they were struct with an astonishment mixed with respect which disarmed all their ferocity and which obligated them to promise perfect submission. They gave us fresh provisions and offered us all that was in their power.
Subsequently, both French and Spanish rulers of Louisiana would keep close watch on the tribe for decades to come, periodically re-evaluating its military strength as a buffer against less friendly tribes and competing European forces.
About 1 p.m. March 20, 1699, Pierre Le Moyne D’Iberville visited the tribe while on an exploratory expedition trying to find a rumored fork of the Mississippi. He reported a settlement of 350 warriors about 2 1/2 leagues (six or seven miles) inland opposite the mouth of the Red River. He was welcomed by the tribe,s chief and witnessed dances and calumet (ceremonial pipe) and receiving bread, flour and corn from the tribe. The calumet ceremony was of sacred solemnity to the Louisiana Indian tribes, signifying agreement of treaty status. Iberville’s participation would have cemented the reported Tonti alliance of 13 years earlier.
OPINIONS:
In my opinion, As you travel up and down the bayous of Louisiana you can see members of the Houmas working and providing for their families. Stop and speak with them and they will help you in any way they can, much in the same way they helped Iberville in March of 1699.
Good luck in your dance recital, Hunter.
