_Paleo-lithic Period_ (approximately 12,000-5,000 BC):
According to anthropologists there have been people in Louisiana for at
least 12,000 years. They probably migrated from the northern United
States in search of game as more and more of the northern areas fell
under sheets of advancing ice. Louisiana was much cooler and the
plant-life very different from modern times.
These early men hunted bison, mastodon, camels, and horses with simple
spears made by attaching a sharpened rock flake to the end of a spear.
They were the true pioneers of this state. They came here without
benefit of guides to show them the best hunting farm lands.
One of their villages has been discovered on Avery Island. Artifacts
found among extinct animal bones indicate the area was inhabited when
mastodons, bison, and camels, roamed Louisiana. *(Cabildo)
_Archaic Period_ (5,000-1400 BC):
The large animals gradually became extinct as the glaciers melted, the
climate grew warmer, and the plant life changed. The native Louisianians
were forced by necessity to hunt smaller animals and to supplement their
diet with shellfish. The people of the Archaic Period moved from place
to place leaving behind huge mounds of discarded shells which eventually
increased the elevation of area and reduced flooding. During this period
they developed such tools as spear—throwers, knives, scrapers, drills,
and darts.
_Poverty Point Period_ (1700-200 BC):
In northeastern Louisiana, near Epps, is an ancient village site called
Poverty Point. It contains a unique bird effigy mound and a large
geometrical village. Houses of palmetto were built on ridges of earth
arranged in an octagon east of the 600 foot long and 70 foot high bird
mound.
Since they did not have clay pottery, food was cooked by placing it in
an earthen pit lined with hot baked clay balls. Tools, called
micro-flints, were made from stone slivers to open shellfish, nuts, and
seeds.
There are also indications of developing trade with other areas.
_Tchefuncte Period_ (200 BC-400 AD):
In coastal Louisiana much of the old Archaic tradition of shellfish
gathering, augmented by hunting, continued long after the Poverty Point
culture was 1,000 years old. About 200 BC crude pottery was added to the
basic Archaic Culture on the coast and around Lake Ponchartrain. They
continued to eat shellfish, supplemented with small game and wild
plants. They lived on shell middens in circular houses made from poles
and thatch.
_Marksville Period_ (100-550 AD):
The development of agriculture during this period freed the early
Louisianians from daily hunting and food gathering which allowed them
time for more religious and recreational activities. They began making
fine pottery and flint projectile points for ceremonial and burial
purposes rather than for purely utilitarian uses.
They continued building earthen mounds and added rather elaborate burial
practices by placing the deceased in the mound with pottery and
recreational items such as chunkey stones. Some of these burial
artifacts were made from materials from as far away as Yellowstone Park
and marine shells from the Gulf. Their artifacts included copper items.
_Troyville-Coles Creek Period_ (500-1200)
This was basically a continuation of the Marksville Period. Mound
building became more advanced with a shift toward large flat topped
pyramidal mounds as foundations for temples. These were probably used
for sacred and ceremonial activities. The burial mounds continued to be
built in conical shapes.
Agriculture improvements included clearing fields by slashing the trees
and burning them in the fields to provide fertilizer for crops. Bows and
arrows were used for the first time which increased their hunting
successes. With these improvements came larger populations as the people
developed methods for feeding their growing numbers.
It also meant time for improving the art of pottery making.
Archaeologists are able to tell the tribe and with whom they traded by
examining the styles of decoration and the lines incised on the pottery.
_Plaquemine Period_ (1100-1450)
Maize agriculture was important during this period. Villages were
located on bluffs and terraces near large streams and rivers to utilize
the rich alluvial bottom land for farming and water for the villagers.
Rectangular shaped houses were built by digging trenches 12-18 inches
wide and as deep. Poles 6 inches or smaller were set upright in the
trench and earth was packed around them until the trench was filled.
Sometimes rocks or horizontal logs were laid in the trench to brace the
upright poles. The spaces between the rows of upright poles were
intertwined and woven with vines and mud smeared over the entire
structure. When the first Europeans came to Louisiana this type of house
was very common among the Indians.
The houses were usually arranged in small clusters around several large
mounds which surrounded a central plaza. The plaza was used primarily
for ceremonies. The famous Emerald Mound near Natchez, said to be the
second largest prehistoric man-made object in the United States, is a
nearby example of such a village arrangement.
_Mississippian Period_ (1400-1700)
Trade routes with other Indians in the Southwest and Mexico increased
and cultural diffusion was extensive. Trade with the first Europeans
began during the 16th century.
After 1,000 years the elaborate burial practices from the Tchefuncte
Period were revived and expanded into a “Cult of the Dead”. Great burial
mounds were built to contain the dead and their burial artifacts. Many
wooden forms of men and animals covered with hammered copper, pottery
shaped as human or animal heads, and pottery depicting bones, skulls,
rattlesnakes, and “feathered serpents” were placed with the corpse in
the mound.
Villages were enclosed by walls of poles plastered with mud. During this
period Indian populations decreased significantly. As they decreased and
the palisade walls rotted, smaller and smaller compounds were built
around the remaining village.
_1540-Present_
It is not known how many Indians lived in Louisiana, however,
archaeological evidence, as well as written accounts by early Spanish
and French explorers indicate there were large numbers. From the
northern farmlands of the Caddo and Tunica to the southern swamps and
bayous of the Chitimacha; from the southwestern prairie of the Atakapa
to the eastern hills and rivers of the Natchez and the Muskhogee (Houma)
were many tribes who adapted their culture, their lives, and their
economy to available products in their segment of Louisiana’s
environment. Following is a brief history of the major tribes and those
groups which merged with them.