| Total population | |
|---|---|
| merged into Caddo Confederacy | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Louisiana | |
| Languages | |
| Caddoan language | |
| Religion | |
| Indigenous religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Caddo peoples |
The Ouachita were a Native American tribe who lived in northeastern Louisiana along the Ouachita River. [1]
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Their name has also been pronounced as Washita by English speakers. The spelling "Ouachita" and pronunciation "Wah-sha-taw" came about as a result of French settlers and their influence. Many landscape features and places have been named for them since colonization of the region by Europeans and Americans.
The Ouachita were loosely affiliated with the Caddo Confederacy. [2] Their traditional homelands were the lower reaches of the Ouachita River [3] in present-day northeastern Louisiana and along the Black River. [4] Around 1690, the tribe is believed to have settled at Pargoud Landing on the Ouachita River. This was later the site of a French trading post, and ultimately the present-day city of Monroe, Louisiana developed around it. [5]
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, a French-Canadian colonizer, encountered the Ouachita people in 1700. He first met members of the tribe transporting salt to the Taensa. Bienville traveled to the principal Ouachita village, which he described as housing 70 people in five houses. [4] The Ouachita assimilated into the Natchitoches tribe by the 1720s. [5] Today's descendants are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.
The Ouachita are known for their traditional practice of burying horses. [5]
The Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma and Arkansas and Ouachita River of Arkansas and Louisiana were named for the tribe, as was Lake Ouachita. The Washita River, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, and Washita County, Oklahoma, were also named for the tribe, [6] as well as the town of Washita, Oklahoma.
According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, the name comes from the French transliteration of the Caddo word washita, meaning "good hunting grounds". [7] Louis R. Harlan claimed that "Ouachita" is composed of the Choctaw words ouac for buffalo and chito for large, together meaning "country of large buffaloes". At one time, herds of buffalo inhabited the lowland areas of the Ouachitas. [8] Historian Muriel H. Wright wrote that "Ouachita" is composed of the Choctaw words owa for hunt and chito for big, together meaning "big hunt far from home". [9]
The Ouachita tribe became known among English speakers as the Washita tribe; both spellings are transliterations in European languages (French and English, respectively) of the pronunciation of their Caddo name. They may also be known as the Yesito. [3]
Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States government for the relocation of Native Americans who held original Indian title to their land as an independent nation-state. The concept of an Indian territory was an outcome of the U.S. federal government's 18th- and 19th-century policy of Indian removal. After the American Civil War (1861–1865), the policy of the U.S. government was one of assimilation.
Washita County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,924. Its county seat is New Cordell. The county seat was formerly located in Cloud Chief. The county was created in 1891.
The Ouachita Mountains, simply referred to as the Ouachitas, are a mountain range in western Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. They are formed by a thick succession of highly deformed Paleozoic strata constituting the Ouachita Fold and Thrust Belt, one of the important orogenic belts of North America. The Ouachitas continue in the subsurface to the northeast, where they make a poorly understood connection with the Appalachians and to the southwest, where they join with the Marathon uplift area of West Texas. Together with the Ozark Plateaus, the Ouachitas form the U.S. Interior Highlands. The highest natural point is Mount Magazine at 2,753 feet (839 m).
The Ouachita River is a 605-mile-long (974 km) river that runs south and east through the U.S. states of Arkansas and Louisiana, joining the Tensas River to form the Black River near Jonesville, Louisiana. It is the 25th-longest river in the United States.
The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language.
The Washita River is a river in the states of Texas and Oklahoma in the United States. The river is 295 miles (475 km) long and terminates at its confluence with the Red River, which is now part of Lake Texoma on the Texas–Oklahoma border.
The Kiamichi River is a river in southeastern Oklahoma, United States of America. A tributary of the Red River of the South, its headwaters rise on Pine Mountain in the Ouachita Mountains near the Arkansas border. From its source in Polk County, Arkansas, it flows approximately 177 miles (285 km) to its confluence with the Red River at Hugo, Oklahoma.
Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, Southeastern cultures, or Southeast Indians are an ethnographic classification for Native Americans who have traditionally inhabited the area now part of the Southeastern United States and the northeastern border of Mexico, that share common cultural traits. This classification is a part of the Eastern Woodlands. The concept of a southeastern cultural region was developed by anthropologists, beginning with Otis Mason and Franz Boas in 1887. The boundaries of the region are defined more by shared cultural traits than by geographic distinctions. Because the cultures gradually instead of abruptly shift into Plains, Prairie, or Northeastern Woodlands cultures, scholars do not always agree on the exact limits of the Southeastern Woodland culture region. Shawnee, Powhatan, Waco, Tawakoni, Tonkawa, Karankawa, Quapaw, and Mosopelea are usually seen as marginally southeastern and their traditional lands represent the borders of the cultural region.
The Kichai tribe was a Native American Southern Plains tribe that lived in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Their name for themselves was K'itaish.
Washita may refer to
Ouachita may refer to:
The Nasoni are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas and southwestern Arkansas.
The Natchitoches are a Native American tribe from Louisiana and Texas. They organized themselves in one of the three Caddo-speaking confederacies along with the Hasinai, and Kadohadacho.
The Kadohadacho are a Native American tribe within the Caddo Confederacy. Today they are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.
The Yatasi were Native American peoples from northwestern Louisiana that were part of the Natchitoches Confederacy of the Caddo Nation. Today they are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.
The Eyeish were a Native American tribe from present-day eastern Texas.
The Nanatsoho were a Native American tribe that lived at the border of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
The Cahinnio were a Native American tribe that lived in Arkansas.
The Tula were a Native American group that lived in what is now western Arkansas. The Tula are known to history only from the chronicles of Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto's exploits in the interior of North America.
