CHITIMACHA NOTEBOOK Writings of Emile Stouff—A Chitimacha Chief Edited by Marcia Gaudet [Illustration: Basket pattern] Lafayette Natural History Museum and Planetarium Lafayette, Louisiana 1986 [Illustration: Page facsimile] [Illustration: Page facsimile] [Illustration: Emile Stouff, Chief of the Chitimachas] [Illustration: Chitimacha Chief Benjamin Paul and the Chitimacha children are pictured with a pirogue near the Chitimacha reservation in Charenton. The little girl is Jane Bernard Wilson, the boy in the center is Arthur Darden, and the boy sitting in the pirogue is Gabriel Darden. (M.R. Harrington, 1908. Photo courtesy of Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation)] TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction 3 II. The Chitimacha Story of Creation 5 III. History of the Chitimacha Indians 11 IV. Previous Publications about the Chitimachas 15 LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS I. Chitimacha Chief Benjamin Paul with children and canoe facing page 1 II. Chitimacha family—Regis Darden 2 III. Chitimacha group—1908 4 IV. Three members of a Chitimacha family 10 [Illustration: The Regis Darden Chitimacha family. Pictured from left to right are Lucy Mora Darden, Delphine Stouff (in back), Adelle Darden, Gaston Darden, Regis Darden (in back), and Stacy Darden. Adelle Darden, wife of Regis Darden, was known as “Gum DaDa.” Lucy Mora Darden was the wife of Gaston Darden. Chitimacha baskets are pictured in front of the group. Basket weaving is a traditional craft of the Chitimacha Indians. (M.R. Harrington, 1908. Photo courtesy of Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation)] INTRODUCTION Emile Stouff was Chief of the Chitimachas of Charenton, Louisiana, from 1948 to 1968. After Chief Stouff died in 1978, his widow, Faye Roger Stouff, discovered two notebooks in which he had recorded some of the things about the Chitimachas that he had learned from oral tradition. The two manuscripts were written in Emile Stouff’s handwriting. Though Chief Stouff had no formal education, Mrs. Stouff, who is not a Native American, taught him to read and write after they were married and she came to live with him on the Chitimacha land.