The tribe once lived on Grand Lake from Bayou Portage, as that is where the Sacred tree now stands, to the shell beach here in Charenton. That is where they were living when one day a large boat came up from where the sun rises. It stopped out in the lake a distance from shore. The Indians were amazed at its size and stood on shore looking when some men came ashore to see about coming ashore. Since they did not speak the same language, they were chased back to their ship. (They were Spanish.) Next day they decided to come ashore by force, but the night before the chief consulted the medicine man to find out what should he do. The medicine man took some kind of herbs and burnt them and gathered the ashes and told the chief if he would spread the ashes on the shore line, not one would put the foot on land. So it was done by the chief. They tried, but the warriors held them off as the chief stood on the shell knolls with the ashes in hand throwing bits in the air. They Spaniards were so badly defeated, they went off in their ship. The Chitimacha, thinking they had chased them off for good, forgot about them and again were enjoying life like it was. Not too many moons later, the Spaniards came back to the Indians on Bayou de Chittamach (known now as Bayou Lafourche) and gathered the Houma Indian which they had defeated and enslaved to fight the Chitimachas. Somehow they came up Bayou Teche and attacked from that side. While they were fighting the Houma Indians, the Spaniards came and landed on the lake side, which is known now as the Shell Beach and attacked from that side. The Chitimacha did not have a chance. Thousands were killed and wounded and nothing to eat. We had to give up. The enemy told the few remaining Chitimachas, “This is what we will give you. You may remain here on this bayou and live. No harm will come to you, but any Indian caught in the woods or lakeshore will be shot on sight.” This parcel of land we now hold is the very same place that they were talking about. We have no record of what happened to the Houmas that survived the war. Perhaps the Spaniards took them home or they remained here and intermixed with us. I do not know. Hunting along the Bayou Teche was not so very good, so the Indians had to eat whatever they could find such as acorns, wild fruit, and some grass was edible until they could grow some vegetables. Then life became more bearable. Now that is the way I heard, true or not. I do know that the Houma Indians were hated by all the old Indians as late as the twenties. Few Houma Indians came over and were not received by the old Indians with the exception of two women. I will cover them later. After the Spaniards settled, they had their first governor by the name of Galvez. The year 1763, Galvez signed a treaty with the Chitimachas for living so peaceful. He granted them 1100 acres of land on both sides of Bayou Teche.