INDIANS OF LOUISIANA SPONSORED BY THE INTER-TRIBAL COUNCIL OF LOUISIANA TABLE OF CONTENTS PREHISTORIC LOUISIANA INDIANS 1. Lithic Period 2. Archaic Period 3. Poverty Point Period—Late Archaic 4. Tchefuncte Period 5. Marksville Period 6. Troyville—Cole Creek Period 7. Plaquemine Period 8. Mississippian Period 9. 1540-Present HISTORIC PERIOD I. ATAKAPA 1. Atakapa 2. Opelousa II. CHITIMACHA 1. Chitimacha 2. Chawasha 3. Taensa (Tensas) 4. Washa (Quacha) III. CHOCTAW 1. Choctaw 2. Jena Band IV. COUSHATTA V. HOUMA 1. Houma 2. Acotapissa 3. Bayogoula 4. Mugulasha 5. Okelousa 6. Quinipissa 7. Tangipahoa VI. KADOHADACHO (CADDO) 1. Caddo 2. Addi (Adai) 3. Doustian 4. Nasoni 5. Natasi 6. Natchitoches 7. Nanatsoho 8. Soacatino (Xacatin) 9. Washita (Ouachita) 10. Yatasi VII. TUNICA 1. Tunica 2. Avoyel 3. Biloxi 4. Grigra (Gris) VIII. INTER-TRIBAL COUNCIL OF LOUISIANA PREHISTORIC LOUISIANA INDIANS _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):