The head chief, sub-chiefs, sub-administrators and war leaders were entrenched by the rules of a rigidly stratified society. The Chitimacha were the only southeastern tribe with a true caste system. The leaders and their respective families comprised the “noble class”; all others belonged to the “commoner” class. Noblemen addressed commoners in popular language, but commoners spoke to noblemen only in terms that were used solely for that purpose. With rare exceptions, noblemen married only noblemen because the husband joined the clan of the wife, therefore he would become a commoner. A nobleman was inclined to remain unwed if no woman of his class was free to marry. Religious affairs were controlled by Holy Men (and assistants who were to succeed them after their deaths). Holy Men were in charge of the sacred ceremonies of their respective clans. They had the responsibility of perpetuating the ancient parables and stories of miraculous events which embodied the moral codes of their villages, and which contained beliefs concerning man’s kinship to nature and to nature’s creatures. The Chitimacha men wore long hair, weighted with pieces of lead to hold their heads erect. They wore necklaces, bracelets and rings made of copper, gold and silver. Women wore their hair in braids, used makeup of red and white dyes, and wore bracelets, earrings and finger rings. Their aesthetic appreciation is revealed in their manufacture of objects from shells and stones and in their excellent baskets. Basket-makers gathered swamp cane, split it into strands then dyed it either black or yellow or red, and let it dry. When the strands were completely dry they wove them into baskets in two layers, in such a way as to produce symbolic designs on the exterior walls. Their first contact with Europeans in 1699. Between 1701 and 1705 war broke out after a party of French soldiers reinforced by Acolapissa and Natchitoches Indians took twenty Chitimacha women and children prisoner. In retaliation, Chitimacha warriors killed French missionary, St. Cosme, and his 3 companions in a battle near the Mississippi River. When news of the incident reached New Orleans the governor of the new French colony declared war. When peace finally came thirteen years later many Chitimacha had been killed, displaced, or enslaved. This mighty Chitimacha nation was not only reduced in population; it had lost its power and political importance among the southern Louisiana tribes. In 1762 another important milestone in Chitimacha history occurred. The Acadians from Nova Scotia began to arrive at New Orleans and move out along the bayous to escape persecution from British colonial authorities. These cajun French people married Chitimachas and within a century full bloods became scarce. The Chitimachas began to speak “cajun French” instead of their own language. Many converted to the Roman Catholic religion.