by Alana A. Carmon

The earliest documentary records indicate that the Coushatta Tribe originated and resided in the present state of Alabama, near the Tennessee River, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Coushatta, then known as the Koasati, belonged to the southern section of the Muskhogean linguistic group and were members of the Creek Confederacy, a loose association of the Muskogee family of tribes. The Koasati were an agricultural group with their own towns, officials, and distinctive culture. According to DeSoto's sixteenth-century journals, the Koasati were regional traders who also served as guides and liaisons between white explorers and other Indian tribes in the area.

The friendly relations initially forged between whites and neighboring tribes came to a rather tumultuous end in the late 1700s as white settlers began invading Indian territory. With their towns and crops destroyed, the Koasati were forced to leave their home in Tennessee River Country. This uprooting initiated dissonance and conflict among traditionally friendly tribes. The now fragmented Coushatta found new homes in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana.

The first group to enter Louisiana settled along Red River and consisted of approximately 80 to 100 individuals. In 1861, more than 250 Coushatta Indians inhabited the area along the Calcasieu River near Kinder. They relocated in 1884 to Allen Parish, where they reside today. Currently boasting a population of 400 and 685 acres of reservation land in trust, members of the Coushatta community in Allen Parish have retained their identity and pride in their heritage. The entire community speaks the Coushatta language, maintains their individual homesteads, and continues the craft of basket making that is synonymous with the Coushatta.tribe. The Coushatta Indian Tribe of Louisiana obtained federal recognition in June 1973, a year after the Louisiana legislature officially acknowledged them as a tribe. In garnering national recognition, the Coushatta were able to establish their own tribal government and obtain federal programs to assist the Coushatta people in developing their community.