by Alana A. Carmon

Numbering approximately 200 in 1699, the Opelousas (sometimes rendered Opelousa) Indians were a small tribe inhabiting present-day St. Landry Parish. According to legend, the term Opelousas, which means "black hair or black skull," was derived from two lakes near the area they occupied. The lakes evidently appeared black from the excessive quantity of leaves along the lakeshores.

Considerable linguistic evidence indicates that the Opelousas group was closely allied with the Attakapas (Attakapa) and possibly even a member of the Attakapan assembly of tribes. The Opelousa understood the Attakapas and the language of the Opelousas is deemed to have been nothing more than an Attakapas dialect, but the Opelousas Indians' language unfortunately has not survived.

The tribe also did not survive. By 1814, the Opelousas were reduced to only twenty warriors as a result of the introduction of smallpox and typhus. The surviving Opelousas retreated in the face an antebellum influx of whites and the Muskhogean Indians from east of the Mississippi invaded their territory. The name of the Opelousas Indians, however, persists, for the St. Landry parish seat of justice bears their name.