[Note: This is a single part of what will be, by my classification, about 240 compact tribal histories (contact to 1900). It is limited to the lower 48 states of the U.S. but also includes those First Nations from Canada and Mexico that had important roles (Huron, Micmac, Assiniboine, etc.).

This history's content and style are representative. The normal process at this point is to circulate an almost finished product among a peer group for comment and criticism. At the end of this History you will find links to those Nations referred to in the History of the Bayougoula.

Using the Internet, this can be more inclusive. Feel free to comment or suggest corrections via e-mail. Working together we can end some of the historical misinformation about Native Americans. You will find the ego at this end to be of standard size. Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to your comments... Lee Sultzman.

West side of the Mississippi at Bayougoula in Iberville Parish, Louisiana.

Taking into account the horrific drop in the native populations of the region after 1540, an estimate of 3,000 Bayougoula in 1650 appears reasonable. In 1699 Iberville said that the Bayougoula and Mugulasha together had about 250 warriors (1,250 total). However, both tribes had just been hit by epidemics which had killed almost half of them. War and another epidemic occurred that winter, followed by the Bayougoula's massacre of the Mugulasha in May. The Bayougoula numbered only 500 when the Taensa moved in with them in 1706. However, this time it was the Bayougoula who were murdered. Only half managed to escape and resettle downstream with the Acolapissa. The last separate enumeration taken by the French in 1715, just before the disappearance of the Bayougoula into the Houma, listed them with 40 warriors (200 people).

Bayougoula is a Choctaw word meaning "bayou people" alluding to their location near the Mississippi River. Their name for themselves was "Ischenoca" which translates approximately as "our people."

Muskogean - very similar to Houma, Choctaw and Chickasaw.

Mugulasha - (Mougulasha, Muglahsa, Muglasha, Muguasha), a French corruption of "Imongolosha" meaning the "people of the other side." The Mugulasha, however, were living among the Bayougoula under an assumed name in 1699 to disguise their presence from the French. They were previously known as the Quinipissa, a tribe that greeted La Salle with a shower of arrows during his voyage down the Mississippi in 1682.

Before European contact, the Bayougoula and Mugulasha were the only tribes that spoke a Choctaw dialect of the Muskogean language family that lived west of the Mississippi River. However, with the exception of their being from the "wrong side of the river," the Bayougoula were quite similar to their cousins on the opposite side. Since their tribal totem was the alligator (an animal unique to the lower Mississippi), they obviously had been there for a long time before their meeting with the French. They also exhibited many traits from the Mississippian culture which had dominated the entire region before 1540. Their housing was circular in shape and used the wattle-and-daub construction (thatched roof) typical of the area. At the time of their first meeting in 1699, the French noted that the Bayougoula were still building large earthen platform mounds on top of which they placed their important public buildings - the chief's house a large (30' diameter) temple for religious ceremonies. The temple also contained sacred objects and an eternal fire kept burning by the village priest.

The swampy nature of the area made burial undesirable, so the Bayougoula placed their dead on high platforms to protect them from animals during decomposition. Once this was complete, the bones were placed in a tribal ossuary (bone house). Hunting, using fire to drive the animals into the open, was important with buffalo, turkey, deer, and alligator, and fish being the major prey. However, the bulk of the Bayougoula diet was provided by their agriculture: corn, bean, squash, melons, sunflowers, and tobacco. Fields were relatively small, but the long growing season of the region allowed them to harvest two to three crops from the same field. Dogs were the only animal domesticated by Native Americans before the horse, but the Bayougoula in 1699 kept small flocks of turkeys. The tribes of the lower Mississippi were also unique in that tribal territories were well defined. Decorated with fish heads and bear bones, a large red post near the mouth of the Red River marked the boundary between the Bayougoula and the Houma just to the north. Translated into French, the location of this "Red Post" became known as Baton Rouge, the present-day capital of Louisiana.

Trying to break free of the interior and reach the Gulf of Mexico, the small fleet containing the battered remnants of the De Soto expedition floated past the future site of the Bayougoula village in 1543. However, just a short distance upstream, the Spanish had just been forced to fight their way past the warriors of the Natchez chiefdom, and if they saw any native villages in the area, they made no mention of them. No other Europeans visited the area until Robert La Salle and Henri Tonti came down the river from the Illinois country in 1682 to locate the mouth of the Mississippi. Although La Salle visited briefly with the Natchez and recorded the location of the Houma on the east bank immediately to the north, he made no mention of the Bayougoula being on the west side of the river. Downstream, however, just above the present site of New Orleans, the French attempt to use the calumet (the universal symbol of peaceful intentions along the lower river) to meet with the Quinipissa was greeted with hostility and a shower of arrows. French firearms kept the Quinipissa warriors who followed them at bay, and La Salle proceeded downstream to the Gulf of Mexico, where on April 9th, 1682 he claimed the Mississippi River and all the lands drained by it for France. In honor of his king, La Salle named his "new discovery" Louisiana.

Unaware that they had just become the subjects of Louis XIV, the Quinipissa proved almost as unfriendly on the French return upstream as they had been earlier. Ignoring their previous encounter, La Salle stopped to buy food but found the village almost entirely deserted since the warriors had taken to the woods with the women and children when they saw the French approach. La Salle finally located the chief and presented him with a blue serge coat. The chief was willing to talk, by the warriors were lurking nearby and making hostile displays which kept the French close to their guns. Finally the Quinipissa chief suggested that it would best if the French left. La Salle agreed and thereby avoided another confrontation. The remainder of the return to Illinois proved uneventful, and La Salle had added a vast new region to the French Empire. However, French authorities in Canada were preoccupied at the time with a major war in the Great Lakes with the Iroquois and displayed little interest in the Mississippi Valley.

Realizing that Spain claimed the same area, La Salle could not afford to wait for the conclusion of the war with the Iroquois. Leaving Tonti in charge in Illinois, he returned to France to gather support for his plan to create a French colony on the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi. Although there was concern of a new war against Great Britain and Spain (King William's War 1688-97), the idea of annoying his Spanish enemies appealed to Louis XIV, and permission was given. La Salle sailed from France in 1684 but, through a gross navigational error, missed the enormous delta at the mouth of the Mississippi and landed at Matagorda Bay on the Texas coast, 400 miles to the west. Meanwhile, Tonti came downstream from Illinois in 1685 expecting to rendezvous with La Salle at the mouth of the Mississippi. Tonti waited until April, 1686 when his supplies were exhausted, but La Salle never came.

Meanwhile, Tonti had used the time to establish friendly relations with the Quinipissa and before returning to Illinois, he left a letter for La Salle and glass bottle with their chief in case he arrived later. La Salle never read it. When the Texas colony began to flounder, he attempted to reach help by travelling overland to the Mississippi. In March, 1687 La Salle was killed by his own men on the plains of eastern Texas. Tonti did not learn of this until a year later, but he immediately departed Illinois to rescue the survivors. He stopped at the Taensa villages, which were well north of the Bayougoula and Quinipissa, to journey overland to Texas. Unfortunately, all of his efforts were in vain, since the Karankawa had already massacred the remainder of La Salle's colony at Matagorda Bay.

Nothing much happened after this until the end of the King William's War in 1697. France emerged from that conflict as the dominant power in North America, but another European war (Queen Anne's War 1710-13) was already looming on the horizon. The major difference was that France and Spain were now allies against Great Britain, and the Spanish could no longer afford to oppose the establishment of a French colony on the Gulf coast. They did, however, build a new fort at Pensacola in 1698 to protect their claim to the region. Responsibility for fulfilling La Salle's dream was entrusted to Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, a military hero from the King William's War. Iberville sailed from France with a small fleet in late 1698 and, after failing to negotiate the maze of the Mississippi delta, decided in February 10th, 1699 to land instead to the east at Biloxi (Mississippi). The French immediately found the area had changed drastically since Tonti's last visit in 1686.

British traders from Charleston, South Carolina had reached the Chickasaw villages in northern Mississippi in 1685, and during the next five years their visits had become routine. Aside from the usual trade in deerskins, the British were interested in Native American slaves for their plantations in the Carolinas and West Indies, and they had provided firearms to the Chickasaw to assist them in obtaining this "merchandise." As a result, Chickasaw slave raiders were terrorizing every tribe in the region, while at the same time, a new wave of epidemics was sweeping through the native populations with devastating effect. By the time the French landed at Biloxi, signs of death and destruction were everywhere in the form of abandoned and destroyed villages. Because they associated a white face with enslavement, the tribes in the area were difficult to meet and often hostile. Iberville was becoming concerned when his brother, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne d'Bienville, stumbled upon a group of Bayougoula and Mugulasha hunting in the area for buffalo and turkey.

Unlike the other natives that the French had encountered so far, the Bayougoula were immediately friendly. When their chief saw Iberville's birchbark canoe, he inquired if the French were the same white men who had come down the river from the north and was pleased to learn that they were. A calumet ceremony of welcome followed, and the next day the Bayougoula chief drew maps of the area for Iberville, while explaining that he would have to continue his hunt but would meet with the French in a few days. However, the appointment was not kept. Just as Iberville was about to give up on them, a Manchac (Biloxi) warrior arrived on March 7th bringing a message from the Bayougoula explaining that they had returned to their village, and the French could visit them there. The Biloxi guided Iberville's party (including Father Anatasius Douay and his brothers, Sauvole and Bienville) west to the Bayougoula village on the Mississippi River.

When they arrived, the French were welcomed by two chiefs - one speaking for the Bayougoula and the other for the Mugulasha who were living with them. Smallpox had just struck the village killing a quarter of its residents, and the evidence of its terrible passage was very apparent. The dead had been placed on nearby scaffolds, and the stench of death permeated the entire village. Iberville, however, wished to confirm that the Mississippi was the same river that La Salle had followed to the Gulf in 1682. Since there had been no mention of either the Bayougoula or Mugulasha by La Salle or Tonti, he inquired about the Quinipissa, but both chiefs replied that they had never heard of them. Despite their friendly reception, the French became suspicious when they learned that the Mugulasha chief not only had the same name as the Quinipissa chief met by La Salle and Tonti, but he also still had La Salle's blue serge coat. Further doubts arose when the Tonti's glass bottle was found inside the Bayougoula temple.

Iberville was certain that the Bayougoula and Mugulasha chiefs were hiding something, but he also wanted to meet with other tribes along the river. The Bayougoula offered to guide them to the Houma immediately upstream, a generous offer since the two tribes were not entirely friendly with one another. Enroute near the mouth of the Red River, Iberville was shown the famous red pole (Baton Rouge) which marked the boundary between the Houma and Bayougoula territories. The Houma welcomed the French with a calumet ceremony and singing, but were more forthcoming about the Quinipissa, and openly acknowledged that they had some of them living with them. However, they did not have Tonti's letter which Iberville needed to prove that he was indeed on the same river as La Salle had been when he claimed Louisiana for France. After leaving the Houma, the French proceeded farther upstream before dividing into three groups to explore the area on their return.

Enroute to his base at Biloxi, Iberville managed to meet and conclude a treaty of peace with the Chitamacha. However, Sauvole's party was running low on provisions and decided to stop at the Bayougoula village to purchase food. In the midst of negotiations, Father Douay noticed that his religious equipment was missing and insulted the Bayougoula chief by accusing his people of stealing it. The other French tried to silence him, but the uproar created forced them to leave empty-handed. Bienville stopped a little later and was able to smooth the bad feelings. Anxious to do their part in making amends, the Bayougoula presented him with Tonti's letter to La Salle which up to this point they had kept secret. Upon his return to Biloxi, Iberville decided that it was a suitable location and ordered the construction of Fort Maurepas. With the work underway, he left his brother Sauvole in charge and returned to France to make his report and secure more supplies.

He returned in January, 1700. A few days afterwards, Tonti arrived with his Canadians from the Illinois country, and the noose began to tighten around the Bayougoula's attempt to disguise the Mugulasha. Meanwhile, Bienville had alarming news. During his exploration of the lower Mississippi the previous September, he had discovered a British ship that somehow had managed to thread its way through the delta and was slowly making its way up the Mississippi 70 miles from the Gulf. When Bienville had informed its captain that the area was claimed by France, he was told of the British plan to colonize the lower Mississippi with French Huguenots. Iberville realized that something had to be done, and when the Bayougoula chief visited Biloxi shortly afterwards, the French convinced him to sell them some land 40 miles above the mouth for a fort to block British access to the river. Construction of Fort Mississippi began immediately afterwards but was hampered by a highly contagious dysentery which had broken out among the French colonists.

Iberville also made plans to explore the Red River. In the spring he sent Bienville and Louis Juchereau de St. Denis ahead to the Taensa villages to obtain guides and supplies for the overland journey to the Caddo villages near Natchitoches. Iberville followed but stopped first at the Bayougoula village where he purchased a field from the Mugulasha and had it sown with wheat to supply the colonists at Biloxi. He also learned that the winter had been hard on the Bayougoula. The same dysentery that was bothering the French had spread to the tribes in the region with far more deadly results. The French, however, could not cure themselves ...much less the natives. Of more immediate concern was a war that had erupted between the Bayougoula and the Houma and their Taensa allies. Although the Bayougoula had apparently started the war, a Houma surprise attack had captured many of their women and children. Iberville left a young French boy with the Bayougoula to learn their language and proceeded to the Houma where he was able to arrange a truce. After visiting the Natchez, he joined Bienville and St. Denis at the Taensa villages, but by this time, his knees were bothering him so much that he was forced to return to Biloxi.

Bienville and St. Dennis were sent on alone to the Caddo at Natchitoches and beyond, but on their return, they chose to follow the Red River. The swamps made this route especially arduous, and their guides deserted them. Bienville finally reached the Bayougoula only to learn that during his brief absence a tragedy had occurred. The French boy left with the Bayougoula had learned that just before the French arrived, most of the Quinipissa had died from an epidemic. The survivors had abandoned their village with a few families joining the Houma. The majority, including their chief, moved in with the Bayougoula and became the Mugulasha. Realizing their ruse was discovered, it appears that the Bayougoula decided the Mugulasha had become a liability in their relations with the French and massacred them. The victims included the Mugulasha women and children which was contrary to the custom in the region where conquerors killed the men but spared the women and children for adoption into their tribe.

The French accepted the outcome, but Iberville now began to pressure the Bayougoula to give him all of the lands belonging to the Mugulasha--lands based on his purchase of that single wheat field. Facing the possibility of having to surrender some of their land to the French, the Bayougoula, without the Mugulasha, were also more susceptible to raids by Chickasaw and desperately needed to find someone to take the place of the Mugulasha. They invited several families of the Acolapissa and Tioux, but for some strange reason, no one was interested. The Chickasaw threat subsided after Iberville was able to alternately threaten and bribe their chiefs into signing a peace treaty at Mobile in 1702. Unfortunately, British traders remained active and were able to convince the Chickasaw to renew their slave raids. With the onset of the Queen Anne's War (1701-13), Iberville returned to France for military service but died from yellow fever contracted while leading an attack on the British in the West Indies. This placed Bienville in charge in Louisiana, and when the Chickasaw resumed their attacks in 1705, he honored his brother's pledge at Mobile and provided firearms to their enemies. However, the French were unable to arm their allies nearly as well as the British had done with the Chickasaw.

Threatened by both the Chickasaw and Yazoo, the Taensa abandoned their villages in northeastern Louisiana during the spring of 1706 and accepted the Bayougoula's offer to settle with them. Only six years had passed since the Mugulasha massacre, and the Taensa were not willing to risk becoming the next victims. Shortly after their arrival, they attacked their hosts and killed most of them. About 200 Bayougoula eluded the slaughter and fled downstream to the Acolapissa where they settled at a point just above the future site of New Orleans. Soon afterwards, they were joined by the Houma who had taken in the Tunica under similar circumstances and suffered in like manner. All three tribes soon joined in an alliance, a bond further strengthened through service to the French during their long war with the Chitamacha (1707-18). Meanwhile, based on Iberville's purchase of that Mugulasha wheat field, the French were now ready to claim the Bayougoula lands as well.

Unwilling to offend the French, the Taensa were forced to move again. They could not, however, return to their former villages because of the Chickasaw, so they shifted farther south. Unfortunately, this placed them very close to the alliance of the Acolapissa, Bayougoula, and Houma. After several anxious years waiting for the inevitable retaliation, the Taensa left the area in 1715 and moved east to Mobile. The alliance of the Acolapissa, Bayougoula, and Houma grew even closer after their departure and was the most important French ally in the vicinity when New Orleans was founded in 1718. However, the influx of colonists into the area brought a new wave of epidemics. Smallpox killed than half of the Acolapissa, Bayougoula, and Houma in 1721. Alcohol also took its toll, and the pressure from expanding French settlements near New Orleans soon forced the three allied tribes upstream to Ascension Parish shortly afterwards. Although they still maintained separate villages and chiefs in 1739, it was more pretense than reality. By this time, the French no longer bothered with separate counts for each tribe and began referring to the 500 that remained as the Houma.