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Akokisa

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Location of the San Jacinto river

The Akokisa were the indigenous tribe that lived on Galveston Bay and the lower Trinity and San Jacinto rivers in Texas. They are regarded as a band of the Atakapa Indians, closely related to the Atakapa of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Language

The Akokisa language is extinct and virtually unknown.

Swanton claimed that the Akokisa spoke a language related to Atakapa based on the similarity of a vocabulary of 45 words ascribed to the Akokisa collected by Captain Jean Béranger in 1721 on Galveston. However, there is no clear evidence that this document actually represents the language of Akokisa (Béranger provides a tribal designation for the vocabulary).

Sibley also reported that they had their own language "peculiar to themselves" and used sign language to communicate with other Indians (also reported for other peoples in eastern Texas). He did not connect them with the Atakapa.

Only two Akokisa words have been found in Spanish records: Yegsa meaning "Spaniard(s)" and Quiselpoo, a female name.

Notes

  1. Campbell, Thomas N. "Akokisa Indians." The Handbook of Texas Online. (retrieved 2009-1-13)
  2. Swanton, John R. The Indian Tribes of North America. Smithsonian Institute, Bureau of Ethnology, Bulletin 145. 1953: 198

Bibliography

  • Bolton, Herbert E. (1915). Texas in the middle eighteenth century: Studies in Spanish colonial history and administration. University of California publications in history (No. 3). Berkeley: University of California.
  • Folmer, Henri. (1940). De Bellisle on the Texas coast. Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 44 (2), 204-231.
  • Gatschet, Albert S.; & Swanton, John R. (1932). A dictionary of the Atakapa language, accompanied by text material. Bureau of American Ethnology bulletin (No. 108). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
  • Goddard, Ives. (2005). The indigenous languages of the Southeast. Anthroplogical Linguistics, 47 (1), 1-60.
  • Margry, Pierre (Ed.). (1879-1888). Découvertes et établissements des Français dans l'ouest et dans le sud de l'Amérique Septentrionale (1614-1754) (Vol. 6, pp. 320-347). Paris: Maison-neuve et Cie. (Reprinted 1974 by AMS Press).
  • Martin, Jack. (2004). Languages. In R. D. Fogelson (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast (Vol. 14, pp. 68-86). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
  • Newcomb, William W., Jr. (2004). Atakapans and neighboring groups. In R. D. Fogelson (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast (Vol. 14, pp. 659-663). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
  • Sibley, John. (1806). Historical sketches of the several Indian tribes in Louisiana, south of the Arkansa river, and between the Mississippi and River Grand . In T. Jefferson (Ed.), Message from the President of the United States communicating the discoveries made in exploring the Missouri, Red River, and Washita (p. 48-62). New York: G. F. Hopkins.
  • Swanton, John R. (1911). Indian tribes of the lower Mississippi valley and adjacent coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology bulletin (No. 43). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
  • Villiers du Terrage, Marc de; & Rivet, Paul. (1919). Les indiens du Texas et les expéditions françaises de 1720 et 1721 à la 'Baie Saint-Bernard'. Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris, 14, 127-149.
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