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The Akokisa were a people that lived on Galveston Bay and the lower Trinity and San Jacinto rivers in Texas. John Sibley in 1805 reported that they previously lived near Matagorda Bay on the west bank of the Colorado River in ancient times.
The first reported encounter with the Akokisa by a European person was in 1719 when Simars de Bellisle, a French officer, was held captive by the Akokisa until 1721. His account of his captivity provides some information about Akokisa culture.
Name
The name Akokisa is of unknown origin, although John R. Swanton has speculated that the name may be from the Atakapa word icāk meaning "person". The Akokisa have also been known by the following names (and spellings): Accockesaws, Accokesaus, Accokesaws, Aco-ke-sas, Arkokisa, Horcoquisa, Ocosaus, Orcoquisa(s), Orcoquisacs, Orcoquizas.
Culture
Around the 1750s the Akokisa were divided into five village groups. In 1947, Orobio counted about 300 families for each village, an estimated total between 1,200-1,250.
They decorated their bodies and faces with tattoos.
The Akokisa, like the Atakapa, practiced cannibalism, which may have been connected to their religious beliefs.
Black drink was used to induce vomiting in certain ceremonies.
They are reported to have grown "superfine" maize. During warm seasons they ate bird eggs, fish, shellfish, and American lotus rhizomes and seeds; during cold seasons they moved further inland and hunted deer, bear, and buffalo. Horses were used to hunt buffalo. Tanned deer hides and bear fat were their primary commercial exports.
Almost nothing is known about their kinship systems, life cycle, or marriage customs.
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.
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.