Coushatta Tribe shares culture, heritage with students
By Doris Maricle
ELTON — Members of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana visited Elton High School on Wednesday to share their culture and history with the nearly 500 students as part of Native American Month.
“We want them to have an awareness that there is a Native American tribe just three miles down the road even though it is not broadcast to the world as such,” tribal member Bertney Langley said. “We are everyday people. We still have our culture and traditions that we practice as a tribe.”
As part of the presentation members of the Coushatta Tribe — many in full, colorful regalia — provided demonstrations of cultural activities such as dancing, basketmaking and cooking, as well as lessons on tribal history and language.
“This is a unique and special learning experience for our students,” Principal Danielle Simien said. “We are lucky to have this opportunity for members of a thriving Native American tribe to come teach about their culture in such a direct and entertaining way.”
There were demonstrations of traditional stomp, corn/ basket and social dances, as well as a lesson on how to cook the tribe’s traditional corn soup, chawahki. Students sampled the soup, which tribal members prepared in a hollowed-out log after “pounding” the corn, Langley said.
“It may taste strange to them because it is not what they are used to, but we want them to at least sample it,” he said.
The students found the soup bland, but many ate it anyway.
Crystal Williams said corn plays a vital role in the tribe’s history.
“We have always been dependent on corn,” she said. “A long time ago that was our main source of food.”
The students also learned about the tribe’s language, Koasati, and the significance of certain symbols and colors to the tribe. The language is not spoken by any other tribe and has never been written, Leland Thompson said.
“It was always an oral language taught in the home by our elders, and it has been passed on from generation to generation,” he said.
Volunteers are working to adapt the language into written form and have created a Koasati alphabet, he said.
Langley and Thompson both went to school without knowing how to speak English.
Langley opened the program saying a prayer in his native language. Coushatta Junior Princess Leigh-Anne Thompson led the group in a pledge to the Coushatta flag in the Koasati language, and Aniyah Williams sang “Amazing Grace” in both English and Koasati.
Arvellia Battiste said it is important that the youth learn more about the Coushatta and their customs, particularly their language and dances. “It’s an old tradition that is practically lost,” she said. “We need to educate these young people so they won’t loss it.”
Coushatta Tribal Council member David Sickey said the tribe hopes to make the Heritage Day an annual event and expand on it in the future to continue to educate the next generation of youth.
“This allows us to tell our rich story and allows the local community a unique opportunity to learn more about the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana,” Sickey said.
The one thing he hopes the students took away from the event is “perseverance” and the tribe’s remarkable story of survival, he said.
Thompson said the Coushatta Tribe has been in Louisiana for 200 years after moving from the lower part of the Tennessee River Valley during the French and Indian War.
It was officially recognized by the federal government in 1973 and marked a major turning point in its history in 1985 with the election of its first tribal government.
Doris Maricle / American Press
Robin Langley performs a women’s fancy dance Wednesday during a Coushatta Tribe of Loui siana Heritage Day at Elton High School. The dance is a spiritual dance that resembles a but ter•y in motion.
Doris Maricle / American Press
Dane William performs a traditional men’s fancy dance Wednesday during a Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana Heritage Day at Elton High School.