Gazetteer
Housing Units (2000): 823
Land area (2000): 3.349037 sq. miles (8.673965 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.095898 sq. miles (0.248374 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 3.444935 sq. miles (8.922339 sq. km)
FIPS code: 18055
Located within: Louisiana (LA), FIPS 22
Location: 32.023162 N, 93.341775 W
ZIP Codes (1990):
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Coushatta
Wikipedia
The Coushatta (also Koasati in their own language) are a Muskogean-speaking Native American people now living primarily in the U.S. states of Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.
When first encountered by Europeans, they lived in the territory of present-day Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. They were historically closely allied and intermarried with the Alabama people, also members of the Creek Confederacy. Their languages are closely related and mutually intelligible.
Under pressure from Anglo-American colonial settlement after 1763 and the French defeat in the Seven Years' War, they began to move west into Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, which were then under Spanish rule. They became settled in these areas by the early 19th century. Some of the Coushatta and Alabama people were removed west to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in the 1830s under Indian Removal, together with other Muscogee (Creek) peoples.
Today, Coushatta people are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes:
- Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town in Wetumka, Oklahoma
- Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana.
- Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas