Indians in Louisiana

In the article American Indians in Colonial New Orleans Daniel H. Usner, Jr. establishes that despite popular thought the contrary Indians in colonial America oftern interacted with colonists and settlers on an urburn stage as well as a rural one. He explores the many ways in which Indian tribes encountered the African and European population of the lower Mississippi both in relationships of mutual benefit and through competition and exploitation.1

When settlement first began in southern Louisiana, colonists often took Indians as slaves. Early towns suffered from both a shortage of labor and a shortage of women. Many Indian women became concubines to white men unable to procur Canadian or European wives for themselves, while both Indian women and men were pressed into service as manuel laborers and domestic servants. Indian slavery eventually began to die out, however, as Indians usually made poor and uncooperative slaves. Their intimate knowledge of the surrounding terrain made escape more likely, and white settlers feared that Indians might also incite rebellion or escape amongst African slaves. Disease also decimated the Indian population, and many colonists found Indians more profitable as trading partners than as laborers. Eventually, Africans came to replace Indians as the preferred type of slave. Under Spanish governance, it became illegal to enslave an Indain which led to many claims of Indian ancestry amongst African slaves.2

Colonists also employed Indians for tactical reasons. They often encouraged Indians to relocate their village closer to New Orleans not only to make trade easier but to create a defensive perimeter of allied villages around the capitol. The French recruited Indians to serve as scouts, pickets, and raiders against enemy Indian nations as well the English and Spanish settlements to the east and camps of outlaw Maroons. They also employed Indians as bounty hunters who brought back escaped slaves or soldiers who had deserted and taken refuge in Indian villages or Maroon camps.3

Chiefts commonly made diplomatic trips into New Orleans to meet with government officials. They would come together and smoke the calumet to foster trade and military alliances. Some even came to beg pardon for deserters who had sought refuge in their villages. The exchange of ideas and goods flourished. The Indians introduced the settlers to the growing of corn and taught them about the uses of local plant and animal life. The French even adopted an Indian game known as raquette or toli, which remained the most popular sport in the city of New Orleans until the appearance of baseball. Intermarriage and concubinage also meant that many residents of New Orleans, both white and black, had some Indian ancestry.4

Trade remained the most important relationship between Indians and settlers around New Orleans. With its labor shortage and a population unskilled at farming, early settlements relied on the Indians to supply them with much of their food. Louisiana was not a lucrative place and the little profit that was to be made and often simple survival depended on trade with the Indians. Indian men traded such goods as bear oil and deerskins while women traded baskets, roots, and mats. Indians also helped with the labor shortage by sometimes serving as day laborers. They picked cotton and worked as packhorsemen accaompanying traders, dockworkers, and as crewmen rowing boats. However, trade did have negative effects on the Indians. The demand for deerskins led to overhunting which depleted local deer populations and led to infighting amongst the tribes. They often received alcohol and firearms in exchange for their goods which could lead to addiction and to greater mortality in intertribal warfare. Indians were also subjected the the Code Noir or black code. Under it, they could not carry firearms in New Orleans, congregate, own livestock, trade without special permission, or walk the streets after curfew. In response to incidents of violence caused by drunken soldiers and Indians alike the code also prohibited some taverns from selling them alcohol. 5

New Orleans and southern Louisiana became a very ethnically and culturally diverse place comprised of Eurpeans, Canadians, Indians, and Africans. In this atmosphere, Indians encountered settlers in a variety of ways with both positive and negative results. It is unlikely that settlements in Louisiana would have suceeded without trade with the Indians, and the Indians themselves learned to adapt and take advantage of the emergence of urban centers in the lower Mississippi. While some of their dealings with colonist had detrimental impacts on their civilization, it is a mistake the consider the Indians a passive or purely rural faction in the shaping of Louisiana. They had an active role in determining its character and their own.