[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 108 (Wednesday, June 27, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4502-S4503]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




45TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNITED STATES RERECOGNIZING THE COUSHATTA TRIBE 
                              OF LOUISIANA

  Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, along with Senator Kennedy, I wish to 
talk about the Coushatta Tribe. The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana is 
descended from a large, powerful sovereign nation of Coushatta--
Koasati--people who lived prosperously and peaceably for thousands of 
years in what is now the southeastern United States. The principal 
Coushatta--Koasati--villages were located on islands in the Tennessee 
River, in what is now south central Tennessee, which is where the Tribe 
was living when they first encountered the European explorer Hernando 
DeSoto in 1540.
  Koasati oral tradition also holds that they were always the most 
northerly of the Muskogean-speaking peoples. Tribal elders say that 
their villages were ``abon, fallami-fa'' which literally means ``above, 
to the north.'' They believe that their tribal name comes from ``Kowi 
iisa-fa aati-ha,'' which is literally translated as ``the people from 
[the lands] where the big cats live.'' Some elders believe that the 
name Coosa given by the Spanish to the affiliated group of villages, 
what is now called the Coosa chiefdom, was actually pronounced 
``Kohosa'' and thus the people were called ``Kohosa Aati,'' literally 
translated as the people--of Kohosa. Numerous period maps support these 
oral traditions, identifying these islands as ``Cosauda''--Koasati, 
Coushatta, or some other spelling of the Tribe's name. These include 
the Franquelin map of 1684, the 1711 Crisp et. al. map, and the 1720 
Moll map.
  When the Coushatta--Koasati--were moving southward from their 
villages on the Tennessee River in October 1686, they encountered the 
Spanish explorer Marcus Delgado. They explained to him that the two 
major reasons for their move were drought and aggression from the 
neighboring tribe of ``Chalaques''--Cherokees.
  The Coushatta--Koasati--initially settled in villages in the 
Guntersville Basin area of what is now northern Alabama, then moved a 
little further south to be allied with the political organization that 
became known as the Creek Confederacy. The present-day town of Coosada, 
AL is named for the Coushatta who lived in nearby villages.
  The Coushattas entered into several treaties with the United States, 
starting with the Treaty of New York in 1790, signed for the Koasati by 
Alexander McGillivray and Chiefs Hopoy, Muthtee, and Stimafutchkee, and 
the Creek Treaty of August 9, 1814, which was signed by Nomatlee 
Emautla--Captain Isaacs--of Cousoudee--Coushatta, Koasati.
  When the Creek chiefs negotiated their boundary lines with the United 
States in 1814, they stated that their northernmost boundary should 
stretch to ``Cosauda Island in the Tennessee River.'' This is a clear 
indication that the Koasati people considered these lands in what is 
now Tennessee as their homelands, never renounced them, and that this 
claim was widely known and accepted by all of the Tribes. The 
transcribed text from the papers of the War Dept. is as follows:

       We, the undersigned head men of the Creek nation, convened 
     [on behalf of] General John Coffee, and the Confederated 
     nations to adjust the line designated by the Treaty of Fort 
     Jackson, and all [-] connected treaties [-] etc.--that the 
     lines between the Cherokee nation and that part of the Creek 
     nation added to the United States by the aforesaid Treaty 
     ought, by right, to begin at the junction of the Eastern [-] 
     with the Hightower [Etowah] river and continue from thence to 
     the old Cosauda [Coushatta, Koasati] village on Cosauda 
     Island in the Tennessee river.

  In 1797, the great Coushatta Chief Red Shoes is said to have had a 
devastating vision of the coming Creek Wars, causing him to encourage 
about half of the Coushatta people to begin migrating westward. 
Numerous additional groups followed over the next 30 years. By the time 
of the Creek removals, the Coushatta--Koasati--people had split into 
three major groups: the present-day Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, 
Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, and Alabama-Quassarte Tribal town in 
Oklahoma.
  As a result of Red Shoes' leadership, the Coushatta--Koasati--
relocated to Spanish territories in Louisiana and Texas. By careful 
diplomacy, they were able to remain culturally, linguistically, and 
politically autonomous.
  In an 1805 report to Congress, Agent John Sibley, appointed in 1804 
as an Indian Agent for the Territory of Orleans, reported that he had 
told Red Shoes and ``Pia Mingo''--Grass Chief-- ``the two Conchetta 
Chiefs,'' that ``their great Father the President considered all the 
Red people as his Children, and he would not suffer any wrong to be 
done them without giving them just & legal satisfaction.''
  After living in villages along the Trinity River during the Civil War 
and Texas fight for statehood, the Coushattas returned to Louisiana to 
live in villages near the present-day town of Indian Village, near 
Kinder, LA. Existing laws allowed the tribe to get homestead lands 
along Bayou Blue, three miles north of Elton, LA.
  On February 9, 1898, the United States issued an Indian trust patent 
for 160 acres to Sissy Robinson Alabama, a Coushatta woman. The land 
patent explicitly provides that the Robinson patent was granted under 
the Indian Homestead Act.
  In 1933, the trust was divided under bureau supervision and the two 
parcels were held in trust for the heirs of Sissy Robinson Alabama 
until June 11, 1953, when fee patents were issued to the heirs. Thus, 
the Federal Government exercised jurisdiction over Coushatta trust 
lands from 1898 through 1953.
  In addition, according to a report to the Division of Investigations, 
dated March 14, 1941, 38 homesteads were granted by the General Land 
Office to members of the ``Koasati Tribe living in the vicinity of 
Elton, Louisiana'' between 1862-1941. The report concludes that, of the 
38 homesteads, only two were granted in accordance ``with applicable 
law,'' i.e., under the Indian Homestead Act. The two correctly issued 
patents were, apparently, the Robinson patent, issued under the Indian 
Homestead Act, and another patent issued under the same act for the 
benefit of another member of the Coushatta Tribe.
  On September 2, 1919, an attorney from Alexandria, LA, wrote to the 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs on behalf of the Coushatta Tribe, asking 
for ``allotted Indian lands.'' The letter reached U.S. Representative 
James B. Aswell of Louisiana's Eighth District, who in 1920 asked Mr. 
Cato Sells, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to provide him with the 
information sought by the Tribe.
  On December 20, 1919, Frank E. Brandon, Special Supervisor of the 
United States Indian Service, issued a report to the Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs describing the Indian groups in Louisiana. The report 
describes the Coushatta Tribe's land predicament as follows:

       There is approximately 1050 acres of land owned by the 
     Indians divided among various families in tracts ranging from 
     ten to two hundred acres which was acquired by them under the 
     homestead laws. Originally they were induced to make such 
     entries by timber companies who later purchased the timber 
     from the Indians leaving the Indians a title to cut-over land 
     of little value for agricultural purposes on account of it 
     being low and flat with a clay soil which is best adapted to 
     the production of rice.

  The report goes on to recommend that the Federal Government purchase 
40 acres of land for a farm station, erect a cottage on the land, and 
provide a farmer to direct the Tribe's farming efforts. While Brandon's 
recommendations do not appear to have been implemented, the fact that 
he made them demonstrates the Federal Government's ongoing relationship 
with the Tribe.
  Over the years, the U.S. Government further engaged with the 
Coushattas through agents, kept track of the Tribe's status, and 
provided the Tribe with limited financial assistance including funds 
for food, supplies, education, a physician, and farming. The government 
also conducted a census of the Tribe and explicitly acknowledged that 
the Tribe was under the jurisdiction of Federal Indian agencies. In 
this way, the government recognized and exercised its government-to-
government relationship with the Coushatta Tribe for almost 200 years.

[[Page S4503]]

  In 1954, Congress considered legislation that would terminate the 
government's recognition of the Coushatta Tribe, but this legislation 
was not passed, and the Tribe's recognition continued. However, for 
reasons unknown, the Tribe was not included in the well-known Haas 
Report of 1947 and was subsequently not included on the Federal 
Government's list of federally recognized tribes.
  From 1954 to 1971, the Coushatta Tribe was therefore unofficially 
``terminated'' through a series of clerical errors and technicalities. 
Despite no longer being unrecognized by the government and losing 
assistance, the Coushatta people survived through their hard work and 
determination.
  However, in 1971, Ernest Stevens, Acting Commissioner at the BIA, 
wrote a detailed letter confirming Coushatta's longstanding 
relationship with the Federal Government. The Stevens letter confirmed 
that the Coushatta Tribe was a historical tribe that had never had its 
rights to Federal services terminated. ``In the absence of such 
legislation, and in consideration of the possibility of a treaty 
relationship, we think that the Louisiana Coushattas are eligible for 
some special federal services to Indian people,'' Stevens wrote.
  On June 27, 1973, the U.S. Department of the Interior officially 
rerecognized their historical relationship with the Coushatta Tribe of 
Louisiana, and in 1975, the Secretary of the interior took land into 
trust for the Tribe's benefit.
  In 1985, the Federal District Court for the Western District of 
Louisiana, Lake Charles Division, confirmed that the Coushatta's lands 
were ``reservation lands'' and that the State of Louisiana had no 
criminal jurisdiction over activities on such lands.
  Through the continued efforts of Tribal leaders and community 
members, the Coushatta Tribe has steadily grown stronger in the 45 
years since receiving rerecognition. From its initial reservation base 
of 15 acres, the Tribe now owns more than 6,000 acres in trust and fee-
simple lands.
  The Coushatta Tribe now operates more than 20 departments to provide 
services to members, including a health department and clinic, an 
education department, and social services department. The Tribe owns 
and operates Coushatta Casino Resort, the largest land-based casino in 
the State of Louisiana, and employs more than 3,000 people, making it 
one of the largest employers in the State.
  Throughout its proud history, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana has 
played an important role in communities across the South. The Tribe 
looks forward to its continued growth and positive impact for many 
generations to come.

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