Quinipissa Explained

Group:Quinipissa
Total:extinct as a tribe, merged into the Mugulasha
Regions:Louisiana
Languages:Southern Muskogean language
Religions:Indigenous religion
Related Groups:Acolapissa, Okelousa, Quinapissa, Tangipahoa[1]

The Quinipissa (sometimes spelled Kinipissa in French sources) were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands who were living on the lower Mississippi River, in present-day Louisiana, as reported by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1682.

In 1682, La Salle encountered a group of Quinipissa living with the Koroa in a village on the western bank of the Mississippi River.[2]

The Quinipissa joined the Mougoulacha. The combined group shared a village with the Bayagoula. In 1700, the Bayagoula massacred both the Quinipissa and Mougoulacha, and they were not mentioned again by chroniclers of the time.[3]

Language

Quinipissa
Region:Louisiana
Extinct:1700
Family:unclassified (Bayagoula?)
Familycolor:American
Iso3:none
Glotto:none
Linglist:093

The Quinipissa may have spoken the same language as the Mougoulacha and Bayagoula. The Bayagoula language is only attested with a single word.

Albert Gatschet considered Quinipissa a Muskogean language Coast Choctaw ("Coast Chaʼhta") based on evidence that many peoples of this area spoke the lingua franca Mobilian Jargon and have names that appear to be exonyms of Mobilian Jargon or Muskogean origin. This is repeated by John W. Powell and John Swanton. However, a map by Nicolas de Fer states that all nations of this region spoke different languages and barely understood each other. Thus, there is no real linguistic evidence to conclude that the Quinipissa are Muskogean.

External links

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Book: Fred B. Kniffen . Hiram F. Gregory. George A. Stokes. The Historic Indian Tribes of Louisiana: From 1542 to the Present Louisiana . 1994 . LSU Press. 978-0-8071-1963-1 . 50.
  2. Book: Swanton, John Reed. Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast of the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1911-01-01. 327.
  3. Book: Fred B. Kniffen . Hiram F. Gregory. George A. Stokes. The Historic Indian Tribes of Louisiana: From 1542 to the Present Louisiana . 1994 . LSU Press. 978-0-8071-1963-1 . 52.