Gibson remains reburial imminent

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Launching Leevile Life: Boat launch excites parish leaders, public
September 17, 2013
Morganza omitted from House WRDA draft
September 17, 2013

Human remains believed to be those of Chitimacha people, possibly pre-dating European contact in North America, found inside a Terrebonne Parish home four years ago will be re-buried on the property they were removed from, a tribal spokeswoman confirms.


“The Chitimacha have been consulting with the state over that site,” said Kim Walden, the tribe’s cultural director and tribal historic preservation officer, based in Charenton. “That area is within the Chitimacha aboriginal lands.”

The Archaeological Conservancy, a national organization that preserves historic sites, has purchased the property from its owner; work on demolition, a painstaking task being done by hand, has already begun.

The reburial of bones on the property could take place before the end of this year; when that happens, the Chitimacha will employ traditional customs consistent with the culture of the people at that time.


A total of 157 human bones and fragments were found inside a box in an ersatz basement built into the side of a mound on the private lot in Gibson by a real estate agent showing the adjoining house in November 2009. Animal bones were also found, but were separated by scientists from the human remains.

Suspecting that the human bones could be Native American, scientists at the Louisiana Division of Archeology limited their testing to what are called non-invasive procedures, leaving them intact. But state archaeologist Chip McGimsey said a report that followed, based on what tests could be performed as well as comparisons with pottery from the site, indicated they could be as much as 700 years old.

The bones are those of at least four individuals, likely three or more adults and at least one child, according to a state archaeological report.


“The site is likely to yield significant data concerning the pre-colonial history of southeast Louisiana,” state regional archaeologist Rob Mann reported to the Louisiana Archaeological Society in their newsletter. “It contains intact stratified deposits, well preserved … remains, intact features and burials that may provide information about chronology, subsistence, settlement and trade.”

Jessica Crawford, southeast regional director of the Archeological Conservancy, said the Gibson site is important from a cultural and historic point of view.

“That site is extremely significant because there are not a lot of mounds remaining in that area,” she said. “The preservation appears to be quite good. All of these sites have their own page of history to write.”


The history of the Chitimacha, like that of so many other native peoples in the Americas, is filled with tales of difficulty posed by contact with Europeans.

A war with French settlers raged across the Gulf Coast and surrounding areas for 12 years. Some Chitimacha people were taken prisoner and brought to France as slaves, according to official tribal histories.

“Others were brought to French forts in Natchitoches and other places,” said Walden.


The Chitimacha are believed to have settled in the Bayou Region of Louisiana around 500 AD and possibly well before that, perhaps even more than 1,000 years ago. They are believed to have lived in villages built of cane, wood and palmetto leaves or branches, according to a state historic report.

They hunted and fished – with a diet heavily comprised of shellfish – but also raised corn.

Chitimacha settlements were common in prehistory along the Bayou Teche, a waterway that plays a significant role in the legends of the people.


There is evidence that the Chitimacha had distinctive music, employing leg-rattles made of turtle shells, as well as drums made of deer hide. There were gourd rattles and also rub-boards – not unlike the current washboard-style zydeco – made of alligator hide.

The Chitimacha were not close to the Houma and other local tribes; the Houma, with close ties to the French, are believed to have provided information on the whereabouts of fleeing Chitimacha to the French, Walden said.

The Chitimacha are one of four federally recognized tribes in Louisiana. The others are the Coushatta, the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians and the Tunica-Biloxi.


For Chitimacha people, the ordeal of bones disinterred over time, kept in a box in a dank cellar and then subjected to travel for inventorying and examination is a difficult pill.

The significance of the find is more than mere archeology or science; it is deeply involved with ancestral ties.

“The discovery and opportunity to rebury these remains is not strange to the Chitimacha,” Walden said. “It has happened on a number of occasions. Our main goal is to return our ancestors to the place where they were buried, which should have been their final resting place. When people are removed from the ground our goal is to treat them with the respect they deserve as human beings. These people are people, they are not just bones.”


Pictured is a mannequin of a Chitimacha tribesman dating back nearly 700 years. Archeologists say the human bones found in Gibson are consistent with this tribesman.

COURTESY PHOTO