Houma

The Houma were a people of the lower Mississippi country whose name means “red” in Choctaw. Their settlements lay near those of the Bayogoula, and a tall red pole marked a boundary between their hunting grounds. The French called the landmark Baton Rouge. The Houma grew maize and squash, and their village contained a temple with carved figures and a sacred fire.

In 1699 Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville visited a Houma settlement and was welcomed with song, tobacco and dancing. Disease soon took a heavy toll. After a deadly attack by the Tunica in the early eighteenth century, the Houma moved south and established new villages. Their communities remained along the lower Mississippi through the eighteenth century, joined by Bayogoula and Acolapissa refugees.