Ishak

Ishak is a name used by the Atakapa, Indigenous people of the Gulf coastal country of southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas. Their homeland included bayous, marshes, forests and the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Communities obtained food from coastal and inland waters as well as from the surrounding land, and spoke related Atakapan languages.

French and Spanish expansion brought traders and missionaries into contact with Atakapan-speaking communities. The Akokisa, Bidai and Deadose were among related peoples recorded in the Texas coastal region. In the eighteenth century some entered Spanish missions, including San Ildefonso and Nuestra Señora de la Luz. Disease and displacement changed these communities profoundly, but their names and languages remain part of the history of the Gulf coast.