Coushatta to celebrate 45th anniversary of tribal recognition

By 
Dillon Nelson
Sunday, June 24, 2018

ELTON - The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana will celebrate the 45th anniversary of the day it received tribal recognition from the federal government Wednesday, June 27.

A public celebration to honor this occasion will begin at 9 p.m. with music and a display of fireworks at the tribe’s administration building at 1958 CC Bel Road in Elton.

On June 27, 1973, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana received federal recognition as an independent Native American tribe after being dropped from the official roll.

“The federal government always kept a roll, a list, of what they considered official tribes. The Coushatta were dropped overnight, meaning they were essentially not recognized and left off the list,” said Linda Langley, an officer for the Coushatta Tribal Historic Preservation Office. “There is usually complicated legislation involved in getting a tribe recognized, but there was only a proposal to do it in this case and it didn’t go through. That was the end of it as far as the government was concerned.”

Langley said there was no enslavement or outright oppression toward the Coushatta Tribe in this instance, rather a failure to appropriately recognize it. She said “re-recognition” would be a more accurate term than “independence” for what eventually occurred.

“They realized their lack of action was not lawful and they realized they needed to re-recognize us. It’s a misnomer in a way but people typically tend to identify with the mainstream idea of ‘independence’,” she said.

This event is not only about the Coushatta tribe, but also about everyone in Louisiana and the United States and their eternally intertwined fates, Langley said.

“Long before there was a state of Louisiana, the Coushatta people were here. They are still here. We’re part of history and the shaping of our nation. We’re part of the current economy and society,” she said. “This event is not just about knowing your neighbors but about knowing where everyone came from. It’s about moving together into the future.”