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The Coushatta () are a Muskogean-speaking Native American people now living primarily in the United States states of Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.
When the Coushatta first encountered Europeans, their Coushatta homelands where in present-day Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. They have long been closely allied and intermarried with the Alabama people, also members of the Creek Confederacy. The Koasati language is related to the Alabama language and mutually intelligible to Mikasuki language.
Under pressure from European colonization after 1763 and the France defeat in the Seven Years' War, the Coushatta began to move west into Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, which were then under Spanish rule. They settled in these areas by the early 19th century. Some of the Coushatta and Alabama people were removed west to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in the 1830s under Indian Removal, together with other .
Today, Coushatta people are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes:
In the 17th and 18th centuries, avoiding the encroachment by European settlers, the Coushatta migrated west into present-day Alabama. Along the way they established their town at Nickajack ( Ani-Kusati-yi, or Koasati-place, in Cherokee) in the current Marion County, Tennessee. Later they founded a major settlement at the north end of Long Island, which is bisected by the present-day Tennessee–Alabama state line.
By the time of the American Revolution, the Coushatta had moved many miles down the Tennessee River where their town is recorded as Coosada. In the 18th century, some of the Coushatta joined the emerging Muscogee (Creek) Confederacy, where they became a part of the "Upper Creeks". They were closely related to the Alabama Indians and often intermarried with them. Coushatta and Alabama who stayed in Alabama were part of the 1830s forcible removal to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Today their descendants form the federally recognized Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town in Wetumka, Oklahoma.
Some of the Coushatta tribe split from the Creek Confederacy and went to South Louisiana. Their descendants today make up the federally recognized Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana.
Notable chiefs among the Coushatta-Alabama were Long King and his successor Colita (1838–1852). They led their people to settle in present-day Polk County, Texas, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Colita's village was founded before the European-American settlement of Livingston, Texas. "Alabama-Coushatta Indians", Texas Handbook Online Descendants of these peoples form the federally recognized Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas and have a reservation near Livingston.
In 1972, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana achieved state-recognition as a tribe. A year later it gained federal recognition. The tribe has acquired of reservation near its historical 18th and 19th-century homeland. This land is held in trust on the tribe's behalf by the United States Department of the Interior. Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana , accessed 25 Apr 2010
In the 20th century, the Coushatta people in Louisiana began cultivating rice and crawfish on tribally owned farms on the reservation, where most of the current population resides. An estimated 200 people of the tribe still speak the Koasati language. In the early 21st century, fewer young people are learning it, so the tribe is working on language preservation.
Since the late 20th century and the rise in Indian self-determination, many Native American tribes have developed a new source of revenue by establishing gaming casino on their reservations which are sovereign territories. States, which had begun their own gaming operations and regulated private ones, and the federal government have passed legislation to control Indian gaming, which must conform to what exists by state law. While such revenues are not taxable by the states, tribes often negotiate agreements with the states to share some portion of income, in recognition of their reliance on state infrastructure and other assets. In the 1990s, the Coushatta of Louisiana hired the lobbyist Jack Abramoff to assist in establishing a casino on their reservation. They were victims of his manipulations, as he charged them high fees but did not work on their behalf to gain federal or state approval of such development. He was ultimately prosecuted for his actions.
Since then, Louisiana Coushatta have established gaming on its reservation. It also has state tax–free sales of certain items to raise revenues.
The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas achieved federal recognition in 1987. The nation acquired a reservation near Livingston, Texas, its homeland since settling in this area in the early 19th century. It has 1,100 enrolled citizens.
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