05/06/2026
Ouachita people
The Ouachita are a Native American tribe who lived in northeastern Louisiana along the Ouachita River. Their name has also been pronounced as Wash*ta by English speakers. The spelling "Ouachita" and pronunciation "Wah-sha-taw" came about as a result of French settlers and their influence. Many landscape features and places have been named for them since colonization of the region by Europeans and Americans.
The Ouachita were loosely affiliated with the Caddo Confederacy. Their traditional homelands were the lower reaches of the Ouachita River in present-day northeastern Louisiana and along the Black River. Around 1690, the tribe is believed to have settled at Pargoud Landing on the Ouachita River. This was later the site of a French trading post, and ultimately the present-day city of Monroe, Louisiana developed around it.
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, a French-Canadian colonizer, encountered the Ouachita people in 1700. He first met members of the tribe transporting salt to the Taensa. Bienville traveled to the principal Ouachita village, which he described as housing 70 people in five houses. The Ouachita assimilated into the Natchitoches tribe by the 1720s.Today's descendants are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.
The Ouachita are known for their traditional practice of burying horses.