... The word Alabama is said to be from the Choctaw “alba ayamule”, which means “I open or clear the thicket.” The word Koasati has been suggested to signify “white cane.” Many variant spellings have been noted, including Coushatta.
Courtship and Marriage: A young man expresses his interest in a girl by perhaps a pinch or a light blow as he passes her... If interested, she will chase him around a nearby tree. The next week the process may be reversed with the girl making the first overture.
“...The essential characteristic of the culture of the Alabama-Koasati group may best be described as calm well-reasoned, non-individualistic group action. The individual is sunk in the total community structure, they act together as a group on all things affecting their welfare. The solemn, soberly conducted tribal meeting is the climax of this group expression...”
The White Path: Alabama-Koasati Indians of Texas
Traveling the white path of peace the Alabama-Koasati are unique. They are the only Indians living as a nation within the borders of Texas. Theirs is the only tribe that hasn’t been exiled to an unfamiliar reservation.
Why did the Alabama-Koasati get along with all comers–the Spanish, the French, the Mexicans? Why did they escape the wrathful hatred of hot-headed Texas settlers? Why were they–and only they, of all the Indians in Texas–permitted to live until this very day by their own laws on their own ancestral lands?
To find the answers to these questions the author went to live among the Alabama-Koasati in their wooded homeland in deep East Texas. Being one-fourth Indian himself, he was able to gain their confidence and to explore their past.
Laced with quiet humor and illustrated with interesting anecdotes, THE WHITE PATH is not a somber book. Young people will enjoy it because it’s not the too familiar tomahawk, warpath, scalping routine. The mature reader will enjoy it for its professional approach to anthropological research in an area where too little scholarly work has been done.ISBN: 978-1-68593-145-2
Hardcover
164 pages
6 x 9
Black and white illustrations
Published 2023