The Atchalafaya Basin is the largest freshwater swamp in America. I’m inclined to think that this area is where Fozzie and Pen live. It’s size makes it easy to get lost in, easy to hide in. Plus, it’s beautiful in a very special way. There are a couple lovely links I’ve found, one general info and one a multimedia project on the people who live there.
There are a few First Nations tribes that call the area home, most notably the Houma and the Chitimacha. I chose the Chitimacha for Hal’s heritage because they have a few scarily relevant characteristics.
Their social structure is is distinctly divided into two classes, nobles and commoners — different modes of address were used for and between the two groups. I wanted to learn what their name for “king” or “chief” would be so that Dia might use it as a term of respect for Hal. That term may be ma’ta, but I’m not really sure. There isn’t much info on their language, Sitimaxa (a variation in spelling for Chitimacha, maybe?), because the last native speaker died sometime in the 1930’s. Sadly, most of their language was lost. Just recently, the Chitimaxa Nation teamed up with the makers of the Rosetta Stone program to develop language software based on some research notes by the linguist Morris Swadesh, who studied the language used by the last two living speakers. They’re using it to teach themselves to speak their own language again!
The Chitimacha clans were, and may still be, organized by totem animal, which were wolf, bear, dog, and lion. There may have been more, at one time, but if there were, they have not been remembered. The clans were matrilinear, with each person belonging to the same clan as his or her mother. The title of King — not totally out of place when applied to these people — passed from father to son, regardless of clan. So it seems to me that the clans were all held in equal regard. I wish I could find more information. They seem fascinating!
Chitimacha History and Culture
History of the Chitimacha and Biloxi