John Sitting Bear
The Avogel Tribe, the Flint People – Some say they were absorbed by other tribes, others claim they simply disappeared in history. The fact is they remain to this day, intact with their customs, history, and language! Although forced to hide for centuries they are still here today and are letting the world know it! Their story is one of great suffering and through perseverance they are still here. For more than 5,000 years, according to the storytellers, they have lived in what is known today as Louisiana. They are descendents of “The Mound Builders”. Though small in number today, they are a link and a window into the past!
He has been Chief of the Avogel since the death of his mother in 1975. As a child he was taught the ways of his ancestors, primarily by his mother and the tribal story teller. His father taught him how to hunt and fish like the tribe did in the “Old Days”! His grandmother “Alice” showed him the healing herbs and how to use them. It was his Aunt “Nini” who instilled the pride of his heritage, but with a warning about mentioning it to outsiders. She reminded him of relatives who had been murdered for simply “Being” Avogel! His service in the U.S. Air Force brought him into contact with other indigenous people who had similar experiences and who convinced him that it was safer now to admit to being who he was. Yes, there still were risks, but they showed him how to fight back in today’s world & society for the good of his people. It is time for the world to know that the Avogel still exist and have not been “Absorbed” or “Cease to Exist” as some claim!
FOREW ARD
By
Phd. Rebecca Saunders
And
Rob Mann
We are pleased to have been contacted by Chief Mayeux for the production of this book. Originally, we had hoped to contribute a chapter on the Southeastern Native American prehistory , history , and ethnogenesis, but our schedules did not permit it. This is no great loss to this volume, which stands on its own as the Avogel account of much of what we were to consider. There is much to learn within pages of this volume, in which Chief Mayeux discusses the myth, history , and the future of the Avogel people.
As Chief Mayeux discusses in Chapter 2, the Avogel once occupied the varied landscape from between the headwaters of the Teche to the Rapides of the Red River, with main villages at Marksville and in what is now Alexandria. This “paired town” approach to regional politics is a Southeastern trait with much antiquity .The “Sacred Mound of the Main Village” at Marksville was within the Marksville site itself; the historical narrative mentions the Marksville site as “central” to the Avogel cultural landscape. Most of the site, which contains six mounds (and is currently a state park), is believed to date to between A.D. 1 and 600. However, not all of the six mounds at the site have been dated and some historic Indian use of the site has been documented. The Avogel know the location of the site in Alexandria.
The Avogel were located strategically with respect to resources. Their control of the lower Red River and the vast river and floodplain system below its’ confluence with the Mississippi River positioned them to be active traders. In prehistory , their position on the Red allowed them access (directly or in down-the-line trade with the Caddo) to highly prized lithic resources in the Ozarks, which is reflected in their trade language name “the Flint People.” In historic times, the Avogel expanded their inventories to include Spanish cattle and horses. Their roles as traders may help explain why the Avogel survived into the 21 st century when many of their neighboring tribes did not. Studies have shown that trading peoples have great cultural resiliency and flexibility acquired through dealing with many different peoples; these characteristics have been found in many tribes that survived in the late 2Oth and 21st centuries.
Nevertheless, in the political manoeuvring between Native American tribes, on the one hand, and European powers on the other, not to mention the manoeuvring between representatives of these two great peoples, the Avogel were politically marginalized in the l700s, lost much of their land in the 1800s, and lost much of their population in the 19th and early 20th century. There are many competing versions of these events, but Chief Mayeux gives us an all-too-rare insight to Native American history of the time. Interspersed with comments on traditional customs used to defuse political situations, the chapter explains much about the many “strange bedfellows” that the political landscape created in the early historic period.
The Avogel believe that they were being hunted to extinction in the late 19th and early 20th century. Nevertheless, a core of traditional Avogel secretly clung to their identity and their culture, thus preserving it for subsequent generations. Chief Mayeux’s family was one of these. Owing to the efforts of these families over the last 300 years, the Avogel can arise today with many of their traditions and tales intact. Without this long chain of events and efforts, this book could not have been written. It is a testimony to the will of the Flint People.
