The parish was formed in 1808, shortly after the United States acquired this territory in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

[3] Catahoula Parish was the home to many succeeding Native American groups in the thousands of years before European settlements began.

The Troyville Earthworks have components dating from 100 BCE to 700 CE during the Baytown to the Troyville-Coles Creek periods.

This mound was destroyed to make way for the Jonesville bridge over the Black River.

This area was settled primarily by migrants from the southern United States after the Louisiana Purchase, when the US acquired the vast, former French-claimed territory west of the Mississippi River.

White migrants to north and central Louisiana were from the South, and were mainly of British descent and Protestant religions.

[6] Louisiana Governor Earl Kemp Long also collected these dogs.

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 8,906 people, 3,364 households, and 2,421 families residing in the parish.

24.30% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

Although the parish trends Democratic in local elections, in the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama of Illinois received only 1,659 votes (31.8 percent) compared to 3,486 (66.7 percent) for the Republican nominee, John S. McCain of Arizona.