They are the only Louisiana tribe who still control some of their original land, where they have long occupied areas of the Atchafalaya Basin, "one of the richest inland estuaries on the continent.

The Chitimacha established their villages in the many swamps, bayous, and rivers of the Atchafalaya Basin, "one of the richest inland estuaries on the continent.

[10] Like many Native American peoples, the Chitimacha had a matrilineal kinship system, in which property and descent passed through the female lines.

The hereditary male chiefs, who governed until early in the 20th century, came from the maternal lines and were approved by female elders.

[10] The Chitimacha Indians and their ancestors inhabited the Mississippi River Delta area of south central Louisiana for thousands of years before European encounter.

Although the Chitimacha had virtually no direct contact with Europeans for two more centuries, they suffered Eurasian infectious diseases contracted from other Natives who had traded with them, such as measles, smallpox, and typhoid fever.

)[9] The sub-tribes of the Chitimacha confederation occupied a total of about 15 villages at the time of encounter with French explorers and colonists in the early 18th century.

The Grand Chief represented the central governing authority of all the sub-tribes, but they operated in a highly decentralized manner.

Those who survived were resettled by the French authorities, away from the Gulf of Mexico and farther north along the Mississippi River, to the area where they live today.

Disease caused more deaths than did warfare and ultimately resulted in dramatic social disruption and defeat of the people.

In the late 18th century, the British deported the Acadians (French colonists in Acadia) from eastern Canada after defeating France in the Seven Years' War and taking over their territories in North America east of the Mississippi River.

Mixed-race children born to Chitimacha women were considered to belong to their mother's families and generally were raised within the Indigenous culture.

The federal government issued a decree establishing an area of 1,062 acres in St. Mary Parish as Chitimacha land.

[10] The Indian boarding schools were considered a means to assimilate the children into mainstream United States culture.

They disrupted transmission of native languages by forcing the children to use English at school and taking them away from their families for lengthy periods of time.

The tribe was under economic pressure in the early 20th century, and sometimes members were forced to sell land because they could not afford taxes.

Sarah Avery McIlhenney, a local benefactor whose family owned and operated the factory to manufacture Tabasco,[12] responded to a call for aid by Chitimacha women.

Most Native Americans of the Southeast had been forcibly removed to Indian Territory or Texas west of the Mississippi River during the 1830s.

The Tribal Council is involved in ongoing negotiations with the United States to obtain compensation for the land expropriations of the past.

With revenues derived from its gaming casino, the Chitimacha have purchased additional land to be held in trust for its reservation, and now control 1000 acres.

[10] Native Waters: A Chitimacha Recollection (2011) is a documentary directed and produced by Laudun for Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

[15] In the early 1990s, the tribe was contacted by the American Philosophical Society Library, which said it held Swadesh's papers and had found extensive notes on the Chitimacha language, including a draft grammar manual and dictionary.

[6] In 2008 the tribe partnered with Rosetta Stone to develop software to document the language and provide teaching materials.

Each tribal household was given a copy of the software, to support families learning the language and encouraging children to speak it at home.

[6] The Chitimacha re-established their government under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, considered President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Native American New Deal.

[16] Like all federally recognized tribes, the Chitimacha, through passage of their constitution, have established their own rules for tribal membership.

[16] Children of one-sixteenth (1/16) degree or more Chitimacha Indian blood born to any enrolled member since 1971 (when the tribe adopted their Constitution) are entitled to membership.