[1] Under pressure from European colonization after 1763 and the French defeat in the Seven Years' War, the Coushatta began to move west into Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, which were then under Spanish rule.

[2] The Coushatta were historically farmers, growing a variety of maize, beans, and squash, and supplementing their diet by hunting game and fish.

The Spanish referred to the people as Coste, with their nearby neighbors being the Chiaha, Chiska, Yuchi, Tasquiqui, and Tali.

Later they founded a major settlement at the north end of Long Island, which is bisected by the present-day Tennessee–Alabama state line.

By the time of the American Revolution, the Coushatta had moved many miles down the Tennessee River where their town is recorded as Coosada.

Today their descendants form the federally recognized Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town in Wetumka, Oklahoma.

[4] Descendants of these peoples form the federally recognized Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas and have a reservation near Livingston.

[5] In the 20th century, the Coushatta people in Louisiana began cultivating rice and crawfish on tribally owned farms on the reservation, where most of the current population resides.

Since the late 20th century and the rise in Indian self-determination, many Native American tribes have developed a new source of revenue by establishing gaming casino on their reservations which are sovereign territories.

In the 1990s, the Coushatta of Louisiana hired the lobbyist Jack Abramoff to assist in establishing a casino on their reservation.

They were victims of his manipulations, as he charged them high fees but did not work on their behalf to gain federal or state approval of such development.