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Avoyelles Parish
Fr. dim. of avoie,
'small vipers')
The parish is named for the Avoyel Indian tribe. The parish was
established on March 31, 1807 and was named Marksville became the
parish seat. This is where a circuit rider had held court. A tribe
spoken of in the 18th century as one of the nations of the Red River,
having their villages near the mouth of that stream, within what is now
Avoyelles Parish, La. They probably belonged to the Caddoan family, the
tribe representing a group that had remained near the ancient habitat of
its kindred. The country occupied by the Avoyelles was fertile and
intersected by lakes and bayous, one of the latter being still called by
their name. They were known as the "people of the rocks". They
disappeared pretty rapidly. The Tunica Indians were still living in a
village near the town of Mansura, Avoyelles Parish as late as 1930. The
Tunica were from across the river in Natchez, Mississippi and settled near
Marksville.T he remnant of the Tunica, consisting of about 30 people, are
now east and southeast of Marksville, the parish seat, on what is called
Marksville prairie. They speak Tunica, Creole, and English.
The parish seat is
Marksville
Cities and towns
Bunkie
Cottonport
Evergreen
Hessmer
Mansura
Marksville
Moreauville
Plaucheville
Simmesport
Adjacent parishes
La Salle
(north)
Catahoula
(north)
Concordia
(northeast)
West
Feliciana (east)
Pointe
Coupee (southeast)
St. Landry
(south)
Evangeline
(southwest)
Rapides
(west)
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Welcome to
this Avoyelles Louisiana Genealogy Trails Website.
My name is Janice, and I am your
host for Louisiana. If you would like to submit data for this site,
please email me with your
submissions. Happy Trails to you on your quest for your ancestors.
This is a new site,
fashioned after our successful Illinois Trails websites, and we hope to
soon add data here that can help Louisiana researchers as much as we've
been able to help our Illinois researchers.
We need some help to do that though - volunteers to host these county
websites. If you can make a basic webpage, and you have a desire to
transcribe data for the free use of all researchers, we can use your
talents!
Review our Volunteer
Information and email
Kim.
In the meantime, join
our mailing list to be kept
apprised of updates to this website.
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