Akokisa

The Akokisa (also known as the Accokesaws, Arkokisa, or Orcoquiza ) were an Indigenous tribe who lived on Galveston Bay and the lower Trinity and Sabine rivers in Texas, primarily in the present-day Greater Houston area. They were a band of the Atakapa Indians, closely related to the Atakapa of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

16th century
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca wrote about the Akokisa in 1528, calling them the "Han."

18th century
An early reported encounter with the Akokisa by a European person was in 1719 when Simars de Bellisle, a French officer, was held captive by the Akokisa until 1721. His account of his captivity provides some information about Akokisa culture.

John Sibley in 1805 reported that they previously lived near Matagorda Bay on the west bank of the Texan Colorado River in ancient times.

Around the 1750s the Akokisa were divided into five village groups. Some Akokisa people entered the San Ildefonso Mission in 1748-49 but left in 1755. That mission was abandoned and replaced by Nuestra Señora de la Luz Mission, built in 1756-57 on the Trinity River, to serve the Akokisa and Bidai tribes.

19th century
In 1805, the Akokisa were reduced to two villages. One coastal village lay between the Sabine and Neches Rivers; the other was on the west side of the Colorado River. The Akokisas may have been absorbed into other tribes at the wake of the Texas Revolution of 1835-36.

Name
The name Akokisa is of unknown origin, although John R. Swanton has speculated that the name may be from the Atakapa word icāk meaning "person". The Akokisa have also been known by the following names and spelling variations: Arkokisa, Caque, Han, Orcoquiza, Accocesaw, Accockesaw, Accokesaus, Accokesaw, Acokesa, Horcoquisa, Ocosau, Orcoquisa, and Orcoquisac.

Culture
Akokisa people lived in settled villages and built airy structures to cope with their warm climate. Their homes were beehive-shaped and thatched with grass or palmetto leaves. A hearth would be located in the center of the floor with a smokehole in the ceiling. During summer months, an Akokisa would sleep in a Chickee, a raised platform with a thatched roof and open sides. Beds were made of straw, covered with animal skins.

For water transportation and fishing, Akokisas carved cypress logs into dugout canoes.

Both men and women decorated their bodies and faces with tattoos.

The Akokisa, like the Atakapa, practiced cannibalism, which may have been connected to their religious beliefs. Cannibalistic efforts were described as consumption of enemies' flesh after a battle by Simars de Bellisle, who observed them firsthand. Akokisa were hunter-gatherers and had a diet of deer, fish, oysters and bison.

Black drink was used for purification in certain ceremonies.

They are reported to have grown "superfine" maize. Tubers of the greenbrier vine provided meal for baking and cooking. During warm seasons they ate bird eggs, fish, shellfish, and American lotus rhizomes and seeds; during cold seasons they moved further inland and hunted deer, bear, and bison. Horses were used to hunt bison. Tanned deer hides and bear fat were their primary commercial exports.

Almost nothing is known about their kinship systems, life cycle, or marriage customs.

Language
The Akokisa language is extinct and unknown.

Swanton claimed that the Akokisa spoke a language related to Atakapa based on the similarity of a vocabulary of 45 words ascribed to the Akokisa collected by Captain Jean Béranger in 1721 on Galveston. However, there is no clear evidence that this document actually represents the language of Akokisa (Béranger provides a tribal designation for the vocabulary).

Sibley also reported that they had their own language "peculiar to themselves" and used sign language to communicate with other Indians (also reported for other peoples in eastern Texas). He did not connect them with the Atakapa.

Only two Akokisa words have been found in Spanish records: Yegsa meaning "Spaniard(s)" and Quiselpoo, a female name.