Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana: History
The parish seat of Houma was named after the Houma people. The native word houma means red, and the tribe's war emblem was the crawfish. Historians say the Houma are related to the Muskogean-speaking Choctaw, and migrated into the area from present-day Mississippi and Alabama. They first settled in the area that developed as Baton Rouge. After many conflicts with other Indian tribes, and losing a war to the Tunica in 1706, the Houma Indians continued moving south to more remote areas in the bayous, in order to escape the encroachment of Europeans. They settled in present-day Terrebonne Parish in the mid- to late 18th century. They established a camp known as Ouiski Bayou on the high ground northwest of what later developed as downtown Houma. They were subsequently pushed from the highlands of the north to the coastal regions of the south by the European settlements in the late 1700s and 1800s. Evidence of the Houma Tribe can still be found in this area today.
One of the southernmost of Louisiana's parishes, Terrebonne Parish was established on March 22, 1822, from the southern part of Lafourche Interior, bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. Covering an area of 2100 square miles, it is the second-largest parish in the state. The early French settlers named the parish for the fertility of its soils: terre bonne means "good earth."
In 1834, Terrebonne Parish founded the city of Houma in order to establish a centrally located and more easily accessible parish seat. Prior to this, the county seat had been set at Williamsburg (now Bayou Cane), approximately four miles northwest of present-day downtown Houma. Government officials believed that the site of Houma, at the convergence of six bayous, would provide better access for commerce and development in Terrebonne Parish, as most transportation and shipping was by water. It was near a former settlement of the Houma Tribe of Native Americans. Williamsburg was at the junction of two bayous: Cane and Terrebonne. …