Return to Yakni Chitto: Houma Migrations

Hundreds of years ago, Terrebonne Parish was known to Indigenous peoples as "Yakni Chitto,"which means "Big Country." Located between the Mississippi and Atchafalaya, Monique's father'sparents were born along Bayou Pointe-aux-Chenes into a small Houma community. Migrating to Lower St. Bernard Parish each winter to trap, they eventually bought land along Bayou Terre-aux-Boeufs. Monique spent a large part of her childhood with her grandmother, Armantine Marie Bil-liot Verdin, and in the 1990s...