A History of Terrebonne Parish

The people the town is named for are still here. The United Houma Nation says the Houma settled Terrebonne in the late 1700s, began moving to their present homes around 1800, and by the early 1900s lived in seven main settlements in Terrebonne and Lafourche, among them Dulac, Montegut and Pointe-aux-Chenes. Louisiana recognized the Houma in 1977, and two groups merged as the United Houma Nation in 1979. The Bureau of Indian Affairs proposed denying federal recognition in 1994, and the tribe remains without it.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Southdown Plantation and Terrebonne Museum — 1.4 mi
  A Greek Revival sugar plantation house in Houma, worked by 233 enslaved people by 1852, with the last Terrebonne mill's story and a worker's cabin of about 1885.
• Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge — 5.6 mi
  A 4,212-acre refuge of freshwater marsh and cypress-tupelo swamp southwest of Houma, with a nature trail to a boardwalk and observation deck and mostly boat-only access.
• Laurel Valley Village — 14 mi
  A sugar plantation's workers' village south of Thibodaux, with cabins of about 1845, shotgun houses, a store and cemetery, and the 1887 strike and massacre in the parish around it.
• Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center — 15 mi
  A Jean Lafitte National Historical Park center on Bayou Lafourche with Acadian and bayou-life exhibits, a 200-seat theater and ranger-guided boat tours to the E. D. White house.

More markers nearby

• Bayou Terrebonne — steps away
• The Grand Dérangement / Le Grand Dérangement — steps away
• New Acadia / Nouvelle Acadie — steps away
• 1834-1934 — steps away