Site of the Coushatta Indian Village

Koasati families lived in and around what is now Merryville while the Sabine country belonged to no government at all. Spain and the United States agreed in 1806 to leave the border strip unclaimed, and it drew squatters, deserters and fugitives, along with Koasati people moving west from Alabama. About half of the remaining Koasati followed Mikko Red Shoes to Spanish Louisiana in 1797, then settled by turns along the Red, Sabine, Trinity and Calcasieu rivers. Their descendants, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, live near Elton and still speak Koasati as a first language.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• The Atakapa-Coushatta Trace — steps away
• Charles "Leather Bitches" Smith — 0.4 mi
• Sam Houston Jones — 0.4 mi
• Leather Britches — 0.4 mi