Date of Award
Spring 5-2017
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
History
Department
History
Major Professor
Mosterman, Andrea
Second Advisor
Atkinson, Connie
Third Advisor
Mitchell, Mary Niall
Abstract
In 1917, Henry Billiot sued the Terrebonne Parish School Board because his children, who identified as Houma Indian, were denied access to a local white school. The resulting case, Henry Billiot v. Terrebonne Parish School Board, shaped the way in which the community of Terrebonne Parish categorized the race of not only the Billiot family but also the Houma tribe over the course of fifty years. Through the use of Jim Crow legislation, the white community legally refused to consider the Houma tribe as American Indian, and instead chose the derogatory term Sabine as the racial classification of this indigenous group, which detrimentally impacted the United Houma Nation’s fight for federal recognition as an American Indian tribe.
Recommended Citation
Minchew, Racheal D., ""Because Colored Means Negro" The Houma Nation and its Fight for Indigenous Identity within a South Louisiana Public School System, 1916-1963" (2017). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2346.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2346
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.