From Bayou Teche to Fifth Avenue

Daniel H. Usner is Holland N. McTyeire Professor Emeritus of History at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of Native American Women and the Burdens of Southern History and Weaving Alliances with Other Women: Chitimacha Indian Work in the New South, among other books. In 2024 Usner was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Ethnohistory.

"Intimately grounded on the banks of Bayou Teche, but reaching far beyond, Daniel Usner celebrates the incredible Chitimacha women and their white allies who preserved community by weaving baskets as well as personal connections. The result is a powerful tribute to the women whose fight to save their nation changed America."—Cathleen D. Cahill, author of Federal Fathers and Mothers: A Social History of the United States Indian Service, 1869–1933"Truly a remarkable piece of scholarship! The depth and breadth of coverage is amazing. Daniel Usner takes the history of a much-neglected tribe and links it to broad themes of race, class, gender, and the environment across U.S. history, and he covers several genres of historical study to boot. From Bayou Teche to Fifth Avenue is an eminently readable text that will appeal to people with a broad range of interests."—Katherine M. B. Osburn, author of Choctaw Resurgence in Mississippi: Race, Class, and Nation Building in the Jim Crow South, 1830–1977"In From Bayou Teche to Fifth Avenue, Chitimacha women take center stage as artists, negotiators, and defenders of their nation. . . . With clarity and eloquence, historian Daniel Usner reveals how [Chitimacha] 'basket diplomacy' became both political resistance and cultural endurance. Brimming with vivid detail and amplifying overlooked voices, this book makes a powerful contribution to art history, Indigenous studies, and political history as a testament to resilience, creativity, and Indigenous leadership."—Denise E. Bates, author of Basket Diplomacy: Leadership, Alliance-Building, and Resilience among the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, 1884–1984

• List of IllustrationsIntroduction Christmas Morning on Bayou Teche, 1901Chapter 1 Chitimacha Diplomacy in Early LouisianaChapter 2 Surviving in Sugar Cane CountryChapter 3 Finding Mary McIlhenny BradfordChapter 4 Christine Paul Weaves and Writes for Her PeopleChapter 5 Mary Bradford and Neltje Doubleday Form a PartnershipChapter 6 Craving Indian BasketsChapter 7 In the Hands of AnthropologistsChapter 8 Going to School at CarlisleChapter 9 Saving Chitimacha LandChapter 10 New Deal for Indian ArtChapter 11 Turning to Caroline DormonConclusion The Legacy of Basket DiplomacyAcknowledgementsBibliographyIndex