Capinan
Historical Indigenous tribe from Alabama and Mississippi, U.S.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Capinan (also called Capina[2]) were a small tribe of Native American people from Alabama and Mississippi.[1]
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| extinct as a tribe | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| United States (Alabama, Mississippi) | |
| Languages | |
| unattested, possibly a Siouan language[1] | |
| Religion | |
| Indigenous religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| possibly Pascagoula and Biloxi[1] |
The Capinan lived along the Gulf Coast region along the Pascagoula River[1][3] almost north to its headwaters. They appear along the Pascagoula River, directly south of the Chickasaws in maps drawn by French cartographer Guillaume Delisle in 1703 and 1707.[4]
The Capinan may have been the same tribe as the Moctobi[4] and may have been a sub-tribe of the Pascagoula and Biloxi, both historically from Mississippi. The Capinan's language is unattested, but they might have spoken a Siouan language[1] like the Biloxi.
French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville visited the tribe in 1699, and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville in 1725.[3][1]