Edwin Temple Found Arrowheads on the Temple Homestead

Indian Arrowhead
Photo Credit: Antoinette Harrell

Can you imagine working in the field, disking up the dirt to plant the seeds for the produce. This is what happened to Edwin Temple who found several Indian arrowheads on the their property in Amite. "I was  rolling up roll with the fourteen rake" said Edwin.  Just north of Lake Pontchartrain in the Town of Amite, the parish seat. On the outskirts of the town in a rural community serveral Indian Arrowheads were found. 

The name Tangipahoa is derived from the Muskogean words (tranche pahoha) which translates to  "corncob people" or people of the corn. This is where Tangipahoa gets it name.  The Bayogoula, part of the Choctaw nation in, areas directly north of the Chitimachas in the parishes of St. Helena,  Tangipahoa, Washington, East Baton, Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Livingston, and St. Tammany genealogytrails.com

When I held the arrowheads in my hand, I felt like I step back in time. Touch and feeling something that the Native American made. I quickly started visualizing the time and period before Amite became what it is today. I felt interconnect to the Natives. Arrowhead can be as old as 14, 000 years old. They symboled courage, strength and protection.  They were introduced by the Native Indians during the ancient time.

The Tangipahoa village was destroyed in the 17th century, and any survivors. probably merged into the Acolapissa and Houma tribes, who later joined the Choctaws. I often think about Malinda Lawson who was a Choctaw Indian. She and her family lived in Ried's Community in Amite, Louisiana. 

I often think about purchasing a metal detector and search for rare coins and other metal treasures buried underground.  Edwin have held on to the arrowheads for over forty-years. He's thinking about way to preserve them. The one thing that Edwin pointed how is the skills it took to shape the arrow head in a point. In another observation, he notice the sides and shapes of each arrowhead.