Beyond The Bayou
New Story: Taso Time — Migration, Smoke, and Courtship among the Houma Indians
Each spring, Houma families once left their swamp homes in flotillas of pirogues, traveling to the Gulf beaches for taso time. There, willow grills and smoky driftwood fires turned fresh fish into cured taso, a food that carried families through the year.
But taso was more than preservation. It was community, celebration, and even courtship. It was a season when the bayou filled with smoke, song, and laughter.