Ouachita Parish, Louisiana

Ouachita Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 153,720. The parish seat is Monroe. The parish was formed in 1807.Ouachita Parish is part of the Monroe, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area.HistoryPrehistoryOuachita Parish was the home to many succeeding Native American groups in the thousands of years before European settlements began. Peoples of the Marksville culture, Troyville culture, Coles Creek culture and Plaquemine culture built villages and mound sites throughout the area. Notable examples include the Filhiol Mound Site, located on a natural levee of the Ouachita River.Historic eraThe parish bears the same name as the Ouachita River, which flows through southern Arkansas and northeastern Louisiana. Beginning about 1720, French settlers arrived in modern Ouachita Parish, and they established a plantation on Bayou DeSiard that utilized African slave labor. Natchez Indians destroyed the Ouachita plantations during the Natchez Revolt of 1729-1731, and the French did not move back. Choctaw Indians began hunting in northern Louisiana, including the Ouachita country, beginning in the 1750s, with only a few French families moving north from the Opelousas Post.