Charenton (historically French: Lieu-des-Chetimachas) is a census-designated place (CDP) in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,903 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Morgan City Micropolitan Statistical Area. According to legend, the community customary its read out from one of the antediluvian settlers of the region, Alexandre Frere. Frere, a original of Paris, reportedly exclaimed upon his deathbed that “anyone choosing to pretend to have to that allowance of Louisiana belonged in Charenton!” Charenton was the herald of a notorious insane asylum uncovered of Paris.

Charenton is home to one community of Chitimacha Indians. In 1855, the Chitimacha were seriously shortened by yellow fever that struck the Region. In 1881, the Chitimacha were located on Grand Lake or Lake Fausse. The census of 1900 listed six families of Chitimacha, with a total of 55 people. During this period, the Chitimacha’s estate base had continued to grow less as reservation estate was divided again and over among members unable to pay the annual taxes. As a result, the estate was sold. A court estranged the last 505 acres (2.04 km) of the reservation in 1903, but attorney’s fees claimed 280 acres (1.1 km²) of it two years later. Answering a plea from the Chitimacha women, Miss Sarah Avery McIlhenney purchased the estate at a sheriff’s sale in 1915 and hastily ceded it to the federal organization who in position placed the land in trust for the tribe. Federal recognition followed in 1917, and the Chitimacha became the unaided tribe in Louisiana to achieve such status. This new confession and the house held in trust could not have come at a improved time. World War I and the pressure it placed upon oil companies led to exploration in the region and buy of house there.

With their estate secure, many Chitimacha found employment in the supplementary Louisiana oil fields as drillers and foremen. Following the lane of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, the Chitimacha created a new tribal organization. Unfortunately, their small enrollment and deed in finding accomplishment outside their reservation led to an try by the executive to terminate their federal status in 1952. This distress was ultimately defeated, and the Chitimacha, growing in number and organization, put into effect a constitution and bylaws in 1971 that remain in effect today.

The Chitimacha work a museum, fish management plant and school on the reservation. In addition, what began as a bingo operation grew into a lucrative casino that operates on the tribe’s land in Charenton. Revenue from the Cypress Bayou casino has provided the Chitimacha considering funds used to recover estate historically share of the reservation. Consequently, land that had dwindled to just 260 acres (1.1 km) has now swelled to more than a thousand acres (4 km²). The Chitimacha are an important allocation of Charenton’s chronicles as skillfully as a major allowance of the current community.