The Caddo were a group of about 25 Native North American tribes that originally lived in the area that is now Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Caddo Culture and History. The Caddo Nation is a confederacy of several Southeastern Native American tribes. Passed on through many generations, these traditions run deep in the Caddo tribe. Although women can be fancy feather dancers, it is usually men and boys who dance in the arena wearing vibrant fancy dancer regalia that includes feathers, intricate bead work and feather fans, for instance. Even on the Brazos reservation they still had trouble with their white neighbors. In the earlier period they were commonly known to the Spaniards as Tejas, whence the name of the State, and to the French as Cenis or Assinais. Phil Schermeister/Corbis/VCG/Corbis Documentary/GettyImages, Dr. Mary Dowd - Updated December 11, 2018, Copyright 2021 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Education, Explore state by state cost analysis of US colleges in an interactive article, Native American Indian Facts: Caddo Indians Facts, Texas State Historical Association: Caddo Indians, Native Languages of the Americas: Caddo Indian Fact Sheet, The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture: Dehahuit (?–1833). But the burial places like the houses of these two related families are separate. Adai Caddo Indian Nation is the name of a Native American people of northwestern Louisiana and northeastern Texas with a Southeastern culture. Sam Houston got the land from Biskuachu, a paternal parallel cousin. Everyday decisions could be made independently by the chief. Ghost dances were performed to help the living connect with the dead. We do custom screen printing and vinyl. The Caddo Nation hopes to keep their endangered language alive through language instruction to children while stressing the significance of speaking the same language as their ancestors. Still, bison hunting was not a core part of Caddo culture and bison do not figure prominently in Caddo mythology. Photograph by Cecile Carter. The Caddo society was made up of independent named groups sometimes called tribes. Burial Customs: Wedding Customs. Radiocarbon dates at the site and comparisons with other cultures suggest that the Belcher Focus began about A.D. 1400 and lasted into the seventeenth century. Dated: 2002-2005 . These graves, some of which were made before 1900, are on land now belonging to Sam Houston 4 (Gen. Food was kept in clay pots safe from gnawing rodents. The name Texas comes derives from the Caddo word 'taysha' meaning \"friend.\" This pottery has thin walls, is highly polished, and has complex and precisely executed designs. Colors are dazzling, and shirts are bedazzled with vibrant ribbons. Long before the arrival of European explorers, the Caddo were growing corn, cooking in clay pots, building thatched grass houses and hunting game with efficient weapons. 5 The body of Mr. Blue was brought from some distance (Fort Cobb) to be buried in this place (Binger) which “seemed like home to them.”–From the evidence, it seems as if members of the same family were buried together, and that for burial purposes kinship was reckoned through the mother. Many archaeologists consider the fine ware to be the most accomplished pottery ever made in the prehistoric Southeast. Considering the fact that they are heathens, the moral customs of these natives are good, since they are not ambitious like the Comanches nor deceitful like the Lipanes. Basket traps were also devised for catching fish in river streams. In the early 19th century, Caddo people were forced to a reservation in Texas; they were removed to Indian Territory in 1859. According to Dorsey 2: 62-64, cannibals who eat the dead. They traded salt, which they obtained from saline springs near the Red and Ouachita rivers, with southeastern Indians. However, Caddo descendants are working to revive this tradition, such as replicating the intricate engravings on coil clay pots characteristic of the early Caddo period. Caddo Indian Genealogy. Families were organized into separate clans, and marriage within clans was unacceptable. The Caddo's ceramic tradition along with the Pueblos was the most beautiful, the most skilled, and the most sought after in the entire land. Women and children dance in a circle while male drummers sing songs in an ancient Caddo dialect. The scattered Caddo came together at mound centers like Caddoan Mounds during sacred and festive times. What language did the Caddo tribe speak?The Caddo tribe spoke in their native Caddoan language. The Caddo were a part of a larger religious culture that is found all across the south and Midwest. The Caddo have the proud distinction of descending from ancestors who arrived around 700 A.D. Free Genealogy » Native American » Burial Customs of the Caddo Tribe. The name Adai is derived from the Caddo word Hadai meaning ‘brushwood’. This custom consisted of making contact with an opponent without actually hurting him. Excavations of the mounds reveal that up to eight people were occasionally buried together. The tribe has not given permission for the full-text document to be made available online here. Two frames were quickly prepared by planting two pairs of stout uprights in the earth about four feet apart, with cross-pieces about one foot and nine feet from the ground. An important group of closely cognate and usually allied tribes formerly holding a considerable territory in Western Louisiana and Eastern Texas, entering upon the Red, Sabine, and Neches Rivers. The Caddo tribe were farmers and mainly lived on crops that were harvested by the women of the tribe. This culture, which some students look upon as late Paleo-Indian and others as early Archaic, was named for a stream in De Soto and Sabine parishes (Webb 1946). Contact: PO Box 231 Binger, Oklahoma 73009 CaddoCultureClub@Yahoo.com. In 1855 most of the Indians on the reservation were forced to flee to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. When the Europeans arrived, charismatic leaders like Chief Dehahuit proved to be clever negotiators in trade deals and maintained Caddo independence. Please note that Caddos and other American Indians are living people with a present and a future as well as a past. Caddo Indians were organized as a communal society, meaning they helped each other with whatever needed to get done. The communities shared a section of a river valley. Migration/movement/forced removal . Experience Caddo Culture at Caddo Mounds State Historic Site as we celebrate the archeological and cultural heritage of the Hasinai Caddo Indians. Bigger decisions such as declaring war, working on diplomatic relations with other tribes or sharing the peace pipe were made by the chief in consultation with the canahas. For example, in the 1780s the Hasinai For a period of time, the Caddo style of artistry was lost. Unlike most tribes they didn't live in tee pee's, but in earthen lodges with thatched roofs. Archeologists suggest that the bodies may have been family or servants sacrificed by the tribe to honor the leader’s legacy or to provide companionship in the spirit world. In the Hassinai group of Caddo Indians, a high priest called the Xinesi led ceremonies such as the late summer green-corn ceremony, where the first ears of corn were harvested and offered to the gods. 300 years later the Spanish and the French visited the area, passing along the Camino. A confederacy of tribes belonging to the southern group of the Caddoan linguistic family. The Caddo confederacy peaked in 1200 A.D. with 250,000 tribal members. Men hunting is an important tradition because if they didnt hunt the tribe … Despite these hardships, the Caddo maintained their cultural pride and identity. dances is another cherished custom and something that sets the Caddo people apart from other tribes. Dehahuit became chief of the Kadohadacho, the most prominent of the Caddo tribes, sometime around 1800. The communities were made up of villages and farmsteads. This rite is repeated at the other sides of the grave, south, west, north. Gradually, the seesaw of European boundaries crossed what the Caddo all knew as their tribal territories. Some Native Americans have been devout Christians for generations, and their practices today combine their traditional customs with Christian elements. During the 17th century, the Hasinai traded with the Jumano at the western Hasinai city of Nabedache. Important Caddo customs include communicating in their native language. In Texas, the Caddo used salt from salt mines for cooking and food preservation and as a valuable trading commodity. At the time of the land allotment White Moon’s grandmother selected as her land the place where her daughter and grandson, White Moon’s mother and little brother, were buried. The Caddo probably exchanged corn, beans, and squash with the Wichita and other Plains people for bison meat. In keeping with Caddo traditions and customs, splendid regalia is worn by men, women and children. In another place are buried, near one another, several of White Moon’s paternal relatives, his father, Mr. Blue, his father’s mother, his father’s three sisters and a parallel cousin. Ceremonies played a significant role in Caddo religious practices. Caddo: How/Where Did They Live They are definitely Sedentary. The Caddo were spiritual people connected to nature. Women wear beautiful beads around their neck and carry beaded shawls with fringe. The Caddo Indians were known to be a friendly tribe, interested in trading with almost anyone; their only enemy being the Osage Indians to the North. The Caddo tales here presented were collected during the years 1903-1905, under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and form part of a systematic investigation of the religious system and ceremonial organization of the tribes of the Caddoan stock. This nonfiction title explores the history of the Caddo and Comanche, how they adapted to European colonists and American settlers, and the impact they made on Texas history. They built their villages on the fertile lands along the Red River. For instance, it was customary for multiple families to work together when building a new house, clearing land, planting or harvesting fields. The Caddo used flint and other stone tools as knives to prepare their meat and scrape the animal hides. Formerly they shot arrows to notify the “master of the house” to whom the dead went (Hatcher, XXX, 294). Required fields are marked *. Some mounds were about the size of an Egyptian pyramid. They maintained trade and cultural contacts with the lower Mississippi Valley tribes of eastern and southern Louisiana for many centuries. There is a big river crossed by a small log. The Caddo people were the western-most of the Mississippian cultures. 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