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Pani Indians
Editor's Note: Pani is a
derivative for Pawnee, so the following
information is referencing the
Pawnee Indians.
The great family of
Pani Indians has, in historic times,
extended from the Platte River southward to
the Gulf of Mexico. From the main stock, the
Sanish or Arikari have wandered on their
hunting trips north to the Middle Missouri
River, while the Pani, in four divisions,
had the Platte and its tributaries for their
headquarters. The southern tribes are the
Witchita, the Towákone or Three Canes, who
speak the Witchita dialect, the Kichai and
the originally Texan tribes of the Caddo and
Waco (Wéko, in Spanish: Hueco.)l
The Pani family was too
remote from the Maskoki tribes to enter in
direct connection with them. Some of the
southern septs had intercourse with them,
mainly through the French colonists. Fights
between Caddo and
Cha’hta are recorded for
the eighteenth century. The Pani family is
mentioned here simply because the legendary
caves from which the Creek nation is said to
have sprung lay on Red River, within the
limits of the territory held by some of the
southern Pani nations.
When L. d’Iberville
ascended the western branch of the Red
river, now called Red River (the eastern
branch being Washita or Black River), in
March 1699, he saw and visited eight
villages of the Caddo connection. His
Taensa
guide named them as follows:
- Yataché; called Yátassi
by Americans.
- Nactythos; they are the
Natchitoches.
- Yesito;
- Natao; the Adai above.
- Cachaymons;
- Cadodaquis; full form,
Cado-hadatcho or "chief tribe.”
- Natachés;
- Natsytos.
The Cachaymons and the
Cadodaquis had been previously visited by
Cavelier de la Salle, when returning from
the Cenys, in the central parts of Texas.2
The Caddo confederacy
consists of the following divisions or
tribes, as given me by a Caddo Indian in
1882:
- Kado proper: kádo means
chief, principal.
- Anadako, Anadaku; also
Nandako.
- Ainai, Ayenai; also
Hini, Inies upon an affluent of Sabine
River; identical with the Tachies (Sibley).
From this tribal name is derived Texas,
anciently Tachus, Taxus.
- Natchidosh, Nashédosh;
the Natchitoches.
- Yátassi.
- Anabaidaítcho,
Nabádatsu; the Nabedatches, who are nearly
extinct now.
- Nátassi; identical with
the Natachés above.
- Nakúhĕdōtch,
Nakohodótse; the Nagogdoches.
- Assíne, Assíni; the
Asinays of French explorers.
- Hadaí; the Adái, Adáye,
q. v.
- Yowā’ni, now in Texas.
- A’-ish; a few of these
are now living in Texas, called Alish, Eyish
by former writers.
The Caddo relate, as
being the mythical origin of their nation,
that they came from a water-sink in
Louisiana, went westward, shoved up earth by
means of arrowheads, and thus made a
mountain. The totems of their gentes once
were, as far as remembered, bear ná-ustse,
panther kö’she, wolf tá-isha, snake kíka,
wild-cat wadó, Owl néa, ó-ush.
When Milfort passed
through the Red River country about 1780,
the Caddo, whom he describes as fallacious
in trading, were at war with the Cha’hta
(Memoire, p. 95).
In 1705 some Colapissa
from the Talcatcha River, four leagues from
Lake Pontchartrain, settled upon the
northern bank of this lake at Castembayouque
(now Bayou Castin, at Mandeville), and were
joined, six months after, by a party of "Nassitoches,"
whom famine had driven from their homes on
Red river.3
Footnotes:
- Cf. R. G. Latham, Opuscula, p. 400, who was the first to hint
at a possible affinity of Caddo to Pani.
- Cf. Margry IV, 178.
313. 409.
- Pénicaut, in Margry
V, 459-462.
Back to:
Southern Families of Indians
Notes About Book:
Source: Gatschet, Albert S., A Migration Legend of the Creek Indians.
Pub.
D.G. Brinton, Philadelphia, 1884.
Notes about Online Publication: This manuscript has been ocr'd and heavily
edited. Many of the Native American words have been reproduced as clearly as
online publication will allow us, but not all are exactly the way they were in
the original work. The structure of this manuscript has been changed to allow
better online presentation.
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