While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Caddoan Family. A linguistic family, first classified
by Gallatin (Trans, and Coll. Am. Antiq. Soc., n, 116, 1836), who
regarded the Caddo and Pawnee languages as distinct, hence both names appear in
his treatise as family designations. Although now regarded as belonging to the
same linguistic stock, there is a possibility that future investigation may
prove their distinctness. The Caddoans may be treated in three geographic groups
: The Northern, represented by the
Arikara in North Dakota; the Middle,
comprising the
Pawnee confederacy formerly living on Platte r., Neb., and to the
w. and s. w. thereof; and the Southern group, including among others the
Caddo,
Kichai, and
Wichita (Powell in 7th Rep. B. A. E., 58, 1891) . The
tribes included in the Southern group were scattered throughout the region of
the Red r. of Louisiana and its tributaries, in Arkansas and s. Oklahoma, where
their names survive in the Washita r., the Wichita mountains and river, Waco
city, Kichai hills, etc.; they also spread along the Sabine, Neches, Trinity,
and Brazos rs. of Texas, and in part con trolled the territory as far as the
Colorado r. of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.
From cultural and other evidence the Caddoan tribes seem to have moved eastward
from the S. W. The advance guard was probably the Caddo proper, who, when first
met by the white race, had dwelt so long in the region of the Red r. of
Louisiana as to regard it as their original home or birthplace. Other branches
of the Caddoan family followed, settling along the rivers of N. E. Texas.
Whether they drove earlier occupants of the region to the Gulf or at a later day
were forced back from the coast by intrusive tribes is not clear, but that some
displacement had occurred seems probable, as early Spanish and French travelers
found tribes of different families on the Gulf coast, while the Caddoans held
the rivers but were acquainted with the coast and visited the bays of Galveston
and Matagorda. The last group to migrate was probably the Pawnee, who kept to
the x. and N. E. and settled in a part of what is now Kansas and Nebraska.
The tribes of N. E. Texas being in the territory over which the Spaniards,
French, and English contended for supremacy, were the first to succumb to
contact with the white race and the in roads of wars and new diseases. Those
dwelling farther inland escaped for a time, but all suffered great diminution in
numbers; the thousands of 2 centuries ago are now represented by only a few
hundreds. The survivors to-day live on allotted lands in Oklahoma and North
Dakota, as citizens of the United States, and their children are being educated
in the language and the industries of the country.
From the earliest records and from traditions the Caddoan tribes seem to have
been cultivators of the soil as well as hunters, and practiced the arts of
pottery making, weaving, skin dressing, etc. Tattooing the face and body was
common among those of the Southern group. Two distinct types of dwellings were
used the conical straw house among the Southern group and the earth lodge among
the Pawnee and Arikara. Their elaborate religious ceremonies pertained to the
quest of long life, health, and food supply, and embodied a recognition of
cosmic forces and the heavenly bodies. By their supernatural and social power
these ceremonies bound the people together. The tribes were generally loosely
confederated; a few stood alone. The tribe was subdivided, and each one of these
subdivisions had its own village, bearing a distinctive name and sometimes
occupying a definite relative position to each of the other villages of the
tribe. A village could be spoken of in three ways:
(1) By its proper name, which was generally mythic in its significance or
referred to the share or part taken by it in the religious rites, wherein all
the villages of the tribe had a place;
(2) by its secular name, which was often descriptive of its locality;
(3) by the name of its chief.
The people sometimes spoke of themselves by one of the names of their
village, or by that of their tribe, or by the name of the confederacy to which
they belonged. This custom led to the recording, by the early travelers, of a
multiplicity of names, several of which might represent one community. This
confusion was augmented when not all the tribes of a confederacy spoke the same
language; in such cases a mispronunciation or a translation caused a new name to
be record ed. For instance, the native name of the Caddo confederacy, Hasinai,
our own people, was translated by the Yatasi, and "Texas" is a modification of
the word they gave. Owing to the fact that a large proportion of the tribes
mentioned by the writers of the last 3 centuries, together with their languages,
are now extinct, a correct classification of the recorded names is no longer
possible. The following list of confederacies, tribes, and villages is divided
into 4 groups: (1) Those undoubtedly Caddoan; (2) those probably so; (3) those
possibly so; (4) those which appear to have been within the Caddoan country.
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
