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!
Anadarko (from Nädä'ko,
their own name). A tribe of the Caddo confederacy whose dialect was spoken
by the Kadohadacho,
Hainai and
Adai. The earliest mention of the
people is in the relation of Biedma (1544); who writes that Moscoso in
1542 led his men during their southward march through a province that lay
east of the Anadarko. The territory occupied by the tribe was
southwest of the Kadohadacho. Their villages were scattered along
Trinity and Brazos Rivers, Texas, higher up than those of the Hainai, and
do not seem to have been visited so early as theirs by the French. A
Spanish mission was established among the Anadarko early in the 18th
century, but was soon abandoned. La Harpe reached an Anadarko village in
1719, and was kindly received. The people shared in the general
friendliness for the French. During the contentions of the latter with the
Spaniards and later with the English, throughout the 18th century, the
Anadarko suffered greatly. They became embroiled in tribal wars; their
villages were abandoned; and those who survived the havoc of war and the
new diseases brought into the country by the white people were forced to
seek shelter and safety with their kindred toward the north east. I n 1812
a village of 40 men and 200 souls was reported on Sabine River. The
Anadarko lived in villages, having fixed habitations similar to those of
the other tribes of the Caddo confederacy, to whom they were evidently
also similar in customs, beliefs, and clan organization. Nothing is known
definitely of the subdivisions of the tribe, but that such existed is
probable from the fact that the people were scattered over a considerable
territory and lived in a number of villages. They are now incorporated
with the Caddo on the allotted Wichita reservation in Oklahoma. The town
of Anadarko perpetuates the tribal name.
