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Caddo Indian
Divisions and Totems
Divisions and totems. How many tribes were formerly included in the
Caddo confederacy can not now be determined. Owing to the vicissitudes
of the last 3 centuries only a remnant of the Caddo survive, and the
memory of much of their organization is lost. In 1699 Iberville
obtained from his Taensa Indian guide a list of 8 divisions; Linares
in 1716 gave the names of 11; Gatschet (Creek Migr. Leg., i, 43, 1884)
procured from a Caddo Indian in 1882 the names of 12 divisions, and
the list was revised in 1896, by Mooney, as follows:
(1) Kadohadacho
(2) Hainai
(3) Anadarko
(4) Nabedache
(5) Nacogdoches
(6) Natchitoches
(7) Yatasi
(8) Adai
(9) Eyeish
(10) Nakanawan
(11) Imaha, a small hand of Kwapa
(12) Yowani, a band of Choctaw (Mooney in 14th Rep. B. A. E., 1092,
1896).
Of these names the first 9 are found under varying forms in the lists
of 1699 and 1716. The native name of the confederacy, Hasinai, is said
to belong more properly to the first 3 divisions, which may be
significant of their prominence at the time when the confederacy was
overlapping and absorbing members of older organizations, and as these
divisions speak similar dialects, the name may be that which
designated a still older organization.
The following tribes, now extinct, probably belonged to the Caddo
confederacy: Doustionis
Nacaniche
Nanatsoho
Nasoni (?)
The villages of Campti, Choye, and Natasi were probably occupied by
subdivisions of the confederated tribes.
Each division of the confederacy was
subdivided, and each of these sub-tribes had its totem, its
village, its hereditary chieftain, its priests and
ceremonies, and its part in the ceremonies common to the
confederacy. The present clans, according to Mooney, are
recognized as belonging equally to the whole Caddo people
and in old times were probably the chief bond that held the
confederacy together.
The books presented are for their
historical value only and are not the
opinions of the Webmasters of the site.
Handbook
of American Indians, 1906
Index of Tribes or Nations
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