The Caddo Indians were a confederation of tribes who lived in East Texas and surrounding areas, known for their farming, craftsmanship, and religious worship. They were eventually forced off their land and given a reservation, which was later revoked. Today, the Caddo Nation has over 5,000 members and strives to preserve their language and traditions.
The Caddo Indians were once a confederation of numerous clans, tribes, and smaller confederations of Indians who spoke a similar Caddoan language. The name of one of the largest of these confederacies, the Tejas, was the origin of the state name of Texas. The tribes traditionally inhabited East Texas along the Red, Brazos, Sabine, Natches, Trinity, and Colorado rivers, extending into Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. In 1874, the remnants of these various Native American groups were legally united as a unified Caddo Indian tribe.
The Caddo Indians were part of the Mound Indians found in the southeastern and midwestern United States, who built earth mounds to raise their temples and the homes of important leaders. Their religious worship was conducted in temples by formal clergy and independent shamans. Fire, which represented the sun god, played an important role in community worship and was always kept burning in homes and temples. Once each fall, they put out all the old fires and built new ones with fresh fire brought in from the temples in an annual celebration of renewal.
Archaeological excavations can date the Caddo Indians in the United States to about the year AD 1000; although the first recorded contact with Europeans was in 1541 when De Soto, the Spanish explorer, encountered them. The Caddo, who were primarily farmers and hunters, lived in a sophisticated and highly structured society that maintained friendly relations with most of their neighbors, including French and Spanish explorers. They lived in fixed houses on farms where they grew corn, squash, squash, and various vegetables, and supplemented their diet with fish and game.
In addition to being farmers, the Caddo Indians were craftsmen. They grew cotton which they dyed and wove into cloth and made decorative objects from wood and terracotta. Indians also have a secret method of dyeing leather black. Early settlers described beautiful jewelry made by the Caddos that was similar in design to that of South American tribes, only not made with gold or silver, which was not available in East Texas.
As white settlers pushed west, the Caddo Indians were driven off their land, eventually being placed with other tribes on the Wichita Reservation. The Caddos left the reservation and moved to Kansas for a period of time during the Civil War but returned after the war ended. In 1874, when the tribes united under the name Caddo, they were given their own separate reservation. Subsequently, as a result of the Dawes Act, ownership of the reservation was revoked and each family that was willing to register with the federal government was given an allotment of 160 acres of land. The rest of the land was confiscated by the government and sold.
Caddo Indians are recognized as both citizens of the United States and as an independent nation. In 1900, there were just over 500 registered Caddo Nation members. A century later the tribal membership has exceeded 5,000. While all Caddo Indians speak English, their tribal council and elders strive to keep the Caddo language, customs, and ceremonies alive.
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