Volume 13 , Issue 44

The Caddo Indians

It is believed that the region inhabited by the Caddo Inidans when they were first met by the whites, soon became the disputed territory between France and Spain, and later between Spain and the United States.

The Caddoes were border Indians and their relations with the Europeans and later Americans were somewhat different from that of the tribes inhabiting undisputed territory. The Caddo Indians were the principal southern representatives of the great Caddoan linguistic family, which include the Wichita, Kichai, Pawnee, and Arikara. They consisted of several tribes or divisions, claiming as their original territory the whole of lower Red River and adjacent country in Louisiana, eastern Texas and Southern Arkansas.

Caddo was a popular name contracted from "Kadohadcho," the name of the Caddo proper was used by themselves.It is extended by the whites to include the Confederacy.

To identify some of the tribes that belonged to the Caddo Confederacy and the best known tribe that inhabited the Louisiana territory were the Natchitoches that lived on Red River, near the present city of Natchitoches, Louisiana.

There is the Yatasi tribe that lived on the Red River in 1690, northwest of Natchitoches. Some of them located near Natchitoches, in order that they might be protected from the attacks of the Chickasaw who were then waging war along the Red River. A part of the tribe migrated up the river to the Kadohadacho and to the Nanatsoho and the Nasoni. At a later date the yatasi must have returned to their old village site, because there were reports that they lived on Bayou River (Stony Creek), which falls into the Red River, Western division, about 50 miles above Natchitoches.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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