All about the ancient tribes
The Caddos raised corn, beans, squash and other crops. They also hunted the bear and deer of East Texas and headed west for annual buffalo hunts. The Hasinai were the largest confederation of Caddos in Deep East Texas.
What was the traditional food the Caddo Indians ate?
The Caddo people had a diet based on cultivated crops, particularly maize (corn), but also sunflower, pumpkins, and squash. These foods held cultural significance, as did wild turkeys. They hunted and gathered wild plants, as well.
There are scattered reports of ceremonial human sacrifice and cannibalism; these and other traits probably indicate trade or other links between the Caddo and the centres of Aztec or Mayan cultures in Mexico and Yucatán.
Corn became the Caddo’s mainstay crop about 800 years ago and was considered a sacred plant because of its importance to Caddo life. Courtesy of the artist. Native river cane once grew profusely along streams and rivers in the Caddo Homeland.
The Caddo men were warriors and hunters, and the women farmed and cooked. The men wore breechcloths and cut their hair into a Mohawk style or a scalplock style. The women wore wraparound skirts and poncho tops made of deerskin. The Louisiana Caddoans lived in tall beehive shaped grass houses.
A breechcloth is a long rectangular piece of tanned deerskin, cloth, or animal fur. It is worn between the legs and tucked over a belt, so that the flaps fall down in front and behind. In some tribes, the breechcloth loops outside of the belt and then is tucked into the inside, for a more fitted look.
Caddo farmer Caddo men hunted for deer, buffalo, and small game and went fishing in the rivers. Traditional Caddo foods included cornbread, soups, and stews. The Caddo Indians in Texas also mined salt from underground mines, which they boiled down to use in their cooking.
The Caddo Native Indians were known to be a friendly tribe, interested in trading with almost anyone. Their enemies were the Sioux and the Osage tribes to the North. The weapons used by the Caddo included axes, war clubs, maces, knives, pikes and bows and arrows, commonly made of bois de arc wood.
Throughout the year, members of the tribe gather for festivals and celebrations on important occasions. The women and young girls wear bright costumes with colorful ribbons. Stepping in time to the rhythm of the Caddo drummers, they dance the traditional dances taught to them by their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers.
The Caddo originated in the lower Mississippi Valley and spread west along the river systems. Sometime between 700 and 800 they settled the area between the Arkansas River and the middle reaches of the Red, Sabine, Angelina, and Neches rivers and adopted agriculture.
The Caddo lived in east Texas in the piney forests. Look at the map of East Texas Indian lands. Their territory extended into Louisiana.
Before the middle of the nineteenth century the term Caddo denoted only one of at least twenty-five distinct but closely affiliated groups centered around the Red River in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.
John Swanton (l996:121) noted: The Caddo Indians practiced a vibrant peyote religion long before John Wilson (Moonhead) or Quanah Parker reǦignited the Native American Church. Moreover, research has shown the importance of the peyote plant to the Caddo long before any European contact.
A dome-shaped grass house. For hundreds of years, the Caddo Indians built huge dome-shaped houses, temples, and other structures without using modern equipment or tools! They had no chainsaws or metal axes to cut down the tall pine trees from the forests.
The large beehive-shaped grass houses of the Caddo and Wichita peoples were permanent dwellings found mainly in East Texas and adjoining areas of neighboring states. Grass houses were much larger than tipis, sometimes reaching 50 feet tall and housing two or more families!
Caddo is a Southern Caddoan language spoken in Caddo County in Western Oklahoma in the USA by 25 people in 2007, all of whom are elderly. Caddo has a number of dialects, including Kadohadacho, Hasinai, Hainai, Natchitoches and Yatasi, of which Hasinai and Hainai are the most spoken.