|  | | | Departure of the Caddo | |
| The relationship between the Caddo and the French was much closer than the relationship between the Caddo and the Spanish during the colonial period. When the Americans came after 1803, the relationship between the Caddo and the Spanish, and later Mexicans, became closer. But just as American imperialism resulted in the Spanish giving up their claim to the Neutral Strip in 1819, so, too, did the Caddo agree to cede their land in northwest Louisiana to the Americans in 1835. The timing could not have been worse for the Caddo. They were planning to leave Louisiana, and go to the land of the original “Tejas”—the Caddo peoples west of the Sabine. But in 1836, Texas gained its independence, and the Anglo Texans began a policy of Indian removal. The Caddo were not welcome in Texas. Most eventually went to Indian Territory (Oklahoma), but some lived in Texas or Mexico for a while, before finally settling in Oklahoma. Today, the tribal center for the Caddo is in Binger, Oklahoma. When visiting Louisiana for dances or conferences, the people of the Caddo Nation say it is like coming home. | | | Images | | | | | | | | | |
| Modern Caddo women perform the Turkey Dance | |
Caddo man with his horse,1893 | | | | |
| | | Learn More | | After Louisiana
Archaeologists from the Texas Historical Commission excavated a site near Caddo Lake on the Louisiana-Texas border that may have been a portion of the village of the Kadohadachos after they left Louisiana. By the 1830s, most Native Americans used European or Euro-American goods, so it is difficult to distinguish a historic Indian camp from an Anglo-American homestead. Historical documents helped verify that the site found near Caddo Lake was indeed the 1830s Caddo location. An insightful look at 1870s Caddo life in Indian Territory comes from Thomas Battey, a schoolteacher at an Indian school. Battey was having trouble teaching the Caddo children. Caddo Chief Guadalupe, who was born near Natchitoches, Louisiana, in 1825, came to the school to talk to the students and to Battey. After telling the students that they should try to learn, should not talk and laugh out loud, and that they should go to bed to sleep and not play all night, Guadalupe then said, “I don’t want to say much; I only want to say a little to the superintendent. I have come from a long way off. I came not for anything bad; but I came to find a good way for my people. We want you to try hard to help us into that good way. We do not want to be like some other tribes, who delight in killing and destruction; but we want to learn how to build houses, raise corn, and provide for our wives and children, that they may live and be happy.” (Battey, Thomas C. 1968 The Life and Adventures of a Quaker among the Indians. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, pages 43–44). | | | Suggested Reading | | Kniffen, Fred, Hiram F. Gregory and George A. Stokes 1987 The Historic Indian Tribes of Louisiana: From 1542 to the Present. LSU Baton Rouge.
Swanton, John R. 1996 Source Material on the History and Ethnology of the Caddo Indians. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman and London.
Newkumet, Vynola Beaver and Morgan Gibson 1988 Hasinai. A Traditional History of the Caddo Confederacy. Texas A & M Press, College Station. | |
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