3. THE CADDO COUNTRY AND RANGE
According to a tradition of the Caddo which has parallels among other tribes, their original home was on lower Red River in Louisiana. The story says that they came up from under the ground through the mouth of a cave on a lake close to the south bank of Red River, just at its junction with the Mississippi. From this place they spread out toward the west, following up the course of Red River, along which they made their principal settlements. Bolton states that during the eighteenth century they extended along both banks of the Red River from the present city of Natchitoches, Louisiana, to the Natsoos and Nassonites tribes, above the great bend of the Red River in southwestern Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma.
No definite boundary lines can be given for the territory claimed by the Caddo previous to eighteen hundred. Good authority establishes the fact that they claimed a very extensive tract of country on both sides of Red River extending from the present city of Shreveport to the cross timber, a remarkable tract of woodland, which crosses Red River more than a thousand miles above its mouth. This tract of country claimed by the Caddo was one of the finest sections within the bounds of North America.
The topography of the country made it suitable for agriculture, stock raising, fishing, and hunting. The Caddo uplands are marked by numerous bayous and lakes and are undoubtedly excellent in quality. The river lands are of the richest alluvial soil and of wonderful fertility. The soil of the valley in many places is a black, deep soil of unsurpassed fertility. At intervals along the Red River from Shreveport to the timber line there are numerous lakes and spring-brooks, flowing over a fertile soil, here and there interspersed with glades and small prairies, affording a fine range for the wild animals that inhabited the Indians' happy hunting ground.
The range of the Caddo was far beyond the territory that they claimed. It undoubtedly extended east from the Red River near the present city of Shreveport to the Ouachita River, and north to the Arkansas River, northwest to the source of the Red River and west to the Sabine River.
Since the Caddo hunted, traded, and often went to war with adjacent tribes, it appears necessary at this time to give a sketch of the tribes bordering on the territory claimed by the Caddo. To the west and southwest of the Caddo on the Angelina and upper Neches rivers lived the Hasinai Confederacy, that comprised some ten or more tribes, of which the best known were the Hainai, Nacogdoche, Nabedache, Nasoni, and Nadaco. They were a settled people, who had been living in the same region certainly since the time of La Salle, and probably long before. They dwelt in scattered villages, practiced agriculture to a great extent, and hunted buffalo on the western prairies. In manners, customs, and social organization the tribes of the confederacy were similar to those of the Caddo.
The Wichita, comprising another group of the Caddoan tribes, lived northwest of the Caddo, on the upper Red, Brazos, and Trinity Rivers. They were known to the Spaniards of New Mexico as Jumano and to the French as Panipiquet or Panis. They are now collectively called by ethnologists the Wichita.
The civilization of the Wichita was essentially like that of the Caddo and the Hasinai, though they were more war like, less fixed in their habitat, and more barbarous, even practicing cannibalism extensively.
The Arkansas (Quapaw) lived north of the Caddo on the south side of the Arkansas River about twelve miles above the Arkansas post. They claimed all the land along the river for about three hundred miles above them. They were friendly with the Caddo tribes, but at war with the Osage who lived farther up the river. They were active tillers of the soil, and also made pottery of the finest design.
East of the Caddo across Red River on Bayou Chicot was a Choctaw village. Marshall says that as early as 1763, and perhaps earlier, some of the Choctaw left their homes in Mississippi and Georgia, and migrated west of the Mississippi where they evidently encroached upon the Caddo, for in 1780 some of them were at war with that nation."
These are the principal tribes and confederacies found along the borders of the territory claimed by the Caddo Indians during the eighteenth century.