By about A.D. 800, descendants of the Troyville-Coles Creek people
living in northwestern Louisiana had developed close ties with people in
southeastern Oklahoma, northeastern Texas and southern Arkansas. From
this region emerged the Caddo Culture. These Indians developed a fine,
new style of pottery, and used special ornaments and objects made from
imported materials. They also performed elaborate burials of upper class
people.
There was little change in the daily life of the ordinary Indians. Most
people spent their lives in small villages and hamlets near streams or
lakes. Many trends established in earlier generations persisted. New
garden crops such as beans were introduced and were added to the corn,
squash, gourds and native plants already grown. It seems that people
from these small settlements were governed by high status individuals
living at the ceremonial centers. Common people were probably required
to help build mounds, to supply food, or to make tools or special
objects for their rulers. They gathered at the centers when they were
needed or when special ceremonies or festivals were celebrated.
[Illustration: Gahagan Site]
At the Gahagan Site, in Red River Parish, early Caddo Indians built
mounds and a village around a large open plaza. One mound had three deep
shaft burials, each with three to six bodies and 200 to 400 burial
offerings. Some of the unusual burial objects from this site are two
clay human effigy pipes, two copper cutouts of human hands, two copper
long-nosed mask ear ornaments, two frog effigy pipes, and numerous
triangular stone blades called “Gahagan knives.”
Early Caddo people continued the Troyville-Coles Creek custom of
constructing ceremonial centers with mounds around a central plaza. They
built temples or special buildings on top of the mounds and also dug
graves into the mounds for burials of important people.
These mound burials, however, differed somewhat from those of earlier
cultures. To bury an honored priest or chief, Caddo people dug a large
deep shaft, often all the way from the top of the mound to the ground
level. Then they placed the chief’s body, and other bodies (possibly of
sacrificed servants or family members) in the grave side by side.
Special objects were piled in the corner or along the wall of the pit.
Burial offerings included well-made tools, ceremonial objects and
jewelry designated only for high status people. Typical objects were
fine pottery, carefully flaked stone knives, arrow points, bows, turtle
shell rattles, polished stone axes, rare minerals, stone or clay smoking
pipes, animal teeth pendants, bone hairpins, ear ornaments of bone,
shell, or copper, and beads of copper, shell, and stone. Unusual objects
were pipes in the form of humans and frogs, sheets of copper cut in the
shape of hands, and ear ornaments resembling small copper masks. The
face of each “mask” was an oval about three inches long, but the nose
was seven inches long. Interestingly, at the same time, identical masks
were also used by Indians as far away as Missouri, Wisconsin and
Florida.
Caddo potters made special new shapes such as bottles, and bowls with
sharply angled rims. They fired the pieces in a new way so they would be
black or dark mahogany in color, then polished the dark surfaces to make
them glossy. Some common ornamental designs were curved lines cut into
the surface and sometimes highlighted with red or green-colored pigment
rubbed into the engraved lines. Not surprisingly, much of the
utilitarian pottery remained quite similar in appearance to the late
Troyville-Coles Creek pottery. Caddo Indians probably still used it for
daily chores, while they saved more ornate wares for special occasions.
The ordinary Caddo Culture people lived in villages away from the mound
center. Their lives were centered around hunting, fishing, collecting,
and gardening activities. When a commoner died, he or she was buried in
a simple grave without objects. Although this way of life seems totally
separate from the elaborate life of the elite, the two worlds overlapped
at ceremonial occasions, when everyone gathered at the mound centers.
[Illustration: Caddo: a-c, Clay Vessels; d-e, Clay Pipes; f,
Engraved Shell Cup; g, Shell Pendant; h, Stone Points (⅓ actual
size)]
Between A.D. 1100 and A.D. 1400, Caddo ceremonial life seems to have
been less important. All burials were simple, with only one person in a
grave. Fewer imported stones and minerals were used to make high status
objects, and more ordinary pottery was made.
After A.D. 1400, there was a return to Caddo ceremonialism. Many early
Caddo customs were revived, but new practices were also added. Mound
construction resumed, with temples, lodges, or chiefs’ houses being
built on top. These structures characteristically were built of wattle
and daub and had thatched roofs. They were used for a time, then they
were burned, probably when the leader or an important person died.
Workers covered the ruins with sand or clay, and eventually replaced the
old building with a new one. Sometimes graves were dug through the floor
of standing buildings or through the rubble of burned ones. As many as
seven people have been found buried together in these graves, along with
food offerings and large numbers of objects.
As in earlier times, important people had special customs and belongings
that ordinary people did not have. One custom was that of binding an
infant’s head to a cradleboard so that as the person grew to maturity
the head was noticeably flattened and therefore distinguished the high
class person from people of the lower class. Upper class people used
ornate clay pipes, conch shell cups, ceremonial objects, fine pottery,
and jewelry. Their jewelry included anklets, necklaces, bone hairpins,
and bone pottery and shell discs that were worn through the ears. Some
pendants were fashioned from mammal teeth or shells, and occasionally a
large sea shell pendant had a lizard or salamander engraved on it.
Caddo leaders of this late period probably used the most delicate and
decorated pottery. Pots ranged in size from miniatures to large
wide-mouthed storage vessels. Many shapes were made, but special vessels
were formed to resemble birds and turtles, or to act as rattles. Popular
designs were circles, scrolls, and crosses engraved into the vessel
after firing. Engraved designs were often highlighted with red, white or
green pigments.
Daily life of ordinary people was much different than that of the elite.
As far as we know, the former continued to live as they had during the
earlier part of the period. They lived in circular houses in small
villages located near their gardens and buried their dead in simple
graves with few goods.
By the time the first Europeans reached Caddo villages in the mid-1500s,
Caddo Indians were divided into several distinct groups. In Louisiana,
these were the Adaes, Doustioni, Natchitoches, Ouachita and Yatasi. The
Indians supplied the Europeans with salt, horses, and food in exchange
for glass beads, kettles, guns, ammunition, knives, ceramics, bells and
bracelets. Contact with the Spanish and French explorers ended the
prehistoric era, and led to rapid and devastating changes in the
traditional life.