to become caddi was groomed for years before obtaining the position about his duties as chief, how to keep order in his community, and how to maintain peace in the Caddo Nation. The caddi determined when to build new houses, approved marriages, assembled elders for major decisions, hosted feasts, organized official welcomes for visitors, sponsored and officiated over planting and harvest ceremonies, conducted peacemaking ceremonies, conducted war councils, and hosted victory celebrations.
The Caddo had their own language and religion. They were one of several Southern tribes that were part of a religious culture known as mound builders. The name "mound builders" comes from the fact that Caddo temples, caddi's residences, and some villages were built on top of or around high earth mounds constructed for the purpose. The Caddo also buried their dead in large earthen mounds according to a solemn ritual and believed that spirits of dead traveled to another world.
They farmed, hunted, traded, and were excellent craftsmen.
The Caddo were primarily agricultural. Like most Native American tribes, women did most of the farming, cooking, making clothing, and raising children. The Caddo cleared areas in the woods to use for farming. They raised corn, squash, beans, and cotton as staple crops. The women used stones to grind the corn into meal to cook with. In addition to the crops they raised, they gathered seasonal foods like pecans, walnuts, hickory nuts, black berries, persimmons, and other foods native in the East Texas woods. The men hunted deer, turkey, rabbits, and squirrels.
The Caddo grew cotton and used it to make clothing. The women wove the cotton into fabric and died cotton fabrics various colors with vegetable dyes made from native berries and roots. Animal hides were also used to make blankets, clothing and shoes. The clothing was decorated with beads and embroidery.
They lived in villages consisting of related farms. Caddo homes were either pointed grass and cane covered huts or square huts made of poles covered with thatch and mud with thatch roofs. The tall pointed huts were circular in shape and were constructed by setting wooden poles in the ground, pulling the tops together, and binding them. They covered the pole frame with cut cane and grass, and the completed home resembled an early bee hive. Other houses were made by setting poles vertically in the ground in a square and covering the sides with long grasses and mud. The roofs were made of poles covered with bark or grass.
The huts varied in size, and some were large enough to accommodate several families. They homes were furnished with beds and chairs, and grass and split cane mats covered the floors. The huts and their associated farming spots formed communities that sometimes stretched a considerable distance around a mound or group of mounds that acted as the community's ceremonial center.
Pottery was a very important part of Caddo life. It was used to prepare and store cooked food, to eat from, to store seeds, to carry water, and for ceremonial and other uses.
Caddo women fashioned their pottery from natural clays found in the area. "Pinch pottery" was made by pinching a moist clump of clay between the fingers to give it the desired shape. Other pottery was made by rolling a moist clump of clay between the palms to form a clay rope. The rope was then coiled and pressed into pottery with the fingers. Sometimes different colors of clay were used in the same piece to give it different colors, but Caddo pottery found in Titus County was not brightly painted as was the case with some other tribes. The finished piece was given a smooth finish by rubbing it with a smooth stone to polish it. Caddo pottery was often decorated by scratching designs into the finished piece while it was still damp and pliable. Once complete, the moist pottery was heated over wood fires to harden it, just as modern pottery is kiln-fired. However, since the Caddo didn't have electricity or natural gas to produce very hot fires like modern kilns, Caddo pottery had a rougher finish and was more porous than modern pottery.
The Caddo fashioned tools from wood and native rock like hematite and flint. Dart and spear points, knives and scraping tools were fashioned by striking a piece of hematite or flint with a harder rock to cause pieces to chip or flake off. By carefully striking the piece of rock to be made into a tool, an edge was formed and the rock was shaped to its final form.
The dart's shaft was made from small straight limb. The end of the limb was split, and the rock dart tip was slid into the groove. A piece of sinew was wrapped around the outside of the shaft at the base of the stone point to bind it to the arrow. Spear points were made in the same manner, but were larger than dart points.
Rock axe and celt heads were made in a similar manner. The axe heads had a wider point, and were not very sharp.
The Caddo traded with other tribes as well as the white man when they arrived in the area. Several items have been found in Titus County that are not native to this area, which the Caddo are thought to have traded for and brought to Titus County.
When Hernando DeSoto explored the region to claim its land for Spain, the Spanish lived with the Caddo, who were kind and generous to them. Later, in the 1680s, Sieur de LaSalle explored East Texas for France. While they never settled in East Texas, the French expeditions caused the Spanish to establish more permanent settlements in the area.
As more and more white settlers came to the area, problems began for the Native Americans. The new settlers brought European diseases that killed many Caddo natives, who had no resistance to the diseases or medicines to treat the diseases. The whites treated the Caddo badly, stealing their livestock and taking their native lands in the name of their foreign kings. This naturally made the Indians resentful and bred a hatred for white colonists. The Indians moved away from the white settlers, but settlers continued expanding "their" territory.
The United States acquired approximately 530 million acres of land at a cost of about 4¢ per acre from France in the Louisiana purchase of 1803. The United States finally paid $23,213,568 for the Louisiana territory, including interest. The United States claimed the Sabine River as its western boundary under the Louisiana Purchase, but Spain and later Mexico and the Republic of Texas claimed the Red River as Texas' eastern boundary. This resulted in a "no man's land" between the Red and Sabine Rivers that neither country controlled. Consequently, the area known as the "Neutral Ground" became a hideout for Indians and outlaws who preyed on emigrants en route to Austin's colonies.
Stephen F. Austin secured a land grant from the Mexican government in 1824. He brought Anglo colonists to Texas and established several Central Texas colonies. In 1834 the Mexican Government auctioned Texas land for a minimum price of $10.00 for 177 acres. Texas emigrants arriving between October 1, 1837 and January 1, 1840 received 640 acres per family. Single men who were at least 17 years of age received 320 acres. Settlers had to remain on the land three years and pay a small fee before receiving a deed.
Westward progress of white settlements elsewhere in Texas during the 1820s and 1830s forced other tribes including Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokees to leave their native homes. They settled in this area, and were naturally bitter and revengeful about having to leave their native habitats. Indian raids were not infrequent.
Kendall Lewis is thought to have been Titus County's earliest Anglo settler. Lewis moved here in 1835 and settled on Swannano Creek with his wife, who was probably a Creek Indian. Lewis's land grant, patented in February 1842, is thought to have been the first land surveyed in the county. The Lewises remained in Titus County until 1846, when they left Texas due to Indian unrest.
The Yearly family, early white emigrants to this area, located on Sulphur River in Hopkins County between 1830 and 1840, and were killed by Indians in 1840.
The Ripley family settled on Titus County's Ripley Creek. In April, 1841 Mr. Ripley was away from home leaving Mrs. Ripley with a 20 year old son, three 12 to 16 year old daughters, and several smaller children. Indians raided the Ripley homestead while he was gone. Two daughters successfully hid in brush along Ripley Creek, but the other family members were killed.
After the Ripley massacre, 80 men organized and chased the Indians to Wise County, where they attacked them, recovering 80 horses and some cooking utensils.
White settlers built a baked brick "dugout" fort that was two-thirds below ground level about three miles northwest of Winfield. A spring was located about 25 yards from the fort. The above ground portion had holes in each side so occupants could shoot at raiding Indians. Whites took refuge in the fort in times of Indian raids.
Fort Sherman was another pioneer fort located on Cypress Creek south of Gray Rock near the present-day Blodgett Community. No tangible evidence remains of Fort Sherman, but the Fort Sherman Dam on Lake Bob Sandlin was named in honor it. A cemetery established near the fort is now located inside the Lake Bob Sandlin State Recreational Area and maintained by the State of Texas. A few marked graves are visible, but natives raised in the Blodgett community say that many more graves visible years ago have now been lost.
Many immigrants were afraid to settle in this area because of Indian raids. However, settlers began to drift into the part of Red River County now comprising Titus County in about 1840. Two months after the Ripley massacre, between 400 and 500 whites formed an expedition against the Indians. They were unable to find the Indians, but the expedition deterred further Indian raids.
The United States agreed to the Red River as Texas' eastern border in 1841, and Red River County was created. Red River County originally contained most of Northeast Texas. Abstracts of title were not issued describing land in present-day Titus County until after Red River County was surveyed in 1841.
European settlement of Northeast Texas proceeded rapidly in the early 1840s. Some settlers came horseback, some in mule or horse drawn wagons, but most came by ox wagon. Republic of Texas President Sam Houston, who was an adopted Cherokee, appointed a commission in 1842 to reach a treaty to cease hostilities with the Caddo and associated Indian tribes. While he was in office, he made Texas honor the treaty and enforced laws to protect the Indians. The treaty resulted in peace between Indians and the white settlers. Over time white settlers gradually displaced the Indians, and after Houston left office, the whites relations with Native American tribes got worse.
Some whites provoked the Caddo into fighting, and the government used this fighting as an excuse to force the Caddo from their land. In 1855 the government forced most Native American tribes from East Texas to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Many followed a path that became known as the "Trial of Tears," which passes through the Monticello area of southwestern Titus County.
Boundaries of the Caddo reservation were defined by 1874, and the separate Caddo tribes agreed to unite as the unified Caddo Indian Tribe. In 1902, each enrolled Caddo was given 160 acres of land on their reservation under terms of the General Allotment Act of 1887. The Caddo continue to live in western Oklahoma, and their Tribal Complex is located near Binger, Oklahoma in Caddo County, Oklahoma.
Now modern in every way, the Caddo Nation operates a website at http://www.caddonation-nsn.gov/index2.html. As with other Native American tribes, the Caddo Nation has its own government that oversees the Nation and the reservation. Present-day Caddo strive to keep their heritage alive by teaching their children the Caddo language and cultural and religious values. Historical preservation and ecology are very important to them.
Ancient Caddo village and burial sites have been found at several places in Titus County, including inside both the Mt. Pleasant and Cookville city limits. To name just a few others, sites have been found on Blundell Creek, Harts Creek, Ripley Creek, Swannano Creek, at Dellwood Park, and in residential developments in southeast Mt. Pleasant.
Native American artifacts can be found on top of the ground in various places in Titus County, and in some places where villages were located the artifacts are just inches below the soil. It is one thing to collect exposed artifacts from sites like these, but it is very important to protect Caddo and other Native American sites to prevent them from being desecrated. More important than the valuable archeological information the sites contain, they have great religious and cultural importance to the Native people and should be protected and preserved like any other burial ground. After all, you wouldn't view anyone kindly who digs up the cemetery where your ancestors are buried.
Titus County's Hale Mound Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 7, 1990. This prehistoric Caddoan village site is thought to have been used during the periods of 500-1000 AD, 1000-1499 AD, and 1500-1749 AD. It is located on private land, and the mound's location is restricted to protect it.
Titus County may have been the Native Americans' last Northeast Texas home, and the Caddo lived here as late as 1845.
Pottery was very important to the Caddo, and many examples have been found in Titus County, as have spear and arrow points.
The Texas Historical Commission erected a Texas Historical Marker seven miles east of Mt. Pleasant beside Texas Highway 49 in honor of the Caddo who lived in Titus County along Swannano Creek.
In October, 2007 Glenda Brogoitti of Mt. Pleasant and Robert "Bob" Turner (same name, no relation) of Pittsburg presented very interesting lectures on Caddo pottery and life during the Mt. Pleasant Public Library's series of "Lunch and Learn" lectures during Archeology Week. If you are interested in learning more about the Caddo, please contact the Mt. Pleasant Public Library for the schedule of upcoming "Lunch and Learn" lectures.
The following relics of Native American culture are part of the Cross Collection, most of which came from Titus County. You can see the actual artifacts in the Mt. Pleasant Public Library's historical display.
I would like to thank Robert Turner and Vernon Holcomb of Pittsburg for taking the time to identify and describe each article in the Cross Collection so I could properly label and describe them for readers and the Library.
