Caddoes
Alexa Varela
Where They Lived
The caddo lived where we now call the coastal plains region of Texas near the Red River. They made houses that looked like beehives to live in that were not portable because the were not nomadic. They made the houses by creating a sturdy, pole structure and weaving tall grasses through through it. Today the Caddo are extinct and have been extinct since the europeans came to Texas. No one really knows how they disappeared but likely reasons are diseases, lack of food, lack of land, and repopulating with europeans.
Way of Life
The Caddo were mainly agricultural growing corn as their chief crop as well as beans and squash. They also hunted small mammals such as birds, deer, bears, and , bison. They often used arrows and knives chiseled from rocks to hunt because they easily became very sharp. Some tools they used were other knives they formed for butchering the meat, special rocks they used to crack nuts, and a type of ax they made from wood and rock. The Caddo followed two main religions, the Native American Church and Christianity. The Native American Church beliefs were that gods controlled naturally occurring things such as rain,wind and sunlight. Although they were often believed to walk with man and help him, they were also known to cause trouble and hurt man. Shaman were people who were believed to have power to talk to spirits and heal the sick. The way their "government" worked was through a social ranking system. Some individuals were seen as leaders which was usually passed on through family. The Caddo had both religious leaders and political leaders as well as village elders who were
leaders of each settlement.
Fun Facts
A couple of fun facts include:
- The Caddo had their own language referred to as Caddo Language
- Men wore their hair in either mohawks or scalp locks where the whole head was shaved except for a long lock of hair at the top of their head while woman didn't cut their hair and wore it in a bun
- The shoes they wore were small brown moccasins made of animal hide