The Indian Confederacies

From information supplied by John Conway, Jr

Appearance.........Food.............Housing...........Death

The largest of the confederacies was the Hasinai, who sometimes were called Asenai, Assoni, Asenay, Cenis by earlier explorers. Originally the Hasinais appear to have been composed of eight tribes-the Hainai, Neches, Nacogdoche, Nacono, Namidish, Nasoni, Anadrko,and Nabedache.

The second group, the Kadohadachos or Caddo proper, occupied the great bend of the Red River in northeastern TX and southwester Arkansas. When visited by Europeans in 1687, four tribes made up this confederacy: The Kadohadacho proper, the Nanatsoho, the Nasoni and the upper Natchitoches. The Cahinnios of the Ouachita River in Arkansas are sometimes included with this group.

The third group, known as the Natchitoches, lived in the vicinity of the present, namesake town, Natchitoches, Louisiana. Between the Natchitoches and the Kadohadachos was an independent tribe, the Yatasi, which split during the early historic period, one segment joining the Natchitoches, the other the Kadohadachos. Other independent Caddo tribes were the Adais, north of the Natchitoches on Red River, and the Eyeish or Hais near San Augustine, TX.

These tribes and confederacies shared a common language, Caddo, with but minor dialectal differences separating them. The Caddoan linguistic stock, named for the Caddo, includes three other mutually unintelligible languages-Pawnee, Wichita, and Kitsai. Caddo is the most divergent Caddoan language, while the deviation among the other three is about equidistant one from another. Despite their linguistic affiliations with tribes to the north and west, the Caddoes faced east in a cultural sense, sharing a distinctive cultural tradition with the Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Cherokees, and Natchez. The Caddoes were more like the Natchez of the lower Mississippi than the others of this Southeast culture area.

From what is known and from what may be reasonably inferred, it is probable that sometime before A.D. a vigorous and advanced people had established themselves somewhere along the Gulf Coast of the United States. In this new land the transplanted culture was highly successful: the people multiplied and spread, perhaps by conquest. In time this cultural pattern spread to the Trinity River in Texas on the west, to the Atlantic Coast on the east, and its influence was felt hundred of miles to the north. To archeologists this cultural development is known as the Mississippi pattern. It was characterized by a well developed, productive agriculture, and in consequence by what must have been a rather high population density. Large ceremonial centers, clustering around temple mounds, were one of its conspicuous features. These mounds vary considerably in size and shape, but they are always earthen, usually square or rectangular with flat tops, and ordinarily have a stairway on at least one side. It is believed that these mounds were used for religious ceremonials, which were conducted by priestly castes, and it is assumed that society was stratified or otherwise divided along occupational, hereditary, or similar lines.