Dress and CustomsDress and Customs
information supplied by John Conway, Jr
In the early reports of the Europeans, were moved to make rather startled remarks about their appearance and behavior. Garcilaso de la Vega, one of the chroniclers of the De Stot Expedition, observed that the Tula were "naturally well featured" but made themselves "hideous " by artificial cranial deformation in which their heads were elongated and made to "taper off toward the top," and by tattoing. Artificial cranial deformation may not have been universally practiced by Caddoes, but the custom was an old one, observed prehistorically in this area. At the Sanders site near the Red River in Lamar County multiple burials have been found in which the skull show that strong frontal deformation was in vogue.
The Caddoes used needles or other sharp pointed objects to prick the skin until the blood flowed, and then rubbed charcoal in to the wounds. When the wounds healed, the charcoal remaining under the skin made striking tattooes. They tattooed "scores or streaks on their face, from the top of the forehead down the nose to the tip of the chin.
The women were as tattooed as the men. Women were tattooed from the waist up and the more tattoes you had, the more beautiful you were. Shells, bones, feathers, and pretty stones were worn in the ears, nose, hair, and as necklaces, armlets, writslets, and at the knees. The Caddoes forsook many of these old ornamental materials when glass beads, metal trinkets, and other gew gaws becam obtainable from European traders.
The hair styles varied from tribe to tribe. Usually a man's hair was allowed to grow about two inches long all over his head except for a small patch on top. The hair on this spot was encouraged to grow to waist length, and feathers were attached to it. Another style was where the head was shaved except for a narrow band extending over the head from the forehead to the neck. The women simply comb and brushed their hair and made a knot at the back of the head adorn with rabbit fur that they would colored using berry juice.
One of the most disquieting behavior of the Caddoes was their custom of weeping and wailing when they met strangers. Not only the women but men also would wept a greeting to strangers. Caddo women also wept in the face of impending death, and the French and Spanish soon learned to watch for tears that might presage their own death. Tanned deerskin provided the material for most Caddo Clothing. Garment were fringed or decorated with small white seeds, pierced and sewed on. Moccasins, leggings, breechclouts, and shirts of deerskin or buffalo hide were worn in winter. In summer the men often stripped down to the comfortable breechclout. Dress up clothing was richly painted and ornamented, and some of their special clothing was made of turkey feathers. Women also wore breechclouts under their clothing, made of grass and straw. Like other Indians of the Southeast, the more socially prominent Caddo women wore skirts fashioned from cloth woven from nettles or made from mulberry bark.