Fun Fact: When an Indian decided to marry, there was no formal ceremony.  The suitor left a gift of venison (deer meat) at the door of a girl's home. If her parents took the offering, the marriage was considered granted, and the groom went to live with the bride's parents. If they did not touch his offering, this was a sign that he had better find someone else for a wife. 

Notetaking Guide:

1. List the tribes that belong to the culture.  (Hint:  Use the map to help you.  You will NOT take notes on the Atakapan tribe. )

2. Location and Geography:  Describe their location in Texas. What region in Texas are they located? Are they sedentary or nomadic?

3. Shelter:  Describe what their shelter looked like. What materials did they use to build their shelter? Was their shelter temporary or permanent?

4. Food/Diet:  Are they hunters and gatherers or farmers? What kind of foods did they eat? What kind of animals did they hunt? What kind of crops did they plant?

5. Culture/Other Facts: What traditions or customs did they have? What kind of clothing did they wear? Did they have any special skills or items they made? Does their name have a special meaning? List any other special facts you find.

Caddo

Location

The Caddo lived in the Piney Woods area of eastern Texas along the Red and Sabine Rivers (near the border with Louisiana). They lived together in large groups called confederacies.  One unique characteristic of the Caddo was that their society was matrilineal - kinship and inheritance were traced through the women.  Children are part of their mother's matriline, or mother's lineage. 

Shelter

The Caddoes and Wichitas built their homes in fertile fields where they could raise crops. The houses of the Caddo were tall, cone-shaped grass huts that resembled beehives. Each hut had one circular room about fifteen to thirty  feet in diameter with a high ceiling. The Caddo wove grass mats that were used to cover the floors and were hung as room dividers. Usually two families, ten to twenty persons, lived in one hut. The Spanish explorers found the homes of the Caddo familiar because in addition to having rooms, the Caddo had chairs and beds for furniture. A majority of the Caddo were sedentary and lived in villages. Each village could have as many as 800 people living in it. 

Diet

The Caddo were farmers and grew corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, melons, tobaccos and sunflowers. They hunted deer, buffalo, and small game. They also fished from dugout canoes. They found an abundance of wild berries, nuts, figs, peaches, and, on occasion, honey.  The Caddo in Texas also mined underground for salt that was used in cornbread, soups, and stews. Corn was their favorite and most important crop.  Each family saved enough corn for two years of planting in case fire or drought destroyed a crop, and this seed could not be eaten even if the family were starving. 

The farming Indians were clever hunters. Before horses were brought to Texas, the Indians used dogs in hunting bear, javelina, and bison.  The dogs not only tracked down the animals, but they also carried supplies on a travois, a V-shaped sled made of saplings. The Indians usually trapped such animals as rabbit, coyote, fox, and beaver in pits that had been dug and baited. 

Culture

The Caddo made basket traps and pottery. They also made farming tools, like hoes and shovels from wood and animal bones, as well as axes for chopping wood.  The name Texas comes from the Caddoan word tejas or tayshas, meaning friend. 

All Indians of Texas, including the East Texas Indians, practiced tattooing.  Using sharp-pointed rocks, thorns, and bones, both men and women scratched circles and stripes on their faces and birds and plants on their bodies.  They rubbed ashes into the scratches to leave blue marks when the skin healed.  Wichitas and Caddoes painted themselves with bright colors and wore shells, bones, animal teeth, seeds, and feathers as ornaments.  They pierced their ears in several places and hung ornaments from them.  Caddo men also wore ornaments suspended from their noses; in fact, the name "Caddo" means "pierced nose."  They wore sleeveless buckskin (deerskin) blouses and skirts fringed along the hem and trimmed with metal trinkets and colorful seeds.  They wore fur capes in cold weather. 

Notetaking Guide:

1. List the tribes that belong to the culture.  (Hint:  Use the map to help you.)

2. Location and Geography:  Describe their location in Texas. What region in Texas are they located? Are they sedentary or nomadic?

3. Shelter:  Describe what their shelter looked like. What materials did they use to build their shelter? Was their shelter temporary or permanent?

4. Food/Diet:  Are they hunters and gatherers or farmers? What kind of foods did they eat? What kind of animals did they hunt? What kind of crops did they plant?

5. Culture/Other Facts: What traditions or customs did they have? What kind of clothing did they wear? Did they have any special skills or items they made? Does their name have a special meaning? List any other special facts you find.

Wichita

Location and Shelter

The Wichita tribe lived in northern Texas and southern Oklahoma. The Wichita lived in villages and built permanent beehive shaped homes covered in thatched grasses when they stayed in one location. When the tribes followed the bison herds, they lived in temporary tipis. The Wichita didn’t have horses until Europeans arrived in Texas. Before horses, the tribes used travois, or sleds pulled by dogs, to carry their belongings. 

Diet

Like their neighbors, the Caddo, the Wichita were farmers. They grew corn, beans, squash, and pumpkins. They gathered fruits and nuts and hunted deer and small game with bows and arrows. The seasonal bison hunt was very important to the Wichita. They used the bison hide for clothing, moccasins, and tipis. 

Culture

The Wichita were known for their pottery, painted animal hides, and beadwork. They were also called the “Raccoon People” for the black circles tattooed around their eyes. 

Although East Texas Indians had no religious idols, they prayed to the sun, wind, thunder, and earth as symbols of power.  They believed that the supreme power was a spirit called "Not-Known-to-Ma" who was hidden in the sky. 

End of a Culture

For a long time the Caddo and Wichita Indians of East Texas had well-developed and successful societies. However, when hunters on horseback came into their territory, they were overwhelmed because they could not get enough horses to compete with the hunters. Then the diseases carried by white European settlers spread and killed most of them, and their cultures were destroyed. They are remembered as the most advanced Indians who lived in Texas.