Geography

• The Caddo tribe lived in eastern Texas and in small areas of Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. The members used the extensive forests on their land to construct pole frameworks for houses and to build furniture. The tribe made other items from wood as well, including eating bowls and bows and arrows for hunting. In addition, the Caddo tribe made dugout canoes from hollowed-out logs, although the tribe usually traveled by walking. For farming, they used wooden hoes, spades and digging sticks. They used carved bone farming tools and stone ones.
  
  

Significance

• Stone tools were essential to the Caddo people. From flint, they made arrow points, bifaced tools and knives. Archaeologists have found very high-quality Caddo knives, constructed from novaculite and white exotic chert. The Caddo Indians also made saws and drills of stone, and axes with stone heads for chopping wood. Some stone tools were made by grinding them against other rocks; some were made by chipping. Razor-sharp flakes chipped from flint made excellent cutting tools.
  
  

Features

• The Caddo people are recognized for the beautiful clay pottery they crafted for bowls and cooking pots, and for food storage. The tribe also was talented in basketry, using baskets for carrying items and for fish-catching traps.
  
  

Function

• The Caddo Indians made clothing from cotton they grew, using vegetable dye to color it, and decorating the finished products with beads and embroidery. Using leather from deer, bear and buffalo, they made moccasins, blankets and other items.
  
  

History

• Caddo communities ranged from isolated farmsteads to small groupings of farms to a few large villages. The homes were a good distance apart. Caddos built tall conical houses that could be as large as 45 feet in diameter. Built from a pole framework, these beehive-shaped houses were covered with grass. Several families might live in one house. Some Caddo lived in oval or rectangular homes made of poles inserted in the ground that were then covered with brush and layered with mud.
  
  The homesteads typically would have an elevated thatched dome for corn storage, an outdoor work platform, and a food drying rack. Each house kept a sacred fire burning all day and night.
  
  The Caddo Indians were all moved to reservations by 1860. Most now live in Oklahoma.