Contacts with Non-Indians

The Caddo had early contacts with the Spanish. Some tribesmen met up with Hernando de Soto’s expedition in 1541 soon after the conquistadores crossed the Mississippi River. After Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle had claimed the Mississippi Valley for France in 1682, the Caddo established a lasting trade relationship with French fur traders.

Caddo and Wichita, called Taovayas by the French, acted as middlemen for French traders. The Indians

Caddo wooden figurine with human hair

Grew crops to barter with other tribes for animal pelts, which they then traded with the French. The Taovayas and backwoods fur traders conducted most of their business from villages on the Red River—San Bernardo and San Teodoro (called the Twin Villages), and Natchitoches—which became centers of commerce. The Taovayas prospered during the mid-1700s. Although the French lost their claim to the Louisiana Territory in 1763 after the French and Indian War, the Taovayas remained active for some years to come. But Spanish restrictions on their trade eventually ended their prosperity.

The French regained the Louisiana Territory from Spain in 1801, but sold it to the United States in

French iron trade axe (bartered with Indians for furs)

1803. Soon afterward, the Louisiana Caddo ceded their lands and moved to Texas. Texas became a republic in 1835 and part of the United States in 1845. In 1859, the federal government settled the Caddo on a reservation along the Washita River in the Indian Territory in what is now Caddo County, Oklahoma, near Anadarko (named after one of the Caddoan bands). The Wichita, who were granted the reservation with the Caddo, lived in Kansas during the Civil War before joining their kin.

After 1865, the Caddo provided scouts for the U. S. Army. One of their chiefs, Guadalupe, reportedly considered the wars more a struggle between farmers and raiders than a war between whites and Indians. Since he was a farmer, he encouraged his warriors to assist whites against the nomadic tribes of the Great Plains.

With the General Allotment Act of 1887, much of the Caddo-Wichita reservation in Oklahoma was divided among tribal members. The Caddo tribe now jointly holds certain trust lands in the state with the Wichita and LENNI LENAPE (DELAWARE). Oil, gas, and ranchland leasing provides some income for tribal members. The Caddo Indian Conference, concerning the preservation of Caddo heritage, was held in 1995 at Austin, Texas.