Notes on the Caddo

The following data were recorded in New York City in the winter of 1921-22 with the cooperation of White Moon, a recent Caddo graduate of Carlisle who in New York shrewdly called himself Chief Silver Moon. In Oklahoma he was generally known as Mike Martin. In December, 1927, at Anadarko, Oklahoma, while collecting folk tales from the Kiowa, I had opportunities to check up on some of White Moon’s data and to add to them, as I worked with two middle-aged men, James Ingkanish, a Caddo; and Grayson Pardon or Ninnid, whose mother was a Delaware, his father, Caddo, and his father’s father’s father, a Frenchman.

Dr. Gladys Reichard worked with White Moon in language and checked some of the terms he gave me. My thanks to her, also to Dr. Erminie Voegelin for comparative notes, for reading manuscript and encouraging publication. I have worked so little with broken cultures that it was hard to estimate the value of this contribution. It seemed quite negligible, but Dr. Voegelin opines that in view of the dearth of information about the Caddo it will be welcome. Comparatively little may be known about the Caddo, yet had I known as much about the ethnology of Southeastern tribes as is to be known today I might have secured fuller Caddo records.

In my ignorance lay one advantage, I was not consciously or unconsciously seeking survivals. Now, in editing the notes, I am all the more impressed by the persistence of Southeastern traits in these fragmentary groups of the once large Caddo confederacies. How little the Caddo seem to have been affected by recent Indian neighbors in Texas and Oklahoma is another general impression. Probably broken cultures thrown together helter-skelter borrow little from one another.

Notes on the Caddo

• Caddo Genealogy
  • Application of Terms in Caddo Genealogical Tables
  • Caddo Genealogy Tables
  • Additional Caddo Families or Persons
  • Kinship of the Caddo
  • Northern Division Family Groups
• Caddo Religion
  • Burial Customs of the Caddo Tribe
  • Caddo Witchcraft
  • Rites of the Caddo
  • Supernatural Beliefs of the Caddo Indians
  • The Peyote Cult Among the Caddo Indians
  • The Spirit of the Caddo
• Caddo Dances
  • Caddo Ghost Dance – Nanisana
  • Caddo Stomp Dance and Turkey Dance
  • War Dance
• Caddo Ethnology
  • Caddo Geographical Location
  • Caddo Government
  • Caddo Hand-Game, Racing
  • Caddo Hunting
  • Caddo Instructions of Youth
  • Caddo Mixed Marriages
  • Caddo Standards of Decency
  • The Caddo Doctors
• Caddo Stories
  • Caddo Stories
  • Caddo Creation Story
  • Caddo Tales by Grasshopper
  • The Caddo Tale of Lion Bridegroom
  • The Clever Boy
  • The Doctor Who Told His Secret
  • Where The Witch Had His Power
  • The Wrestler
• Caddo Language
  • Caddo Age Class Terms
  • Caddo Dialectical Distinction
  • Caddo Naming Traditions
  • Caddo Sibling or Cousin Nomenclature
  • How the Same Cousin Term is Applied

Notes on the Caddo Bibliography

1. Culin, Stewart: Games of the North American Indians. Twenty-fourth Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology. 1902-1903.
2. Dorsey, G. A.: 1. Traditions of the Skidi Pawnee. Memoirs, American Folk-Lore Society, VIII. 1904.
3. Dorsey, G. A.: 2. Traditions of the Caddo. Pub. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1905.
4. Dorsey, G. A.: 3. The Pawnee. Pub. Carnegie Institution of Washington. 1906.
5. Grinnell, G. B.: Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales. New York. 1889.
6. Harrington, M. R.: Certain Caddo Sites in Arkansas. Indian Notes and Monographs. Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. 1920.
7. Hatcher, M. A.: Descriptions of the Tejas or Asinai Indians, 1691-1722, translated and edited. Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XXX, 206-218, 283-304, XXXI, 50-62, 150-180. 1926-1928.
8. Hodge, F. W.: Handbook of American Indians. Washington, 1907.
9. Joutel, Henri: Relation de Henri Joutel. Decouvertes et etablissements des Francais dans l’ouest et dans le sud de l’Amerique Septentrionale, 1614-1698, Memoires et documents inedits recueillis et publies par Pierre Margry. In Recherche des Benches du Mississippi, Troisieme Partie, pp. 89-534. Paris, 1879.
10. La Barre, Weston: The Peyote Cult. Yale University Publications in Anthropology, No. 19. 1938.
11. Lowie, R. H: 1. Notes on the Social Organization and Customs of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Crow Indians. Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XXI, Pt. 1. 1917.
12. Lowie, R. H: 2. Kinship System of Crow and Hidatsa. Proc. Nineteenth International Congress of Americanists. 1917.
13. Mooney, James: The Ghost Dance Religion. Fourteenth Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology. 1896.
14. Morgan, L. H: Systems of Consanguinity and Amity of the Human Family. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. XVII. 1871.
15. Murie, James R: Pawnee Indian Societies. Anthropological Papers, American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XI, Pt. VII. 1914.
16. Parsons, E. C.: Kiowa Tales. Memoirs, American Folk-Lore Society, XXII. 1929.
17. Sibley, John, A.: Report from Natchitoches in 1807. Indian Notes and Monographs. Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. 1922.
18. Spier, Leslie: Wichita and Caddo Relationship Terms. American Anthropologist, XXVI, 258-263. 1924.
19. Swanton, John R.: 1. Religious Beliefs and Medical Practices of the Creek Indians. Forty-second Annual Report, Bureau American Ethnology, 1924-1925.
20. Swanton, John R.: 2. Aboriginal Culture of the Southeast. Forty-second Annual Report, Bureau American Ethnology. 1924–1925.
21. Swanton, John R.: 3. Source Material for the Social and Ceremonial Life of the Choctaw Indians. Bull. 103, Bureau of American Ethnology.1931.
22. Swanton, John R.: 4. The Caddo social organization and its possible historical significance, journal of Washington Academy of Sciences, Vol. 21, no. 9, pp. 203-206. 1931. Correct White Bead to White Bread (Personal communication).
23. Voegelin, Erminie W.: Shawnee Field Notes (MS.).