The Caddo are a nation, or group of tribes, of Southeastern Native Americans who, in the 16th century, inhabited much of what is now East Texas, western Louisiana and portions of southern Arkansas and Oklahoma. The Caddo historically consisted of three confederacies of at least twenty five different tribes and spoke a variety of dialects of the Caddoan languages. Today the Caddo are a cohesive tribe with their capital at Binger, Oklahoma, and the Caddoan dialects have converged into a single language. The current Chairperson of the Caddo is LaRue Parker.
The oral traditions of the Caddo suggest that they developed their culture in Arkansas and spread out to the south and west from there. At one time both the Wichita and Pawnee were part of the same nation as the Caddo, a fact attested to in that the Wichita and Pawnee spoke Caddoan languages. Between 500 and 800 AD the Caddo emerged as distinct and separate nation.
The Caddo tribes were divided into three confederacies, which were linked by a common language; the Hasinai, Kadohadacho, and the Natchitoches. The Haisinai and Kadohadacho lived in what is now East Texas and the Natchitoches in what is now Northwestern Louisiana. The Haisinai lived in the land from the Nacogdoches, Texas, which was originally a Caddo settlement, area to the Neches River. The Haisinai were given the name Tejas by Spanish Explorers, based on the Caddo word táysha?, "friend", and this later became the source of "Tejas" and later "Texas" (Bolton 2002:63-64). The Kadohadacho settled the land from the Caddo Lake area to the Red River. The Nachitoches settled around Natchitoches, Louisiana, which was originally a Caddo settlement, and in the Cane River Valley.
The Caddo first encountered Europeans in 1542 when the Hernando de Soto Expedition came through their lands. De Soto's force had a violent clash with one band of Caddo Indians, recorded by his expedition as the 'Tula', near Caddo Gap, Arkansas. This event is marked by a monument that stands in the small town today. With the arrival of missionaries from Spain and France a small pox epidemic broke out that decimated the population. The Caddo invited the European missionaries to return and upon their return a worse epidemic reduced the population to only 1,000.
In 1859, the state of Texas removed the remaining Caddo from its territory to a reservation in Oklahoma and in 1874 the Caddo officially united as a distinct tribe.
Check out the official website of the Caddo Nation: http://www.caddonation-nsn.gov/index2.html
Friday, December 21, 2007
Environmentalists lose appeal of landfill near ancient burial site
By: Jim Suhr
MADISON, Ill. (AP) - An independent pollution control agency has rejected environmentalists' claims that a planned landfill could desecrate possible burial grounds near the ruins of a once-thriving prehistoric city.
The Illinois Sierra Club and American Bottom Conservancy failed to show that Madison's approval process for a landfill near the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site was ''fundamentally unfair,'' the Illinois Pollution Control Board ruled Dec. 6.
The St. Louis suburb, which approved the landfill in February, would get roughly $1 million a year in fees from Houston-based Waste Management Inc., the nation's largest garbage hauler.
Opponents on Dec. 7 said they were weighing whether to challenge the matter further. ''
A municipality in search of revenue is going to choose revenue over any cultural or natural resources in the area. That's what we see in so many of our cases,'' said Bruce Morrison, an attorney with Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, which pressed the lawsuit. ''So here, the money from the trash won out over the wetlands and the Native American cultural and historic sites.''
The Dec. 6 setback was ''extremely disappointing,'' American Bottom Conservancy President Kathy Andria said.
''What does it say about us as a people when we value a place to dump our garbage more than an irreplaceable World Heritage Site, a place that's sacred to Native Americans?'' she said.
Environmentalists say the expanded site would be within 2,100 feet of the Cahokia Mounds site and close to Horseshoe Lake State Park. During a 2005 archaeological survey, a skull was found near the proposed landfill site. State officials have said the skull is probably American Indian, but further analysis was needed.
Waste Management, which also owns the Milam landfill in nearby Fairmont City, has said there's no evidence the remains were of an American Indian and that the company met all siting criteria in Madison.
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416286
MADISON, Ill. (AP) - An independent pollution control agency has rejected environmentalists' claims that a planned landfill could desecrate possible burial grounds near the ruins of a once-thriving prehistoric city.
The Illinois Sierra Club and American Bottom Conservancy failed to show that Madison's approval process for a landfill near the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site was ''fundamentally unfair,'' the Illinois Pollution Control Board ruled Dec. 6.
The St. Louis suburb, which approved the landfill in February, would get roughly $1 million a year in fees from Houston-based Waste Management Inc., the nation's largest garbage hauler.
Opponents on Dec. 7 said they were weighing whether to challenge the matter further. ''
A municipality in search of revenue is going to choose revenue over any cultural or natural resources in the area. That's what we see in so many of our cases,'' said Bruce Morrison, an attorney with Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, which pressed the lawsuit. ''So here, the money from the trash won out over the wetlands and the Native American cultural and historic sites.''
The Dec. 6 setback was ''extremely disappointing,'' American Bottom Conservancy President Kathy Andria said.
''What does it say about us as a people when we value a place to dump our garbage more than an irreplaceable World Heritage Site, a place that's sacred to Native Americans?'' she said.
Environmentalists say the expanded site would be within 2,100 feet of the Cahokia Mounds site and close to Horseshoe Lake State Park. During a 2005 archaeological survey, a skull was found near the proposed landfill site. State officials have said the skull is probably American Indian, but further analysis was needed.
Waste Management, which also owns the Milam landfill in nearby Fairmont City, has said there's no evidence the remains were of an American Indian and that the company met all siting criteria in Madison.
Want to know more? Click here: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416286
Time catches up with Hopi-language savior
By: Jakob Hanes
Emory Sekaquaptewa was at once a visionary and a realist — a combination few are blessed with, but a paradoxical trait that produced a lasting legacy.
Not everyone can look back and say they wrote their nation's first dictionary and helped revive a language that faced extinction, but those are just a few of the things he accomplished in his lifetime.
Sekaquaptewa was a professor, an anthropologist, a judge and a loving husband, father and grandfather.
He died Dec. 14, leaving a legacy hallmarked by his efforts to preserve the Hopi language.
He never missed an opportunity to bring up Hopi language and his love of silversmithing, said his wife, Mary.
"When somebody came to the house, he'd want to take them out and show them the silver bench," she said. "I always think of him as a Renaissance man because he was so multifaceted and complex."
Mary described herself as "his biggest fan," and did everything she could to support her husband's plethora of work.
Read more here: http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/217016
Emory Sekaquaptewa was at once a visionary and a realist — a combination few are blessed with, but a paradoxical trait that produced a lasting legacy.
Not everyone can look back and say they wrote their nation's first dictionary and helped revive a language that faced extinction, but those are just a few of the things he accomplished in his lifetime.
Sekaquaptewa was a professor, an anthropologist, a judge and a loving husband, father and grandfather.
He died Dec. 14, leaving a legacy hallmarked by his efforts to preserve the Hopi language.
He never missed an opportunity to bring up Hopi language and his love of silversmithing, said his wife, Mary.
"When somebody came to the house, he'd want to take them out and show them the silver bench," she said. "I always think of him as a Renaissance man because he was so multifaceted and complex."
Mary described herself as "his biggest fan," and did everything she could to support her husband's plethora of work.
Read more here: http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/217016
Storytelling connects LNI students with cultural tradition
By: Heidi Bell Gease
"Long ago, thousands of years ago ..."
With those words, Phillip Wright began telling the story of the first sun dance song. He told how a grandpa and the grandson he was caring for -- "a little guy, about this tall," he gestured -- had to flee for their lives as enemies approached.
As the enemy drew closer, "grandpa sent his voice up to Tunkasila," Wright said, asking that he be taken to spare his grandson's life. "And guess what? Someone answered.
"Wright told how Tunkasila helped grandpa and grandson escape. How Tunkasila gave grandpa the Sun Dance ceremony. How Tunkasila sang the first Sun Dance song -- a song Wright then sang with his father, Kevin Wright -- to grandpa as he danced the first Sun Dance.
Wright was one of 16 students from area schools who participated in the first Lakota Nation Invitational Storytelling Competition on Wednesday.
A seventh-grader at Lower Brule, he told the story of the Sun Dance song the same way his grandfather had told him. The same way his grandfather's grandfather had passed the story on to him years before. The same way stories and history and legends have passed from generation to generation of Lakota for centuries.
"He put all the detail in there," Wright said about his grandfather, Harry Charger. "I wanted to share the stories with the people."
Preserving that storytelling tradition is the main goal of the competition, which is expected to become an annual event.
Get the whole story here: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/12/20/news/local/doc476a0dbf8cd36383903651.txt
"Long ago, thousands of years ago ..."
With those words, Phillip Wright began telling the story of the first sun dance song. He told how a grandpa and the grandson he was caring for -- "a little guy, about this tall," he gestured -- had to flee for their lives as enemies approached.
As the enemy drew closer, "grandpa sent his voice up to Tunkasila," Wright said, asking that he be taken to spare his grandson's life. "And guess what? Someone answered.
"Wright told how Tunkasila helped grandpa and grandson escape. How Tunkasila gave grandpa the Sun Dance ceremony. How Tunkasila sang the first Sun Dance song -- a song Wright then sang with his father, Kevin Wright -- to grandpa as he danced the first Sun Dance.
Wright was one of 16 students from area schools who participated in the first Lakota Nation Invitational Storytelling Competition on Wednesday.
A seventh-grader at Lower Brule, he told the story of the Sun Dance song the same way his grandfather had told him. The same way his grandfather's grandfather had passed the story on to him years before. The same way stories and history and legends have passed from generation to generation of Lakota for centuries.
"He put all the detail in there," Wright said about his grandfather, Harry Charger. "I wanted to share the stories with the people."
Preserving that storytelling tradition is the main goal of the competition, which is expected to become an annual event.
Get the whole story here: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/12/20/news/local/doc476a0dbf8cd36383903651.txt
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