Natchitoches land was gradually surrounded by Anglo-Americans and, by
the time of the Caddo Treaty, Natchitoches was a thriving community.
The tribe lived north of the town, near the Grappes (their cultural
broker with the whites). Local tradition holds that they were loaded
on a steamboat on the Front Street dock and taken to Oklahoma in
1835—something that obviously did _not_ happen. In 1843 the tribe
was still together under Chief Cho-wee (The Bow) and living near the
Kadohadacho on the Trinity River in Texas (Swanton 1942:96).
In the 1960’s Caddos living near Anadarko, Oklahoma, still could sing
a few Natchitoches songs (Claude Medford, Jr., personal communication,
1975) and the late Mrs. Sadie Weller recorded in that language. Most
contemporary Caddo remember the tribal name and a few “old” words, but
as a distinct group the Natchitoches seem to have been absorbed by the
Kadohadacho and Hasinai.
THE ADAES
The Adaes (from _Na·dai_ which meant “A Place Along a Stream”) were
supposed to have had a village on Red River, near the Natchitoches. If
their reported village is taken to mean a dispersed series of kin-based
hamlets—what Spanish colonial people called _rancherías_—the previously
described Chamard site may be it.
In the 1720’s the Spanish established a mission for the Adaes, but its
priest and one lay-soldier were expelled by the French lieutenant,
Blondel (Bolton 1921). At the time there were no Indians living at the
mission. Apparently, they relocated nearer the Spanish, but conversions
were rare, and the Adaes were more interested in trade than religion. So,
for that matter, were the Spanish, and when the _presidio_ (now called
Los Adaes) was established in 1723, ostensibly to protect the mission,
the Adaes seem to have lived all around the vicinity.
Los Adaes then became essentially an Indian dominated community: Lipan,
Coahuiltecans, Adaes, Wichita, Tawakoni, and others lived there off
and on. Even the commandant, Gil Ybarbo, was married to a _mestiza_,
a half-Indian woman. Whenever the Spanish authorities in Texas needed
translators for Caddoan languages, they sent for soldiers from Los Adaes
(Blake Papers).
There was an Adaes village near Big Hill Firetower at a place called
La Gran Montaña (Bolton 1962) which has never been found, and another
nineteenth century village on Lac Macdon. The latter is probably a later
village than the one known on Spanish Lake where burials with European
goods were excavated by James A. Ford (1936, unpublished fieldnotes,
Museum of Geoscience, Louisiana State University).
[Illustration: Historic archaeological sites in the Caddoan area.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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