Presently, the archaeological picture seems to support the hypothesis
that the Yatasi included a number of small autonomous bands. A cluster
of sites is located around Chamard Lake: the Arnold or Bead Hill site
(Gregory and Webb 1965), the Wilkinson site (Ford 1936), and the Eagle
Brake site (Gregory 1974). These sites have fairly large, deep middens
and all have yielded _Natchitoches Engraved_ sherds and trade goods.
This is somewhat different from the scattered shallow sites nearer
Natchitoches and suggests more clustered populations, but still a
dispersed settlement pattern. None of these archaeological sites seems
to correspond to the Red River-Bayou Pierre sites, though they shared
the drainage. Although it is known that the Lafittes, Poisot, and Rambin
claims were near the Yatasi villages, and all of these settlers traded
with the tribe (Pintado Papers:82-84), their documented sites remain to
be found.
Contemporary Caddo, most of whom are Kadohadacho or Hasinai, frequently
mention the Yatasi when asked about other groups and know they once
existed. However, it remains obscure whether the Yatasi were one or many
little groups. They seem to have been absorbed by the Kadohadacho, but it
is hard to trace them after the American land sales.
THE KADOHADACHO
The Kadohadacho (“Great Chiefs” in the Caddoan languages) were the
dominant Caddoan-speaking group in the Red River Valley. They occupied a
widely dispersed settlement with a temple and a mound, in northeastern
Texas and probably near the Great Bend at Texarkana. The Petit Caddo,
Nasoni, Nanatsoho, and Upper Natchitoches were absorbed by the
Kadohadacho, and the tribes abandoned their Great Bend villages (at
least four archaeological sites there seem related to these groups) and
shifted south to Caddo Lake. Once there, their chief, Tinhiouen, dealt
politically with both the Spanish (Bolton 1914) and the Americans.
The Kadohadacho language was the most widely understood of all the
Caddoan tongues, and, according to early accounts (Sibley 1922), the
tribe was the most influential of all the Caddos. They had a sort of
warrior class comparable to the “Knights of Malta.” It is, therefore, not
surprising that the Kadohadacho became the Caddo Nation of the American
Period (Williams 1964).
The Kadohadacho settled, at least by 1797 (Swanton 1942), at a location
known as Timber Hill (Mooney 1896:323) near Caddo Lake (Swanton 1942).
Williams (1964) has pointed out that this village has never been located
archaeologically. However, it should be noted that the Texicans placed
the tribe near Caddo Station in 1842 (Gullick 1921).
Immediately after the American land treaty, the tribe apparently split
into factions. A group under Tarsher moved to the Brazos River in Texas;
the others stayed in Louisiana until at least 1842, when they apparently
moved to live with the Choctaw some time that year (Swanton 1942:95).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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