1. Go to the top of the report you are searching. 2. Click on EDIT at the top of your screen. 3. Next click on FIND in the edit menu. 4. When the square pops up, enter what you are looking for in the FIND WHAT ___________blank. 5. Click on DIRECTION __DOWN. 6. And last click on FIND NEXT and continue to click on FIND NEXT until you reach the end of the report. This should highlight the item that you indicated in "find what" every place it appears in the report. You must continue to click on FIND NEXT till you reach the end of the report to see all of the locations of the item indicated. ********************************************************************* The Indians of Lincoln Parish By Dr. G. W. McGinty The Ruston Writers Club Publication, 1959
The Indians roamed through what is now Lincoln Parish for an unknown number of years before white men came in. Recent investigation of the Poverty Point Mounds, in West Carroll Parish, reveals that the Indians were in the region 3,000 years ago.
Tribes of the Caddo Confederation claimed, hunted and fished over North Louisiana to the Quachita River and in early times as far as the Mississippi River and up to the Arkansas River. There were something like twenty-seven tribes in the confederation; one tribe was known as the Great Caddo and another the Little Caddo. The Great Caddo was the one that hunted through this area.
No proof has been found that the Caddo ever had a permanent village in Lincoln Parish, but they must have had a temporary village a few miles southwest of Hico on a branch of D'Arbonne Creek; and also one southeast of Dubach on the same creek, as skeletons have been excavated at these points. It is thought that these locations were occupied for a few days, or weeks, at a time while the Indians were on their periodic hunting expeditions.
The Caddo, like most Indians and in common with all Southern tribes, located their villages on or near water. They had to have water to drink and the streams were avenues of transportation and a place to fish. The Indians had two houses, one for summer use which was a brush or bark arbor to provide shade and protection from the rain, and one for winter use made of poles, twigs, bark, or straw and weatherproofed with mud. The winter house was usually oval or conical and was kept warm in the winter. It has a small opening or door near the ground and a hole in the top for the smoke to escape. Some houses were for one family while others were occupied by from two to ten families.
The tribe was subdivided into clans, or family groups, the clans taking such names as Bear, Deer, Fox, etc. The Caddoes wore very few clothes during the early period, except during the winter when they covered themselves with the skins of animals. Later they learned a little about weaving or putting fibers together to make a kind of cloth. This cloth was usually worn by the women. There were fond of beads, ear-pendants and ear-plugs. The young man courted the maiden of his choice by offering her the finest present he could afford.
The Caddo believed in a Great Spirit that took on the personality of the Wind, Sun, Fire, etc. Their ceremonial leader had a house reserved for the sacrifices and when they entered this structure they behaved reverently. The Caddo traced descent through the mother, and the man entered the clan of his wife when he married outside his own clan.
The Caddo, like other Indians, had two chiefs - a war-time and a peace-time chief. The war chief served during the campaign, or war, and was chosen by the warriors. His function was more like a commander-in-chief. At the outbreak of each war a new chief was chosen. He may, or may not, have served in this capacity previously. The peace-time chief was usually the eldest male member of the clan and he generally served until he died or became infirm. His function was to maintain peace and harmony, to administer justice, settle disputes, advise on when to plant, harvest, go on hunts, and direct trade with other tribes. The Caddo traded with other Indians such as the Choctaws, Comanches, etc. Those engaged in trade were protected and given safe passage through tribal lands. These traders acquired somewhat of a universal language that was understood by different tribes. These traders in salt, flint, shells, etc., usually traveled established trails, known as peace trails. The warriors, on the warpath, used more obscure trails many of which paralleled the peace trails and had many cutoffs, cutbacks, etc. to conceal the trail.
The Caddoes were not a warlike tribe - that is one reason they had to give up some of their lands to other tribes. They were essentially an agrarian people in that farming was their major economic activity. They located their permanent villages near water and proceeded to clear the adjacent land for planting. The women assisted in this work but when the heavier tasks had been done the women were left in charge, and the men went on a hunt or on the warpath. The clearing and planting preparations were often communal projects .
The fields were planted in corn, beans, pumpkins, squash, etc. The soil was scratched with the bones of animals, sticks, etc. The children and old men stood watch over the crops to protect them from foraging animals until harvested. The women stored the food in hollow tree trunks, pits or caves lined with leaves, straw, bark, etc. and frequently had to conceal the storage places from the men and boys. The Indian was reluctant to change his village because that would necessitate clearing new fields. During certain periods the permanent villages were almost depopulated, by the men and younger women, when the periodic hunts and fishing expeditions were engaged.
The Caddo hunted the bison, or buffalo, the deer, bear, rabbits, squirrels, etc., as well as the turkey, ducks, geese, and other fowl, food, feathers, and skins. The streams contributed quantities of fish for food. The hunting often took the form of looking for and gathering berries, fruits, and nuts for food. Lincoln Parish abounded in mayhaws, red haws, black haws, huckleberries, blackberries, dewberries, hickory nuts, chinquapins, walnuts, plums, persimmons, etc.
The first white men to contact the Caddoes were those with the Desoto Expedition about 1541 -"42, and it is possible some members of this expedition entered the area of Lincoln Parish. The next contact with the white man was made in the early seventeenth century by French and Spanish explorers and fur traders . The LaSalle Expedition contacted the Caddo Indians 1686--1688, and no doubt fur traders from the Spanish settlements in Texas, and the French on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico after 1700, were in frequent contact with them. The Spanish settled at Nacogdoches, Texas in 1690 and the French in Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1699. Natchitoches was settled in 1714 and New Orleans in 1718.
The French established a trading post with the Caddoes, a short time after Natchitoches was settled. French and Spanish traders traveled through North Louisiana before 100 trading with the Indians, hunting and trapping the fur bearing animals. These hunters and trappers were semi-nomadic with temporary abodes around which they cleared an acre or two of land to plant corn, beans, peas, and other vegetables to supplement their diet of wild game and fish. Some of these white intruders took Indian maidens for temporary wives. In fact, their standard of living was not much above that of the Indians.
After 1800, Angelo-Saxons from the United States began to intrude into the Caddo lands and they followed about the same pattern of life as the earlier French and Spanish hunters and traders. But as time passed and more and more Americans came into the region the standard of living was slowly elevated. This was accelerated with the Purchase of Louisiana by the United States in 1803. The tide of Americans traversing the region increased in the 1820's after Mexico won her independence from Spain and offered enormous land grants to American settlers. Fabulous tales about Texas percolated back East. Then in 1835 Texas declared her independence of Mexico and won it in 1836. The panic of 1837 came, followed by several years of depression. The economic hardships in Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama; the lure of the Promised Land of Texas generated the Texas Fever; and the love of adventure were factors that increased the flow of Americans through North Louisiana in 1838-1860. Thousands of those headed for Texas settled in Louisiana.
This influx of Americans into the region was a potent facto in the decrease of the Caddo population and in causing the Caddo Indians to pull back or abandon their hunting grounds east of the Red River. The diseases brought in by white men, the reduction of the supply of game as a result of the demand for pelts and the use of traps and fire arms, were other factors. During the years 1790-1840, as the Caddo Indians gradually neglected or abandoned their lands east of the Red River, straggling bands of Choctaws began to cross the Mississippi River and to hunt in the area. When the Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles and Chickasaws were moved to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma after 1830, some stragglers broke away, or later abandoned the Indian Territory, and made their way through North Louisiana on their way back to their old homes east of the Mississippi River. The white settlers in Lincoln Parish and North Louisiana, undoubtedly came in contact with these fragments of Indian tribes from east of the Mississippi River. Nevertheless, the fact remains that this region of North Louisiana originally was owned, in Indian fashion, by the Caddo Indians.