Survivors: the Caddo Confederacy
The Caddo were a confederation of tribes of the Southeast, in what is now Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. As such, their history spans both the period of the early American frontier, and of the American west. Prior to European contact, the Caddo were among the Mississippian cultures, building some of the more complex mounds in the southeastern region. The were connected to the Wichita, Pawnee and Kitsai, who also spoke Caddoan languages. By the time of Hernando de Soto's expedition in 1541, the 18 or so tribes of the Caddo Confederacy had grouped themselves into three main divisions, the Natchitoches in what is now Louisiana, the Haisinai, in what is now Texas, and the Kadohadocho, who lived near the border of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. De Soto had apparently not learned his leasson from his encounters with Tuskaloosa and what would become the Choctaw Nation. His troops clashed with the Tula, a Caddo band near present-day Caddo Gap, Arkansas....