Caddo Culture Day takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. November 2 at Caddo Mounds State Historic Site, Alto, Texas.
In celebration of Caddo history and contemporary culture the event offers entertainment for the whole family. Activities include traditional cooking, story-telling, cultural demonstrations, Caddo artist and vendor booths, cultural demonstrations, and ancestral technology.
Cameras are permitted and lawn chairs and/or blankets are encouraged.
Guests are expected to observe rules of etiquette including not touching a Native American dancer’s regalia without asking permission and respecting the personal space of dancers.
Caddo Mounds SHS is located six miles west of Alto, and approximately 30 minutes from Lufkin, Nacogdoches, Jacksonville, and Crockett, Texas. More than 1,200 years ago, a group of ancestral Caddo built a village and ceremonial center here. The alluvial prairie possessed ideal qualities for the establishment of a village and ceremonial center: good sandy loam soil for agriculture, abundant natural food resources in the surrounding forest, and a permanent water source of springs that flowed into the nearby Neches River.
From here, the Caddo influenced life in the region for approximately 500 years. They drew local native groups into economic and social dependence through trade and a sophisticated ceremonial/political system. They traded with other native groups in Central Texas and as far away as present-day Illinois and Florida. Caddo Mounds’ sphere of influence was only a small portion of the broader Caddo cultural landscape encompassing northeast Texas, northwest Louisiana, western Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma. The Caddo culture, in turn, had trade connections, and perhaps religious and political ties, with similar cultures farther east in the Mississippi Valley, South in Mexico and beyond.
The settlement at Caddo Mounds flourished until the 13th century, when the site was vacated. Archeologists observe that the prominent cultural leaders moved away from Caddo Mounds after a decrease in their regional influence, as outlying hamlets and trade groups became self-sufficient and grew less dependent on the cultural center in religious and political matters. There is no evidence that war played a major role at Caddo Mounds, either in the maintenance of local influence or as a cause of abandonment. The Caddo culture that remained in the area was like the earlier culture in many ways, but varied in practices of ceremonialism and material wealth.
The Hasinai Caddo groups continued to live through the 1830s in their traditional East Texas homeland in the Neches and Angelina River valleys, but by the early 1840s, all Caddo groups had been forced to move to the Brazos River area as a result of Anglo-American oppressive measures and colonization efforts. They remained there until the U.S. government placed them on the Brazos Indian Reservation in 1855, and then in 1859 the Caddo (about 1,050 people) were forced to flee to the Washita River in Indian Territory, now western Oklahoma.
The Caddo continue to live in western Oklahoma, primarily near the Caddo Nation Headquarters outside Binger, Oklahoma. They visit the land of their ancestors in East Texas and the three earthen mounds, still considered sacred to Caddo people, that rise from the lush Piney Woods landscape and help educate on how the Caddo lived on the land through exhibits and programs.
Admission to Caddo Culture Day is free, but donations to the Friends of Caddo Mounds, Inc. are appreciated. Call (936) 858-3218 for directions or additional information and visit their website.