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The Caddo usually built two houses per family group. For the summer, 

houses had no walls and only roofs with raised floors. For the winter, house 

frames were made of wooden poles and were covered with woven grasses. 

Some men coated the outside with mud to improve insulation. Each house 

could hold up to 30 people. All houses had a fire burning all the time for 

religious purposes.  

     The Caddo had three confederacies: the Hasanai, the Kadohadacho, 

and the Natchitoches. Each of the confederacies had the same type of 

management, all with important political and religious leaders. 

     Everyone in the tribe farmed and harvested. The Caddo used crop 

rotation when planting seeds. That means they switched out what they 

planted every year to increase soil value. For an extra source of food, 

the men would hunt buffalo during the winter.

      During the summer men wore deerskin loincloths and the women 

wore skirts and dresses made of grass and straw. Both men and 

women wore animal skins during the winter. Everyone in the tribe 

heavily tattooed their bodies. 

      Year round, the women of the villages would sew beautiful 

blankets and cloths and would create what is debated as the best 

known Native American pottery. 

      Villagers built temples to worship their gods and formed large 

mounds made of dirt for the burials of elite religious and political 

leaders. 

The Caddo were recorded existing as tribal units from 

AD-700 to AD-1000.

1- The Caddo developed one of the most 

complex societies in Native American history.

2- Some burial mounds can be visited in 

national parks.

3- When building the mounds, the Caddo used 

pointed sticks to dig the dirt then carried it in 

tightly woven baskets to the destination. 

5- Some mounds contained as many as eight 

people in them. It is believed that some leaders 

were buried with their families.

4- As for the Caddo living today, they are trying 

to keep the ways of their old tribes alive.

The Caddo tried to hang around with the white 

settlers and form a friendly relationship. After being 

sent to a reservation, they built houses, grew crops 

and sent their children to schools. It worked until 

1859 when a group of white settlers fixed a date to 

exterminate all reservation Indians. The Caddo 

heard the news and marched for 15 days in July to 

the safety of the banks of the Washita River in 

Oklahoma. On the way the Caddo lost half of their 

possessions. By 1902 only 535 Caddo were left in 

existence.

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