Notes on the Caddo / by Elsie Clews Parsons.

  • Elsie Clews Parsons
Date:
[1941]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the Caddo / by Elsie Clews Parsons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/84 (page 8)
    We got out before daybreak to follow my father’s track, from where he had left Dunlop. Went down to creek; camp fire on other side. My father had gone down on opposite side of creek a little way and then turned. They must have called him back. Probably tied his legs under his horse. We followed the tracks, one was riding each side father’s horse, one riding behind. Went to sunflower brush. Here marshals dropped back, thinking outlaws might be hiding in it to shoot, but I kept on. Found my father shot in forehead and under jaw. When they shot first he must have given a whoop, yelled, like a brave man, and then they shot again. Shot his horse too. I turned back. The marshals went on. Later, when they was hanging one of the outlaws, a man asked him what he was hanging for. “For killing Ing- kanish.” Had nothing against him ’cept for spy. They knew marshals were hot on them and he would tell on them. Today the two centres of distribution of the people in the Wichita Reser¬ vation2 in western Oklahoma are Sugar Creek (R., nawiddchabdso’: na, loca¬ tive, Wide c, salt, habitso’, it is sweet)3 in the north of Caddo County about fifteen miles north of Anadarko, and, in the south, Fort Cobb (nasu'nda’: na, locative, su'nda’, soldier), along the Washita River from Fort Cobb to Anadarko (nawashita). (See Map.) According to White Moon’s estimate about 350 persons live in the northern division and about 150, in the south¬ ern.4 This population lives scattered on the lands given to individuals at the allotment made by the Federal Government in 1902. Before the allot¬ ment—160 acres to every soul—there was a piece of tillable land, probably near Anadarko, which was worked by the tribe, a plot assigned to each household. This land was referred to as natuahaimaikoina or nanatuaimai, at big field.5 6 2 For Caddo, Wichita, and Delaware tribes. 3 R. = Reichard. Her phonetic key is: i — i in fit u.=oo in book a = u in but e = e in met a — a in father u = u in mute o = o in note g = kg medial d = td medial c = sh 4 In 1904 the tribe numbered 535 (Handbook) and in 1910, “a little more than 500” (Harrington). The Office of Indian Affairs enumerates 708 for 1930, 967 for 1937, 1019 for 1939, and 1048 for 1940. Obviously the criterion for tribal membership has been changing. 6 Probably this is a reference to the tribal or large scale work-party for clearing and plough¬ ing (hoeing) lands held separately by householders, which prevailed into the eighteenth cen¬ tury. There was the same kind of work-party for house building (Hatcher, XXXI, 155, 156).