BEFOFE THE: INDIAN CLUldS COh!;I:dISSION
!IRE CADDO TRIBE OF OKLPJGXA, ET AL., ) 1
Docket No. 226
THE UNITZD STATES 03' ~~'IBRICA,
Decided: March 8, 1956
detesrnhned was limited to tLae rpstion of title e-zd o;;;~ess!~ipof tke territory claimed by plaint if;^ -LI:QT this treaty a:d fie area thereof, all other is suss bcing postsond. Ugdel- the Comrsi ssion' s ordes, tb exact acreage possessed by plaintiffs prior to and at the time of the
Treaty of July 1, 1835, is at issue.
Inthe petition of ths Caddo Tribe, et al., plaintiffs mado various cldms for lend in Texas and else ~rheret?& described in
the Treaty of July 1, 1835. Counts 2 and 4 of plaintiff$' claim have been dismissed (Tr. 603, ff ., 007-608, and order of the Indian Claims C~missionof March 1, 1955. Tr. 603, ff). These counts of the petition cover land in Oklahoma and 'Texas. Since these counts were dis- missed, the only claim for Land remaining in the petition covers the area
described in the Treaty of 1835.
3. Plaintiffs seek to recover the vdue, lcss proper credits and offsets, of a2proximately one million acres of land ceded by the Caddo
Nation to the United States nnder the Treaty of July 1, 1835. The said
land lies in northl7estern Louisiana and southresterr_ Arkansas, esterly
of the Red River, between said river and the line of the State of Texas, and is identified by Royce as cession 202. The boundaries as given in
Article I of the treaty are as follons:
Bounded to the west by .the north o.n.cl south line which separates the said United States froa the Republic of Mexico between the Sabine and Red rivers wheresoever the same shall be defined and acknonledged to be by the two governments. On the north and east by the Rcd River from the point where the said north =.d south bo-mdary line shall intersect the Red river whether it be in the Territory of Arkasas or the State of Lo~isj.~~,follow- ing the meanders of the said river dom to its junction with the Pasc.z+.goula bayou. On the south by the said Pascagollla bayou to its juncti on si th the Bsyou Pierre , by said bayou to its junction mith Baayou Yallace , by said bayou arid Lake gablace to the mouth of the Cypress bayou thence up said bayou to the point of its inter- section vith the first mentioned north md south line following the meanders of the said ~ztercourses;but if the said Cypress bayou be not clearly definzble so far then f ron a point ~hichshell be definable by a line due *st till it intersect the said first mentioned north and south bo-ndary line, be the content of land within said boundaries nore or less.
4. It appears fron the evidence that the tern 'lCaddo Nation" is a generic term and includes all those men5ers of the Caddoan Pinguiatie stock who resided in the general area under consideration. In order to make less confusion ;.hen referring to the eboriginal occupants of the area the terns "Hasinai , llRl?ohadacho, " and "Natchi toches," which refer to the three major confederations in this genercd area, mill be used,
5. The Kadohp?n~ioConfederacy nas originally mde up of the five
£011oni~ tribes: ICr.c?gharlacho, Petit Caddo, Up2er Ratchi toches , Upper
Nasoni, and Nanatsoho fS1-mton, 2922: 12-13; 1952: 317-320). Tne Upper
Hatasi and the Cahin~Zsjoir-cci the con-fedcmcy later in the period before
1890. The Hzsinai Goxfec7eracy ras made up of at letist ten tribes in- cluding the Hnimi , Kacogdoche , AnadarXo, anc! Eo.7er Easo~i. The NatehZ- toches Confederacy mas mede u? of the Douzti ofii, Qxchita and Watchitoches.
The Lower Yatasi joined ttern at a later date (Saaton, 1952: 205207).
The Hasinai C~nfe~eracyc2n be eliminated fron consideration in this matter since they mere zn eastern or southeastern Texas group rthose area was out- side of the treaty bo.m?eries ro-n_d it oras not util after 1.835 md most of bracketed ones those used by the petitioners. These groups were the remnants of the Kadohadacho and Natchi toches Confederacies along vri th the Adai vhich is generally not included in either confederacy. These tribes had dram together in a central location on the Red River betv4een
Cypress Bayou and Sulphur Fork or Sulphur Rivcr after 1800.
As stated in finding 5 the Ccbddss removed to Texas after 1835.
From Texas these same Indians r:cre eventually reinoved into what is now the State of Oklahoma (Pet. Ex. 109). hs indicated by Swanton (ibid) and as testified to by mexbers of petitioner tribe, the traditions and ancestry of t& members of the present Caddo Tribe of 0lr;Lahoma identifies them as descendants of the original Caddo Indians of Louisiana who wrc
Parties to the Treaty of July 1, 1835.
7. Contact vrith the natives of this ,area was first made by De
Soto's expedition in 1542. After the dcnth of De Soto the expedition mas led mest7;ard by Luis de l.?oscoso and net the Nasoni alorg the Red
Rives. !€heyapparently continued niestmarcl into the Rasinai area. The next contact cane in 1687 when La Sallc' s c-qedi ticn mde' its vay from the southmst into Basinai territory where IJaSalle was murdered ad six survivors of the expedition continued. northnest until they reached the
Kadohadacho villages at the Great Bend of the Xed Eiver. The first village contacted was the Upper Nasoni village on the south side of the
Bed River. They crossed. the river and aent on to the nzin Kadohadacho village where they me% a Cahinnio Caddo ~ihor;znt east with then to the
Cahinnio village mar the Quachi ta River in &&asas. In 1690 Henri de
Tonti set out to find the remaining menhers of the LaSalle expedition, Re reached Betchitoches on February 17, 1690, and continuing north he en-
Countered the Yatasi on hlarch 15 and the Gdahadacho on the 28th- Re was
told by the Kadahadacho that the Upper Natchitoches and the Upper Nasoni
villages mere a prt of the Kad&adacho conf ed-eracy.
In 1693. the Spanish sent Teran to evlore the country around the
Rasfnai and 'lie arrl7,-ed aTong the Radohadacho on Noveinbes 29, Af ter ex-
ploring the zrea for a ~eekhe returned to the Hasinni country because
of lack of su2gl ic s ,
In 1703 a Frenchman, Biefiville, was sect to loo1< over the Red
River cou~t~yand =as nmco:;ipan?nd by St. Penis ::ho was to becone
famous 1x1 t?~?an.asls of the cc:s:ltry, ?keg reacked the Red River at the
village of t:~? 33nskioni, aeEc that of fke Loner Kz.tchitocks. Ps0n
there they c>ntin?~sii~;r! rivn-.~ ,, i~ ti 1. they reache2 the village of the
Yatasi where they mre told thn'c 5hr Ii;aciohadzcho village lay farther
north. Tne tr:o of tk3n tw3ed back b~~"smostiixediately St. Denis
retnrned to the 53---er Natcjli t~che~cocntry vZc:e-e he obtailled a gxide
who took hin into the Ihd!~kac?.c?hoConfetLeracy at the Greet Bend of the
Red River,
On DezeziSes 17, 1713, 3)ieri;n.A de La Earpe left New Orleans and.
vent u? river to Xstchitoc'nes, whsre he arrived in d7zxary 1719. Here
he found. bo53 Nabhi toch.sa ad hustiozi Indians, es eRI 8s some LOTST
Yatasi, Ee coatinn5d on UI, ~i.73~t'r.~-@-?.gh t5e nezirbg AM- tesritor$ to
Subphur Rive?, tramled 2.2 the Sulp>x River =.2 then o~erla?.dto with these Indians continued through the French and Spanish until the transfer of the Louisiana Territory to the United States in 1803.
Throughout the greater part of this period the tribes comprising the Kadahedacho Confederacy continued to occupy the aboriginal area above md below the great bend of the Red River as shown on defendantle exhibit 38-1. Around the year 1777 there mas a severe epidmic which killed hundreds of Indians in the area, as well as the wife and children of Athanase de Mezieres, the Spanish Lieutenant Governor of Natchi toches
District. Swanton states that the Caddo tribe done lost some 300 people. At the sam time the Osage Indians to the north began a con- tinued state of warfare against the Czddos and as a result they began to consider moving from the principal villege, which ms apparently the
Upper Nasoni village on the south side of Red River abo~ethe great bend.
With the death of Meziereo in 1779 the contemporwry reports became scarce but in a letter of March 27, 1790, tho Conmdant at Katchitoches, Luis
I)e Blmc, wrote to Governor ftiro that the Great Caddo had been forced to move their village location two years ago because of the continual mar being waged on them by the Osage Indizns md that again in the preceding month they had moved; this time into the village of the Petit Caddo On
Caddo Lake. (P1. m. 78, p. 36).
These is abundant evidexe to the effect that from the tine of first contact until epproxhately 1788 the principal tribes of the
Kadahadacho Confederacy lived to the north ss.d northwest of the area ceded by the Caddos in the Treaty sf July 1, 1835. The only villages within the area vzre those of the Yatssi a~dPetit Caddo, while the remainder mere s0ut.h an3 vest of the treaty area. The four nain tribes
living north a-nd northmst of the treaty area mre the Kadahadacho, Upper
Nasoni , Upper Natchi t oche s , and Nanat soho.
From the first contact with the Indians of the general area the
remar'mble development of agriculture beca~eapparent. There are frequent
references to the agricultural achieversent of these people and one reference
mentions fields stretching for five or six miles around a village. They
were not a nomdic people, but rather mere mll settled, Their only moves
apparently ca9e vhen the fields Segan to wear out around their village, or
else when they aere forced to move by enemies. Swentoa states that "the
Sa6d.o had reached a stage of development v:3ere they depended for their
. livelihood Kore upon the products of their fields than their gleanings from
the aildesness. ti Ze characterizes thex as sedentary ~riculturalistsnh0
also did saxe :h-hving.
8. With t3e purchase of Louisiana by the United States in 1803,
the first Lwrican agent entered the territory. In 1805 Er. John Sibley
was appointed agent and he established a post at Natchitoches where the
Spanish had been. Defendant's exhibit 2 is a historical sketch of the
Indian ttibes of Louisiana written by Sibley. In this sketch Dr. Sibley
states t-hat the K3;ciohadacho lived on Caddo L&e about 35 miles vest of
the asin branch of the Red Rives and that they had been there only slnce
1800, !beif fornes home had. been far to the north on the so~~.thbask
of the Ed River at a beaatiful -prairie with a 'balce in fie middle 9-2d-
t%e Yatasi lived on Stony Creek about half way betcoen the Kdohadacho
and that t5e Indims hzd left this village in 1793.. The Batchitoches
and the Adai live3 belo:, the Yatasi on Idce b!acdon about 20 miles from the old Spanish post wed for them. The Natchitochcs lived at a village about 25 miles above the present city of Natchitocbes. This apparently refers to the Vpper Natchitoches and not the Lomi-.
As a result of the Freeman-Custis expedition up Red River in 1806 the most detailed map of the river up to that time mas made. This Nicholas
King map indicates the location of the old Caddo villages and does much to corroborate the fact that the CaOdos no longer occupied the area above the treaty cession.
Swanton indicates that there nere ncver cny other tribes in the area claimed by the Caddo md that it is extrmely doubtful that there were any valid claims by white people to the area where the Caddo settled when they moved donn around Caddo Lake. The claim of the Caddo in their memorial to President Jackson in 1835 that their villages had stood where they then nere since time imwmorlnb is ohTiously not correct. !They had lived north and northwest until the late 17008 9. Bor;ever, there is no reason to doubt seriously that nemhess of both the Caddo and Natchitoches confederacies had been in the area for a bong tine, if not from tine im- memorial. The archaeological situation within the treaty area is not too well developed. It is true that these mas cccx?et,ion of the area below
Sulphur River after 1800 by the Qaddo and ps6 or to that time by the
Petit Caddo, Yatasi and others. The ect'cml physfcal occupation was, in archaeological terms, very brief end this could accomt for the absence of or failure to find archa~ologicalre.mins &ich are identifiable as those of the Kadohdasho CozxTederacy.
Despite their move from the original aillases both Sibley and th~
Freeman-Cus t is expsdi t ion indicate that these Indians s ti 11 maintained a claim to their former area despite the fact that they had been forced
out of it by the Osage.
9. There folloved a succession of Indian agents until Captain George Gray was appointed on Dzcember 1, 1819. Until that time the
agency had been located at Natchitoches. Gray moved it to Sulph~Fork
where a small nilitary detachment was lccated. Due to trouble with
hisk key smugglers he moved again in 1824 down to Caddo Prairie where
he could better control the trouble.
In 1825, Gray notified the Secretary of Var that the Caddo chief
had requested that boa~dariesof the Caddo land be set. Gray then
suggested to the cfiief that Sulphur Fork and Cypress Creek be considered
his boundary lines as they *re generally !aov- as such (~ef. Ex, 35). McKenney of the office of Indim Affairs replied on July 9, 1825, that
the chief's request was reasonable and as5:ed Gray to exaqine the matter
and report (PI. Ex. 108). On September 30, 1825, Gray reaffirmed that
the Caddo boundaries yere as he had stated, convencing at Sulphur Fork
following the Red River to Cypress Bayou (Def. Ex. 9 and 10). Tihen Gray
died in 1828, Thomas Griffith c,as appointed aid died shortly thereafter,
In 1830 Jehiel Brooks was appointed agent. He moved the agency house to
a Point south of Cross Lake on the bluffs overlooking the Red Rives valley.
The correspo-dence of Brooks xa'res little or no mention of the location
of the various groups of Caddo Indims i,mdiately preced-ing the Treaty of 1835. By this tias, though, the presswe of vhite settbemenf; mas becoming very great. Roever, the shift of the Cddos into the treaty area was apparently coxple ted by the end of the eighteznth century. The S%bbey and Freemen-Custis papers (Eef. Ex. 2, 34(c) and 36) indicate that
to be so and it appears to have been accepted by the foremost authorities.
Prom information and surmise it vmuld appear that the Natchitoches and
Adai had moved up to join the other Caddo group sometime during the period between 1800 and 1835. This nove marked the merger of the Kadohadacho and
Natchitoches Confeaesacies and paved the my to the Treaty of July 1, 1835, which was negotiated by Jehiel Brooks as United States Conmissioner.
10. Brooksf position as agent muterminated in July of 1834 and he returned to mashineton where he receive? instructions in March, 1835, to negotiate the treaty -dth the Caddos. T'ne Ceddos had mexlorialized the
President somtima during or before January, 1835, to negotiate a treaty for their lands. In the memorial they had set the folloning boundaries:
"ese h~ndsare bounded on one side by the Red River, on another side by bayou Pascagoula, bayou and Lake Wallace, and the bayou Cypress; and on the other side by Texas." (Pl. Rx. 142).
In this sane nemorial the Caddos requested the confirmation of a reservation hich they said had been male to Francois Grappe and his three sons. This reservation was describe? by them as commencing at the lowest corner of their lands on the Rpd River, (as above described) and running up the river four leagtles, and one leagne from that line back, so as to make four leagues of lad. !Phis reservation was said by them to have been ozde a great many years ago wider the Spanish,
In pursuance of this memorial, President Jackson requested the
Secretary of gar to appoint a Gomissioner to aegotiate the treaty and Jehiel Brooks was appointed. Brooks mas given a copy of the report by a Col. Mzny in which the Colonel described the Caddo lands as the boundaries hzd been set by Captain Gray. Brooks then proceeded to Louisiana where he hired a man by the name of Larlrin Edvards, his forper interpreter, to assemble the C~ddofor the negotiations. About
500 of them cane to the agency and it appears thet this was about all of the Caddo who survived, with the possible exception of perhaps a hundred or so. Brooks then held a council with the chiefs and agreement was reached after a fen days. The boundaries as set in Article I of the treaty are as folioss:
Bounded to the zest by the north it:~d south line ~~hichseparates the said United States from the Republic of Mexico bet~eenthe Sabine ad Eed Kvers r~heresoc~rerthe sare s!lall be defined and a~lol~i.rled,pedto be by the two go~ernxents. On the north and east by the Red Ever fron the point &ere the said north and south boundary line shall intersect the Red PAver whether it be in the Ten-itory of Arkansas or the State of Lo~fisiana, folloti.ing the meanders o? the said river dom to its jurxtion with the Pasc~oulabayou. On the south b;- the said Pascegoula bapu to its junction nith the Bayou Pierre, by said bayou to its jmc ti on ~fith Bayou "fallace, by said bayou and Lalce Nallsce to the mouth of the Cypress bayou thence up said bayou to the point of its intersection \nth the first mentioned north and south line following the manders of the said ~,~tercourses; but if the said Cypress ba:~ou be not clearly definable so far then from a point +ich shall be definable by a line due mest till it intersect the said first mentioned north and south bounSry line, be the content of land within said bomdsries nore or less.
BY articles supplementary to the treaty the reservation to the Grappes requested in the memorial to President Jackson was confirmed and in addition thereo Lxl:in awards was grarit ed one section of lami. 30th the treaty axl the sqplementary articles Rere retffied by Congress, and signed by the President on February 2, 1836. The consideration to the Cddo uqcter thc said treaty ;,as $SO,OW in noncy and goods. 11, We think it unnecessary to make my findings as to the facts
involved in the case of United States v. Brooks (10 Horr. 441) because
same are fully set out in the Courts' Opinions. Suffice it to say that
it is our constnxtion of the judgment rendered that came was not a determi nat ion, that the Caddo Nat ion and Tribe had Indian Title to the
lands involved--but that the holding merely recognized that whatever rights the Idians had in said band had passed to the Grappes and their grantees, as had the interest of the United States in said land, and
therefore the United States Ens denied any recovery thereof,
12. Based on the preceding findings and the evidence supporting
sane, this Comnission finds that the Cnddo Indims no were the remnant0 of the Kadohadacho and Natchi toches Confederacies and the predecessors of plaintiffs in interest, abandoned ,and did not u.se and occupy the aboriginal mea claimed above the Sulphur River, but that they did continue to use and exclusively occupy in the usul Indian manner after
1800 and until July 1, 1835, &en they entered into the treaty with the United States, the lad described as follorrs, to wit:
Starting at the point where the SthpLur River joins th'& Red River; thence up said SUIP'~~Piver to the Texas- Louisiana line; thence south Edlo2g said line to the point . where Cypress Bayou or an extension thereof intersects the ssid line; thence folloaing the memders of said Cypress Bayou until it meets 3oggy Bayou; thence down said Eoggy Bayou to Vallace Ldce and continuing along said Lake and Wallace Bayou until it intersects the Red River; thence up said Red River to the point of beginning.
Edgar E. Vitt Chief Cornmi ssionor
Eonis J. O1Ilarr Associate Commis siones
Associate Comrni ssi oner