Historical Processes and the Political Organization of the Hasinai Caddo Indians
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Volume 1995 Article 21 1995 Historical Processes and the Political Organization of the Hasinai Caddo Indians Daniel A. Hickerson University of Georgia Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita Part of the American Material Culture Commons, Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Other American Studies Commons, Other Arts and Humanities Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, and the United States History Commons Tell us how this article helped you. Cite this Record Hickerson, Daniel A. (1995) "Historical Processes and the Political Organization of the Hasinai Caddo Indians," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol. 1995, Article 21. https://doi.org/10.21112/.ita.1995.1.21 ISSN: 2475-9333 Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol1995/iss1/21 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Regional Heritage Research at SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State by an authorized editor of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Historical Processes and the Political Organization of the Hasinai Caddo Indians Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. This article is available in Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol1995/iss1/21 Volume 6, Number 3 HISTORICAL PROCESSES AND THE POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF THE HASINAI CADDO INDIANS Daniel A. Hickerson, The University of Georgia Paper presented at the 1995 Caddo Conference, Austin, Texas Recent archaeological and ethnohistoric re because of such research that it is no longer search bas begun to reveal the extent of the possible to reasonably deny or overlook the fact depopulation that took place among Native that the cultures of the native peoples of North American societies as a result of epidemic dis America as they were first described by Europe eases that were introduced, in some cases, even ans bad, in most cases, been drastically altered. before direct continuous interaction with Euro It is only in the past few years that anthropolo peans. The research of Henry Dobyns (1983) on gists and historians have fully understood the native demographic trends in Florida bas been difficulties involved in reconstructing precootact particularly influential on recent views of Native cultures and societies based on European descrip American demographic decline. While somewhat tions alone. controversial, the findings of Dobyns and others have stimulated further research focusing oo However, as important as it is to recognize the other areas of North America, including the impact of introduced pathogens, it is equally Caddoan region. important to avoid overstating their impact on native societies. Once the disease factor has been Recently, Timothy Perttula (1991, 1992) bas recogoiz.ed, it is tempting to attribute to it every focused on the role of European-introduced cultural change, every protohistoric or historic epidemic diseases in changes in settlement pat population movement, every shift in settlement terns and soc~opolitical organization among the or subsistence patterns, or in political or eco native peoples of the Caddoao region. Drawing nomic life, for which evidence is found. This can largely upon Dobyns' figures and models for be dangerous for at least two reasons: first, native depopulation, Perttula bas estimated up to because, despite the quality of recent archaeolog a 95 percent decline among the Caddoan popula ical work focusing on disease, we are still far tion during the protohistoric period (approxi from establishing the true extent of demographic mately 1520-1680). According to Perttula, this decline in the Caddoan region; and second, be depopulation bad a number of sociocultural cause the protohistoric period in this region (ca. consequences, including a general decline in 1520-1680) was characterized by a number of political complexity, and the abandonment of large-scale processes of change, each of which some regions accompanied by a coalescence of culturally impacted local populations over a wide groups in several areas, including that occupied area, and only one of which was the introduction by the historic Hasinai of the Neches and of epidemic diseases to the New World. J Angelina River basins of eastern Texas. In other words, we should view disease within It is not the purpose of this paper to ta.Ice issue a larger context, as one of several large-scale with the points that have been made by Perttula processes of change that resulted directly or or any other scholar doing research on the effects indirectly from European activity in North of introduced epidemic diseases. Indeed, it is America and Mesoamerica. Each of these histori- 5 Caddoan Archeology Newsletter cal processes contributed to sociocultural changes od, possibly during the mid- to late-seventeenth among the Caddo and other Native American century. The spread of epidemic disease may peoples. Even where disease plays a significant have been one of the events that brought about and documented role in a sociocultural change, pressure for such a coalescence. However, it can not entirely determine how the change is during the protohistoric and early historic periods played out. For example, the spread of disease there were other processes of political and eco may have brought about the abandonment of nomic change taking place, originating many some areas in North America, but other social, miles away, with far-reaching impacts. In-addi political, and environmental factors may have tion, there were social and environmental factors played a role in determining or influencing where other than disease that influenced the movements the survivors moved after the abandonment. of groups of people, that influenced both whether or not they moved their settlements, and to what I will begin with the premise that the Hasinai destination. In this paper I will briefly discuss area of eastern Texas was the site of a protohis the role of disease in protohistoric population toric population coalescence, that the core of the movements. I will then focus attention on addi historic Hasinai Confederacy was a combination tional factors such as warfare and trade, and of groups or communities long resident in the discuss bow changes in these factors combined to area, and that these were joined by other Cad influence the creation of the historic alliance that doan communities during the protohistoric peri- is known as the Hasinai Confederacy. The Role of Epidemic Disease It is important that regional estimates of native least in the context of the present discussion, is population decline be applied critically and with the near certainty that areas throughout the attention given to regional differences in environ Southeast, including the Caddoan region, were ment, extent of European contact, and settlement affected differentially by European-introduced patterns. As noted, a major demographic decline, epidemic diseases. Of course, local populations with a population loss due to introduced diseases were most likely to be devastated by epidemic of up to 95 percent in the Caddo culture area, disease immediately after they experienced direct has been hypothesized for the protohistoric contact with Europeans. In the long run, differ period, A.D. 1520-1680 (Pentula 1992). But ences i.n the impact of diseases more likely Perttula (1992:77) also reminds us that the reflect variations in settlement densities, such as archaeological evidence for such a decline is far those between upland or rural communities and from adequate to draw firm conclusions about larger riverine or town communities (Perttula population trends during this period. The specific 1992:79, 87-89). evidence that does exist for the Caddo area is almost entirely indirect and inferential, based on When drawing comparisons with the dem analysis of generally inadequate regional settle graphic trends elsewhere in the protohistoric ment data, changes in mortuary practices and Southeast, it must be kept in mind that settle regional settlement patterns indicating declining ments in the Caddoan area were, in general, sociopolitical complexity, and comparisons with more dispersed and less densely populated than data on population declines in neighboring re the Mississippian period settlement systems of gions. the Southeast, and thus likely to be less suscepti ble to the spread of epidemics. For the same Perhaps more important than evidence of large reason, within the Caddoan culture area, the scale, regional rates of population decline, at populations of eastern Texas, particularly those 6 Volume 6, Number 3 of the relatively lightly-settled Hasioai area, do th.ese factors adequately explain the coales appear to have been relatively lightly impacted cence of population around this time along the by introduced diseases during the protohistoric Neches and Angelina rivers, the site of the period. The de Soto party, which passed through historic Hasioai Confederacy. the Caddoan area around the time that the major epidemics in North America would have begun, found settlements that were described as more It is reasonable to suggest that the groups that scattered, and thus less densely populated, than bad formerly inhabited the Cypress