Volume 2016 Article 46

2016

The of the San Pedro Creek Valley, Houston County, in East Texas

Timothy K. Perttula Heritage Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State University, [email protected]

Bo Nelson Heritage Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State University, [email protected]

LeeAnna Schniebs

Mark Walters Heritage Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita

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Cite this Record Perttula, Timothy K.; Nelson, Bo; Schniebs, LeeAnna; and Walters, Mark (2016) "The Caddo Archaeology of the San Pedro Creek Valley, Houston County, in East Texas," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol. 2016, Article 46. https://doi.org/10.21112/.ita.2016.1.46 ISSN: 2475-9333 Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2016/iss1/46

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]. The Caddo Archaeology of the San Pedro Creek Valley, Houston County, in East Texas

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This article is available in Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol2016/iss1/46 The Caddo Archaeology of the San Pedro Creek Valley, Houston County, in East Texas

Timothy K. Perttula, with contributions by Bo Nelson, LeeAnna Schniebs, and Mark Walters

Introduction

The Nabedache Caddo that lived on San Pedro Creek in Houston County in the East Texas PineyZoods )iJure  Zere a SroPinent nation durinJ the early years oI EuroSean contact IroP ca $'  iI not later Their villaJes haPlets and IarPsteads sat astride an aboriJinal Caddo trail that came to be known as El Camino Real de los Tejas, and thus their community was a principal gateway to Europeans and other Native American tribes who came from the west in Spanish Texas to meet with the Tejas or Caddo peoples The Àrst Spanish mission in East Texas was established amidst the Nabedache Caddo community in  :eddle 

)igure  The location of San Pedro Creek sites in East Texas San Pedro de los Nabedachos

Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology, Volume 68, 2016 2 Journal of Northeast Texas Archaeology 68 (2016)

According to Swanton  , Nabedache means the place of the thorny trees with black berries growing on them (beidatco  The ´Naµ is the Caddo language locative preÀx meaning ´the place ofµ it can also ´refer to the people residing at that placeµ (Chafe   Rogers and Sabo ( indicate that Nabedache means “blackberry place.” The archaeology of the Nabedache Caddo, or that of their pre-A.D.  ancestors, is not well understood, primarily because of the dearth of intensive investigations at a range of Nabedache Caddo sites that likely occur along San Pedro Creek as well as nearby streams in the Neches River basin. Work that has been completed, primarily on sites at Mission Tejas State Park, have included surveys and limited test excavations at a few sites (see summary in Perttula and Nelson - that have Caddo material culture remains (sherds from ceramic vessels, chip