Web Extra: Caddo Country Resources

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More on Caddo History and Culture

By Dale Weisman

"A massive, squared mound, quite unlike the surrounding hills, rose from a level valley; it had been the central element in a Caddoan Indian village a thousand years ago….The aura of time the mound gave off seemed to mock any comprehension of its change and process—how it had grown from baskets of shoveled soil to the high center of Caddoan affairs to a hilly patch of blackberries.”

—William Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways (1982)

Caddoan mounds caught the attention of William Least Heat-Moon as he was traveling through Texas several decades ago. Like this well-loved backroads travelogue, the mounds continue to inspire travelers today.

To learn more about Caddo history and culture, start by visiting the Caddo Nation website, and explore the online resource Texas Beyond History. Informative books on the Caddo include Caddo Indians: Where We Come From (1995) by Cecile Elkins Carter; The Caddo Indians: Tribes at the Convergence of Empires, 1542-1854 (1995) by F. Todd Smith; and Source Material on the History and Ethnology of the Caddo Indians (1996, first published in 1942) by John R. Swanton.

From the June 2012 issue.

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