A Settling Experience

Along the Kiamichi River, depressions in the ground, charcoal from cooking fires, middens or garbage heaps, stone hoes, and pottery fragments show that people were farming and storing food 1500 years ago. By 500 AD, small permanent villages of two to four acres existed along the river. As food storage and farming replaced a nomadic life of following game and searching for wild plants, the Caddos began to build villages, became accomplished farmers, and developed early commerce through trade. They traded bows made from Osage orange trees, black tanned doeskins, salt, and agricultural products to other tribes great distances away. In the mid-1800s, what remained of the Caddo population was moved from their homeland to western Oklahoma, where the Caddos now live primarily and strive to preserve their culture despite many changes.

Oklahoma · United States