Reader Responses

In the Aug. 8 Tyler Paper I read the story of the Caddoan Civilization by a State Park representative.

I take issue with the time line of the Caddo and Kadohadacho Indian in East Texas. The article states: "The way to launch a long spear by the Caddo Indians in 700 B.C."

While historians write that people lived in Texas 12,000 years ago, it was not the Caddo Indian.

In 1972 in Titus County, I worked with Olin McCormick, archeologist from S.M.U. and the Texas Archeologist Society, using a grant of $10,000 to uncover artifacts from the area Lake Monticello now covers.

I was 41, took summer vacation to help on the project and remember Olin said Caddo Indians had been in that area and the Red River area from 700 to 1300 A.D., noted now as the early Caddo Indians. They were probably the Kadohadacho Indians, a branch of many Caddo tribes, perhaps as many as 10.

Indians known as the late Caddo were from 1300 to 1700 A.D. and the Historic Caddo, 1700 to 1850 A.D. Research shows they came out of Louisiana, and were visited by Cabeza De Vaca and LaSalle on their expeditions in the 1600s.

Oklahoma and Arkansas were homes to the Indians, too. There are mounds in Wood County, near where I live in Pine Mills. My dad and I searched for arrowheads when I was a child.

Olin taught us not to bother Indian sites in this manner. There were Indians here going way back, likely the Paleo Indians. True Caddo eventually moved south along the Angelina and Neches rivers. They called themselves "Hasinai."

I do not claim to be an expert in Archeology but I learned a lot and the work was as hard as any I've done. Some claim Caddo Indians go back well beyond the aforementioned dates but I do not believe it was in Texas. If it were B.C., as stated in the article, I doubt there would be anything but the most ancient stone tools.

Patrick H. Bogan
Mineola