Games of the Caddo Tribe
As I’ve written about before, my first time teaching about historic games was at the Caddo Mounds state historic site along El Camino Real. Of course, that first time, I only looked up a few games from Europe that would have been known at the time, because the focus of that particular festival was about El Camino Real, not the Caddo.
That didn’t stop staff and visitors from asking about games the Caddo played, of course. At the time, I think they were greatly overestimating my expertise in the subject. Still, I searched for as much as I could find so we could at least touch on the subject at cultural festivals.
Who Are the Caddo?
The earliest evidence of the indigenous Caddo people appeared in the lower Mississippi valley, and they migrated west, eventually settling a large area between the Arkansas and Neches Rivers around 700 CE. From here, they built a civilization focused on agriculture and trade. By the time the first Europeans arrived in their territory around 1535, the tribe was composed of around 25 distinct groups in different settlements across the forests in what is now southeast Oklahoma, southwest Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, and east Texas.
Interestingly, the term “Caddo,” which the tribe uses to describe themselves today, is a French abbreviation of Kadohadacho (“real chief”). Even more fascinating is that the Hasinai Confederacy (Hasíinay – “our own people,” in the Caddo language) interacted with both the French (who called them the Cenis), and the Spanish. The Spanish referred to this group as the Tejas, after a greeting in their language, meaning “friend.” Of course, the origin of that word wasn’t mentioned in my Texas history class growing up, only that Tejas was the word the Spanish used for the territory that later became Texas. The Caddo Mounds state historic site is near Nacogdoches, in what was Hasinai territory.
Culture, and the Mounds
The Caddo were a theocratic society ruled by men, but who traced their lineage through maternal descent. Spiritual guidance was provided by a xinesi (pronounced chenesi, literally “Mr. Moon”), an inherited position. They retained this position through generosity and leading by example, actually redistributing any tributes among the people.
For earthly matters, the xinesi sought consensus with a headman (caddi), who consulted with a group of high-ranking elders (canehas) to make decisions.
The mounds were broadly of two types – flattened platforms to elevate public buildings, or burial sites to honor the xinesi after an elaborate ritual.
Otherwise, both genders shared the labor of keeping the tribe fed. The men tilled the soil, but the women planted and tended the crops, primarily maize, beans, and squash. Men hunted bison, but women dressed the meat and hides. Granted, the ruling men made political and intertribal decisions, but elder women were in charge within their dome-shaped lodges.
Conversion, Trade, and Conquest
Trade was important to the Caddo way of life, and they had a network of roads reaching as far as Florida, Arizona, Casas Grandes, and Illinois. They traded not only crops, but exotic goods such as copper, seashells, and marble, as well as trade goods like pottery and bows made from bois d’arc wood. When the Europeans arrived, they made heavy use of these pre-existing roads, eventually developing them into the Camino Real.
The first attempt to convert the Caddo by Spanish missionaries was during the late 17th century. They were initially welcomed, but after a series of epidemics caused a decline in population, the Caddo correctly identified the Europeans as the source and drove them out. Additionally, the xinesi were annoyed by the priests trying to convert them to Catholicism, as well as the failure of the Spanish to help them against the Apache and other enemy tribes.
For about two decades, the Spanish had very little documented contact after abandoning their missions, at least not by the Church. During this time, the French made economic inroads from their territory in Louisiana, and developed a strong trade relationship. When these traders started to talk about building permanent settlements in the area, it likely influenced the decision by Spain to strengthen their influence with the Caddo, aided by a rival tribe, the Yojuane.
By the 1820s, European settlers migrating westward began to push out the indigenous populations. In 1835, the Caddo were forced to give up their territory in Arkansas and Louisiana. They retreated into Texas and Mexico. When the Republic of Texas separated from Mexico in 1836, they never recognized any land as belonging to the Caddo, and the encroachment into their lands continued.
When the Republic joined the United States in 1846, they allowed the US government to require that they set aside a reservation for the Caddo in the Brazos River Valley. The new state government did so, with the stipulation that the land would cede back to Texas “when it was no longer needed.”
Barely more than a decade later, in 1859, the government decided that the reservation was no longer needed, so the Caddo were again forced to move, this time to the Washita River valley in what is now Anadarko, Oklahoma. The tribe struggled to hold onto their heritage during the following periods of forced reeducation. Today, they retain some aspects of their faith, and continue to pass down their craftsmanship skills and culture.
The Games They Played
Because of tragedy after tragedy, there are few surviving records of recreational pastimes. The primary source I could find is Source Material on the History and Ethnology of the Caddo Indians, written by John R. Swanton in 1942 for the Smithsonian. Before his book, the primary academic interest in the Caddo was a study of their language. Swanton was also interested in folklore and general anthropology of the indigenous populations during the colonial period, so he compiled what he could to preserve it for future generations. A second source can be found in Notes on the Caddo, by Elsie Clews Parsons.
Of course, each of them only wrote a single page about games. Swanton mentions quite a few, all of them briefly. Parsons goes into a little more detail, but only writes about two games – the foot races, and one version of the hand game. I will flesh out as much as I can to add context. Given that tribes from all over the US had been forcibly moved to “Indian Territory” in Oklahoma by the time they wrote, there was likely considerable cross-over between the tribes. As a result, some of these games may have originated elsewhere. Where descriptions are vague, I’ll try to fill in the blanks based on games I’ve found elsewhere.
Racing as Training
The Caddo were fond of foot races and wrestling.
That’s literally all Swanton wrote on the subject. Fortunately, Parsons provided much more detail. Many tribes used foot races as a type of training for those who would carry messages over long distances. The Chief would hang two gourds containing beads from a pole about 300 yards from the start. (For those who prefer American measurements, that’s about 3 football fields.) Whichever sprinter reached the pole first took both gourds and kept running.
If anyone overtook the leader, they took the gourds, as whoever was in the lead was required to carry them. Onlookers followed on horseback to cheer the runners on, while trying to stay downwind. This is because they believed the smell of the horses would weaken them. Incredibly, this race often went for as much as forty or fifty miles, putting a typical marathon length (around 26 miles) to shame. Sometimes, a male infant would be placed at the finish line, so that he might also become a good runner after the winner’s foot passed over him..
Lacrosse – The Creator’s Game
Their principle game in the old days was a kind of hockey.
This is almost certainly a reference to lacrosse, as named by the French (la crosse = “the stick”). I am unsure of the original rules, as most references now are about the modern game. However, from what I understand, it used to be a type of mock combat, or sometimes part of a religious ritual. The playing field might be anywhere from 500 yards to a few miles, and there might be anywhere from 100 to 1,000 players at a time. What was consistent was that the players were forbidden to touch the ball with their hands. Instead, they used a long stick with a small hoop on the end to carry the ball. Each tribe has their own rules for how the game is won, whether it’s by being the first to reach a specific number of goals, or even if there’s a time limit.
Throwing Split Cane Dice
They also played a game in which four split canes were used. The concave side of three of these were red and one black. They were all thrown down together on a square block. If they then lay with their concave or their convex side all up, it counted 4. If the black one lay concave side up and the other convex, it counted 2. If any of the red ones lay with the red showing it counted nothing.
This seems pretty straightforward. Basically you have four 2-sided dice. You can either cut and paint some cane or bamboo, or you could get four tongue depressors and paint them accordingly on one side, three red and one black. 4 blank or 4 painted sides up, you get 4 points. Three blank and the black side up gets you 2 points. Anything else scores zero.
You could either play to a total number of points, or pay a number of bets based on the score. To make it a little more interesting, you could require that you set a goal for the point total, and reach it exactly.
The Hand Game
They also played a guessing game with a long white ivory bead. Two sides were formed with a leader for each. The leader of one side took the bead and gave it to one of his men. This man then shuffled it about and the leader of the opposite side had to guess where it was. The side scoring eight points first won. No gambling was connected with this game. The participants sang constantly and the victorious party ended with a grand song of triumph.
Swanton only writes about one version of this game, though he acknowledges a second version written about by Parsons, in which players “used two little bones and played for six points.” This is usually the version taught by Caddo elders today. In both games, the teams form two lines, and sing or taunt and make movements to distract their opponents. The tribal name for this game is kanidano’tsuisa (“they are going to have a hand-game”).
– photo by Andrea Fisher
According to Swanton, the leader of one side took an ivory bead and gave it to one of his men. That team would then shuffle the bead among themselves until a halt was called, and the opposing team now had to guess who had the bead. Successful guesses scored a point, and after each guess, the bead would go to the other team. First to 8 points won.
The hand game taught today uses two small “bones,” and has a scorekeeper in addition to two lines of players, each with an even number. Each round is played by a pair of players from each team, in a manner similar to innings in a baseball game. To begin the first round, the scorekeeper hands one bone each to the first two players in one line (Team A).
The first player from Team A shuffles the bone behind their back, and then starts crossing them back and forth in front of them. While they’re doing this, the player directly across from them (Player 1 on Team B) has to guess which hand the bone is in.
If they guess correctly, the player in Team A lays the bone down in front of them to show that it was found. Next, Player 2 on each team repeats the process. On a failed guess, the bone-holding team gets one of 6 tally sticks, adding a point to their score.
The round is not over until both bones have been found. If only one was guessed correctly and the other wasn’t, the pair with the bones get to pick up the one revealed, and they shuffle again for another pair of guesses.
After both bones have been found, pass them to the first two players in Team B, along with any tally sticks that have been earned. Once both bones are found again, everything passes to the second pair of players in Team A, then the second pair in Team B, and so on. As soon as a single team has all 6 tally sticks in their possession, they win the game.
What makes this fascinating to me is that you earn points for fooling the guessing team, but you don’t get to keep them once they guess both bones. This makes the strategy tricky. Do you guess badly in hopes of running up the score while the other team has the bones? As more failed guesses accumulate, it becomes that much more important to guess well, so that your team holds the sticks. When you’re at a score of 5, I’m sure things get even more rowdy to distract your opponents.
My main concern is that if you have a lot of players, people at the end of the lines might not get a chance to play before a team wins. The easiest solution to this is to simply set the target score higher.
A Morris Game?
Another game was played by two persons on a board having nine holes. Three pins were placed in a row on each on opposite sides. The object was to get the three pins in a row again, and a player could move to any vacant hole on the board, each player watching carefully so as to block his opponent.
This is a tricky one. At first, it sounds a lot like Three Men’s Morris, which is a smaller version of Nine Men’s Morris, which was popular in medieval Europe. However, in both of those games, the pieces don’t begin on the board. Instead, you spend your first three turns adding one piece anywhere on the board. After this, you move a single piece, strictly following the lines drawn. The goal is to form three in a row, which allows you to capture an opponent’s piece. Since you each only have three pieces in this specific Morris game, you immediately win.
However, the game played by the Caddo was apparently different, in that Swanton doesn’t mention any lines on the board, and each player begins with pieces on their side. You take turns moving a piece anywhere, with the goal being to get three pieces in a row again.
As described, the games would have been very short, as the second player has a huge advantage to set themselves up for a win while making their first block.
If the board did in fact allow this kind of free movement and had no lines, I imagine there must have been a rule forbidding you from moving the same piece two turns in a row.
An example game’s starting positions. Blue will move first. 
After Blue moves, Pink can only move this piece here to block. If they moved either of the other pieces, Blue could win immediately. 
However, now Blue can’t block Pink in both positions. On the other hand, if Pink cannot move that first piece again immediately, Blue could safely block the right side.
I couldn’t find a name or any other references to this game, though similar ones are played around the world. For all I know, they were playing Three Men’s Morris (by the time Swanton began his study, the Caddo had been interacting with Europeans for almost 300 years, after all), and Swanton didn’t recognize the game, assuming it was tribal. They might also have been playing Picaria, which was a Pueblo version of Three Men’s Morris with four more movement lines and four more positions. With no description or sketch of the game board, we can’t know for sure.
Jumping Grains
Unfortunately, Swanton’s next mention is far too vague to figure out what specific game it might have been:
Still another game was played with grains of corn laid in a certain way. All the grains but one were eliminated by jumping one grain over another.
Without describing the board to narrow it down, it is almost impossible to figure out more details. There are a multitude of different games played by tribes all over America that involve jumping pieces. However, in most of them, the goal is to capture all of your opponent’s pieces, not just leave a single piece on the board. Others might require you to surround a single enemy piece, which again would leave multiple tokens on the board. Naturally, I’ll likely cover some of these games in future articles.
Perhaps this was some kind of solitaire game, but again, many different options exist here. You’ve likely seen solitaire peg-jumping games where the goal is to end up with only one peg left on the board. However, the design of the board can vary from game to game.
Sadly, this specific reference will have to remain a mystery, unless I get clarification from a modern Caddo who might still play it.
The Hoop and Pole Game
The Caddo’s version of the hoop and pole game sounds interesting, as described by the following myth:
In the story of ‘The Brothers Who Became Thunder and Lightning,’ Doctor Dorsey tells of two brothers, the elder of whom made two arrows for his younger brother; one he painted black and the other he painted blue. They then made a small wheel out of the bark of the elm tree. One of the boys would stand about fifty yards away from the other and would shoot the wheel with the arrows. They played with the wheel every day until finally the younger brother failed to hit the wheel, when the wheel kept on rolling and did not stop. They followed its traces and, after a series of adventures, recovered the wheel from an old man, whom they killed. Later, they ascended to the sky and became the Lightning and Thunder.
As written, this sounds like one would roll the hoop toward the other, who shot at it to make it stop. That turns out to be a misunderstanding, however. Instead, there is a net woven into the hoop – you can see it if you look carefully at the illustration above. Players must either shoot arrows or throw three-foot “darts” through the hoop. The idea is to practice hitting a moving target.
Depending on the tribe, this net may be any number of patterns, and the rules vary as to the exact goal. There might be target spaces within the net representing different animals. You might score by shooting cleanly through the net, or you might want to catch your dart in the net in specific scoring areas.
In some versions, a player who scores then picks up the hoop and tries to tag someone on an opposing team. In that game, the goal is to eliminate all the opposing players.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, the indigenous peoples of the Americas had a rich culture. Much of it was unfortunately lost, because so much of their history was passed on through oral tradition, wiped out through reeducation programs. What little we can find is what a determined people continued to cling to, keeping their cultural identity alive. Other information, though seen through a European lens, was thankfully preserved by folklorists such as Swanton, Parsons, and Culin.
Keep digging – people are people, and games provide an interesting insight into their values and culture.
