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Living in Grass Houses

For hundreds of years, the Caddo Indians built huge dome-shaped houses, temples, and other structures without using modern equipment or tools!

They had no chainsaws or metal axes to cut down the tall pine trees from the forests. They had no metal hammers and nails to join the pieces of their houses together. They had no aluminum ladders, hard hats, or other safety equipment that construction workers use today.

Yet the Caddo were able to build tall, dome-shaped grass houses, some large enough for 30 people to live in! Amazingly, they built each house in a single day by working together—everybody in the village pitched in to help.

The grass houses were sturdy and dry. They were also cool in the summer and usually warm enough in the winter (they built a small fire in the center). The Caddo people who lived further north in Oklahoma and Arkansas sometimes built winter houses with pole walls covered with a thick layer of clay to help keep out the cold winds.

Today, we can learn how the Caddo built their houses by reading the eyewitness accounts of Spanish and French explorers. They traveled through Caddo villages 300-400 years ago in what is now East Texas.

Do you think you could build a Caddo-style house today?

Click on each picture below to learn more!

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For hundreds of years, the Caddo Indians built huge dome-shaped houses, temples, and other structures without using modern equipment or tools! They had no chainsaws or metal axes to cut down the tall pine trees from the forests. They had no metal hammers and nails to join the pieces of their houses together.

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Political

Family bands loosely organized under a chief

Chief proved himself by age, skill, and wisdom

Economic

Hunted buffalo, deer, and wild turkeys

Small gardens used to trade

Geographic

Great Plains and some in Mountains and Basins of west Texas

Social

Tepees and some lived in lodges

clothes of buffalo & deer

Superstitious

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Political:

One big tribe was broken up

into small nomadic tribes

Shaman as their medical

and spiritual leader

Economic

Hunt and forage

Geographic

Gulf Coast, Southern Texas, Northern Mexico

One of the poorest regions
Social

Runners

Nomadic

Women worked a lot because men were constantly in search of food

Huts made out of mud, animal skins and brush

Became extinct at an early date

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Political

Led by an inherited chief (caddi)

Made political decisions such as when to go to war or share ceremonial peace pipe

Kin-based groups or bands organized into confederacies

Councils

Economic

Farm, tanners, and trade

Geographic

Northeast Texas (around

the Red River), Oklahoma, Louisiana

Social

Traced family line through the mother (matriarchal)

Tejas confederacy is where we got our state’s name, which means “those who are friends”

Beehive grass huts

Ceremonies and rituals included giant burial mounds and spiritual temples

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Political

Led by a chief who also served as a medicine man

Chief settled problems

Chief advised by a governor, war chief, and four captains

Economic

Farmed vegetables

Hunted small game

Geographic

El Paso area

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Political

Small bands that moved loosely to find food

No overall chief

Economic

Fish, hunters and gatherers, trade

Geographic

East Texas, West Louisiana

Social

Lived in small lodges made out of grass and reeds

Oyster legend: man said to have been cast up from sea in an oyster shell

European diseases led to extinction

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Political

Family bands loosely organized under a chief

Chief proved himself by age, skill, and wisdom

Economic

Hunted buffalo, deer, and wild turkeys

Small gardens used to trade

Geographic

Great Plains

Social

Tepees made of buffalo hides

clothes too

Fierce warriors

Political

Each band led by an elected chief

Warriors elected a war chief for each campaign

Economic

Hunted buffalo, elk and bear

Collected wild plants, but did not farm

Geographic

Central Plains and Great Plains regions

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Political

Each small band led by a chief

Economic

Used dugout canoes to fish

traded and hunted small game

Geographic

Gulf coast

Social

Scattered groups used smoke

signals to communicate

Traveled in bands of 30-40 people

Nomadic between the mainland and barrier island because they were poorly equipped

Traveled back and forth to islands in rickety dugout canoes

Practiced ceremonial cannibalism of enemies

Conflicts with colonists led to extinction

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Sophia Dela Cruz
2nd Period
August 28, 2018