Neighboring Indians

Taken from Loose Leaves of the History of Lamar County
Article appeared in The Paris News on Thursday, May 12, 1921

Yoakum is our authority for saying that practically all if not all the Texas Indians were worshipers of the sun.

It should be borne in mind, however, that the Indians in anything like close proximity to North and Northeast Texas were not, with the possible exception of the Quapaws, among what would be called the aborigines. This is especially true of the beginning of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1818 the United States acquired by treaty and purchase from the Quapaws practically all or at least the larger part of the domain which afterwards became the Indian Territory. The Caddos were by far the most populous tribe along the Texas side of Red river from where Shreveport now stands up to the mouth of Bois d'arc. It must be remembered however that only in rare instances does Indian occupation mean exclusive occupation.

While the Caddos were preponderant in numbers there were other tribes in the same region. There were a few Kickapoos, one settlement of them in Red River county near the present town of Annona. There were also some villages of Cooshattas. When Claiborne Wright came up Red river in his boat, the Pioneer, in the year 1816, he passed one of their villages which was located on the bank of the river some distance above the Raft.1 He was attacked by them and his boat was robbed of several hundred dollars worth of supplies of which he stood much in need in the next very few weeks. The Muskogee tribe and consequently Cooshattas were a branch of kin to the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles. The Choctaws were moved principally from Mississippi to the reservation which the government had purchased for them from the Quapaws, in the early thirties. They were moved up Red river in boats under government contracts, and were landed at or near Fort Towson on the Oklahoma side of the river. In 1836 about five hundred of the Choctaws had some misunderstanding with the national government about their location in the Indian Territory and refused to go there until the adjustment could be made. They landed on the Texas side of the river or crossed over after they had been landed and camped for several months on Bee Bayou just east of Pattonville. Their presence was greatly appreciated by the few settlers who were living in what is now Lamar and Red River counties. They were friendly and helped hold the more war-like tribes in the vicinity in check.

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