Total population | |
---|---|
Extinct as a tribe, descendants merged with the Caddo [1] [2] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Eastern Texas, U.S. | |
Languages | |
Bidai language |
The Bidai, who referred to themselves as the Quasmigdo, [3] [4] were a tribe of American Indians from eastern Texas. [5] [1]
The name Bidai is Caddo language term for "brushwood". [2]
Their oral history says that the Bidai were the original people in their region. [2]
Their central settlements were along Bedias Creek that flows into the Trinity River, [1] but their territory ranged from the Brazos River to the Neches River. [5] The first written record of the tribe was in 1691, by Spanish explorers who said they lived near the Hasinai.
French explorer François Simars de Bellisle described them as agriculturalists in 1718 and 1720. [6] He wrote that they were allied with the Akokisa. [1]
They had three distinct villages or bands in the 18th century. The Deadose were the northernmost band of Bidai, who broke off in the early 18th century. [5] The 18th-century population of Bidai was estimated to be 600 with 200 additional Deadoses. [7]
In the mid-18th century, some Bidai settled at Mission San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas. [1] In 1770, the Bidai colluded with French settlers to sell guns to the Lipan Apaches, as all parties were enemies with the Spanish. [6]
The Bidai suffered several epidemics during 1776–77, reducing their population by at least half, from about 100 [1] to 50. The survivors joined neighboring tribes, such as the Akokisas and Koasati.
Some settled on the Brazos Indian Reservation in present-day Young County, Texas, and were removed with the Caddo to Indian Territory. [6] [2] The remaining Bidai formed one village about 12 miles from Montgomery, Texas, [1] growing corn and picking cotton for hire in the mid-19th century. [2]
Ethnographer John Reed Swanton identified one Bidai descendant in 1912. [1] Andre Sjoberg published an ethnohistory of the Bidai in 1951. [8]
The Bidai hunted, gathered, fished, grew maize, and bartered their surplus maize. They snared game and trapped them in cane pens. During the summer months, they lived along the coasts, but in winters they moved inland [9] in which they lived in bearskin tents. [7]
Before contact, the Bidai made their own ceramics but quickly adopted metal utensils from European trade. They still made pottery into the 19th century and also wove a variety of baskets. [7] In 1803, Dr. John Sibley wrote that Bidai had "an excellent character for honesty and punctuality."
The structure of their cradleboards altered the shape of their skulls. They also enhanced their appearance through body and facial tattooing. [7]
Bidai medicine men were herbalists and performed sweatbathing. Patients could be treated by being raised on scaffolds over smudge fires. While other Atakapan bands are known for their ritual cannibalism,[ dubious ] the practice was never recorded among the Bidai. [7]
Bidai was a possible language isolate that became extinct by the end of the 19th century. [3] The only attested Bidai words are: [10]
Bidai has been spelled Biday, Bedies, Bidaises, Beadweyes, Bedies, Bedees, Bidias, Bedais, Midays, Vidais, Vidaes, Vidays. Their name could be Caddo, meaning "brushwood", and having reference to the Big Thicket near the lower Trinity River about which they lived. Their autonym was Quasmigdo. [8]
The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language.
The Atakapa or Atacapa were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who spoke the Atakapa language and historically lived along the Gulf of Mexico in what is now Texas and Louisiana.
Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, Southeastern cultures, or Southeast Indians are an ethnographic classification for Native Americans who have traditionally inhabited the area now part of the Southeastern United States and the northeastern border of Mexico, that share common cultural traits. This classification is a part of the Eastern Woodlands. The concept of a southeastern cultural region was developed by anthropologists, beginning with Otis Mason and Franz Boas in 1887. The boundaries of the region are defined more by shared cultural traits than by geographic distinctions. Because the cultures gradually instead of abruptly shift into Plains, Prairie, or Northeastern Woodlands cultures, scholars do not always agree on the exact limits of the Southeastern Woodland culture region. Shawnee, Powhatan, Waco, Tawakoni, Tonkawa, Karankawa, Quapaw, and Mosopelea are usually seen as marginally southeastern and their traditional lands represent the borders of the cultural region.
The Akokisa were an Indigenous tribe who lived on Galveston Bay and the lower Trinity and Sabine rivers in Texas, primarily in the present-day Greater Houston area. They were a band of the Atakapa Indians, closely related to the Atakapa of Lake Charles, Louisiana.
The Kichai tribe was a Native American Southern Plains tribe that lived in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Their name for themselves was K'itaish.
Solano is an unclassified extinct language formerly spoken in northeast Mexico and perhaps also in the neighboring U.S. state of Texas. It is a possible language isolate.
The Nasoni are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas and southwestern Arkansas.
The Moneton were a historical Native American tribe from West Virginia. In the late 17th century, they lived in the Kanawha Valley near the Kanawha and New Rivers.
The Kadohadacho are a Native American tribe within the Caddo Confederacy. Today they are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.
The Yatasi are Native American peoples from northwestern Louisiana that are part of the Natchitoches Confederacy of the Caddo Nation. Today they are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.
The Eyeish were a Native American tribe from present-day eastern Texas.
The Nechaui were a Native American tribe from eastern Texas. Their name is thought to be derived from Nachawi, the Caddo language word for Osage orange.
The Nabedache were a Native American tribe from eastern Texas. Their name, Nabáydácu, means "blackberry place" in the Caddo language. An alternate theory says their original name was Wawadishe from the Caddo word, witish, meaning "salt."
The Nacogdoche are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas.
The Neche were a Native American tribe from eastern Texas.
The Nanatsoho were a Native American tribe that lived at the border of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
The Cahinnio were a Native American tribe that lived in Arkansas.
The Tula were a Native American group that lived in what is now western Arkansas. The Tula are known to history only from the chronicles of Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto's exploits in the interior of North America.
The Deadose were a Native American tribe in present-day Texas closely associated with the Jumano, Yojuane, Bidai and other groups living in the Rancheria Grande of the Brazos River in eastern Texas in the early 18th century.
Bidai is an unclassified extinct language formerly spoken by the Bidai people of eastern Texas. Zamponi (2024) notes that the numerals do not appear to be related to those of any other languages and hence proposes that Bidai may be a language isolate.