Adai people

Last updated
Adai
Adaie.jpg
Cropped detail map from a 1718 map by Guillaume Delisle. Adaie on left side.
Total population
extinct as a tribe,
some merged into the Caddo [1]
Regions with significant populations
southwest Louisiana, northeast Texas
Languages
Adai language [2]
Religion
Indigenous religion
Related ethnic groups
possibly other tribes within the Caddo Confederacy [1]

The Adai were a Native American people of northwestern Louisiana and northeastern Texas. They were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands and part of the Caddo Confederacy. [1] [2]

Contents

Name

The name Adai derives from the Caddo word hadai meaning 'brushwood'. [3] French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville called them the Natao. [1]

Adai's name has also been written Adaizan, Adaizi, Adaise, Adahi, Adaes, Adees, Atayos, and Nadais. [4]

Language

The extinct Adai language was once thought to be Caddoan, [1] but may be a language isolate and remains unclassified because of a lack of attestation. John Sibley wrote that the Adai language "differs from all others, and is so difficult to speak or understand that no nation can speak ten words of it." [2] A list of approximately 250 words in Adai was recorded. [2]

History

16th century

Historic homelands of the Adai people with modern national borders Adai language map with modern borders.png
Historic homelands of the Adai people with modern national borders

The Adai were among the first peoples in North America to experience European contact and were profoundly affected. In 1530, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca wrote of them using the name Atayos.[ citation needed ]

17th century

Some Adai joined the Mission of San Francisco de los Tejas, that the Spanish founded in 1690 [1] in San Antonio, Texas. In 1699, Iberville encountered the Adai in Louisiana along the Red River. [1]

18th century

In 1716, Spanish colonists founded the Mission of San Miguel de Linares, also known as the Mission of Adayes, [2] to convert the Adai, Natchitoches, and other Caddo people to Roman Catholicism. [1] The French and their Native allies destroyed that mission in 1719 but the Spanish rebuilt in 1721. [1] The Spanish later built the Presidio of Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Los Adaes, [1] near Natchitoches, Louisiana.

French explorer Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe wrote in 1719 that the Adai were helpful to French traders. Then, they lived in villages along the Red River from Louisiana into Texas past the Sabine River. [1] Conflicts between the French and Spanish, introduced diseases, and alcohol took a toll on the Adai, and they are almost gone by 1778. [1]

Archaeologists have identified their pottery styles in the 1770s as being increasingly tempered with bone and named their ceramic types "Patton Engraved" and "Emory Incised". [4]

Around 1792, 14 Adai families migrated to Presidio San Antonio de Béxar in San Antonio, Texas, where they assimilated into other tribes. [1] [2] Surviving Adai families near Nacogdoches, Texas, merged into the Caddos. [1]

19th century

American Indian agent John Sibley recorded a small Adai village that became known as the Lac Madon site, which was populated through 1820. [4] He wrote that there were only "twenty men of them remaining, but more women," while Rev. Jedidiah Morse recorded only 30 surviving Adai by 1820. [2]

State-recognized tribe

The State of Louisiana designated the Adai Caddo Indians of Louisiana based in Robeline, Louisiana, as a state-recognized tribe. [5]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Donald Ricky, Encyclopedia of Texas Indians, 91.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Boas, Franz (1966). Introduction to Handbook of American Indian Languages. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 122. ISBN   978-0-8032-5017-8.
  3. Thomas N. Campbell, "Haqui Indians," Handbook of Texas Online , accessed July 12, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
  4. 1 2 3 Webb, Clarence; Gregory, Hiram G. (1990). "The Caddo Indians of Louisiana". Louisiana Anthology. Baton Rouge, LA. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  5. "Federal and State Tribal Contact List" (PDF). Office of the Governor. State of Louisiana. 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2023.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robeline, Louisiana</span> Village

Robeline is a village in western Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 183 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Natchitoches Micropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adai language</span> Extinct Native American language

Adai is an extinct Native American language that was spoken in northwestern Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Adaes</span> United States historic place

Los Adaes was the capital of Tejas (Texas) on the northeastern frontier of New Spain from 1721 to 1773. It included a Franciscan mission, San Miguel de Cuellar de los Adaes, and a presidio, Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Los Adaes. The name Adaes derives from the indigenous Adai people, members of the Caddoan confederacy of Indians who were the people the missionaries aimed to convert to Christianity. The presidio and mission were established to counter French influence in Louisiana territory and defend New Spain from possible invasion or encroachment by the French. In 1763 Louisiana came under the control of Spain and the Los Adaes outpost was no longer necessary for defense. In 1773 the Spanish closed the mission and presidio and forced the population to move to San Antonio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish Texas</span> Province of New Spain

Spanish Texas was one of the interior provinces of the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1519 until 1821. Spain claimed ownership of the region in 1519. Slave raids by Spaniards into what became Texas began in the 16th century and created an atmosphere of antagonism with Native Americans (Indians) which would cause endless difficulties for the Spanish in the future. Spain did not attempt to establish a permanent presence until after France established the colony of Fort Saint Louis in 1685. In 1688, the French colony failed due to internal dissention and attacks by the Karankawa Indians. In 1690, responding to fear of French encroachment, Spanish explorer Alonso de León escorted several Catholic missionaries to east Texas, where they established the first mission in Texas. That attempt to establish a Spanish colony failed due to the hostility of the Caddo Indians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish missions in Texas</span> 17th to 19th-century Catholic religious outposts

The Spanish Missions in Texas comprise a series of religious outposts established by Spanish Catholic Dominicans, Jesuits, and Franciscans to spread the Catholic doctrine among area Native Americans, but with the added benefit of giving Spain a toehold in the frontier land. The missions introduced European livestock, fruits, vegetables, and industry into the Texas area. In addition to the presidio and pueblo (town), the misión was one of the three major agencies employed by the Spanish crown to extend its borders and consolidate its colonial territories. In all, twenty-six missions were maintained for different lengths of time within the future boundaries of the state of Texas.

Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis was a French-Canadian soldier and explorer best known for his exploration and development of the Louisiana and Spanish Texas regions. He commanded a small garrison at Fort de la Boulaye on the lower Mississippi River, built in 1700, and founded Fort St Jean Baptiste de Natchitoches in northern La Louisiane, as they called the French colony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natchitoches meat pie</span> Meat pie from Louisiana, United States

The Natchitoches meat pie is a regional meat pie from northern Louisiana, in the United States. It is one of the official state foods of Louisiana.

The Yatasi were Native American peoples from northwestern Louisiana that were part of the Natchitoches Confederacy of the Caddo Nation. Today they are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.

José de Azlor y Virto de Vera, second Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo by marriage, commonly known as the Marqués de Aguayo, was the governor of the provinces of Coahuila and of the New Philippines in New Spain between 1719 and 1722. During his tenure, Aguayo retook eastern Texas from New France without firing a shot. He established or reestablished seven missions and three presidios, and quadrupled the number of Spanish soldiers stationed in Texas. Aguayo and his wife were also owners of a very large estate, or latifundio, in Coahuila. His descendants inherited and expanded the landholdings. The Aguayo dynasty continued until 1825.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish missions in Louisiana</span> 18th-century Catholic religious outposts

The Spanish missions in Louisiana were religious outposts in Spanish Louisiana region of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, located within the present-day U.S. states of Louisiana and East Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Margil</span>

Antonio Margil, OFM was a Spanish Franciscan missionary in North and Central America. Based at the College of Santa Cruz in Santiago de Querétaro, after 1715, he worked largely in Texas and Louisiana. Father Margil was declared "Venerable" in 1836.

The Eyeish were a Native American tribe from present-day eastern Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site</span> American fort in Natchitoches, Louisiana

Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site in Natchitoches, Louisiana, US, is a replica of an early French fort based upon the original 1716 blueprints by Sieur Du Tisné with the improvements made in 1731 by Boutin. The French called the original fort: Fort Saint Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches. In the 1970's, the State of Louisiana anglicized the name to Fort Saint Jean Baptiste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Gil Y'Barbo</span>

Dón Antonio Gil Ybarbo (1729–1809), also known as Gil Ybarbo, Gil Ibarbo, and many other name variants, was a pioneering settler of Nacogdoches, Texas. Ambiguously described by the National Park Service as a "prolific trader and smuggler," Gil y'Barbo's contribution to Texas was essential to the well-being of "his people," and a critical element in providing a staging point for the Anglo-American settlers that would follow them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Anne Church (Spanish Lake)</span> Historic church in Louisiana, US

The St. Anne Church in the vicinity of Robeline, Louisiana is a historic church founded in the 1800s as a mission from the St. Augustine Parish Church of Isle Brevelle. The current building was built in 1916. It is located at the southwest corner of the intersection of LA 485 and Blosmoore Road. It was added to the National Register in 1994.

The Choctaw-Apache Tribe of Ebarb is a state-recognized tribe and nonprofit organization in Louisiana. The members of the tribe are the descendants of Choctaw and Lipan Apache people and are required to prove lineal descent as part of their state-approved membership process. The tribe is based in the towns of Zwolle, Louisiana and Ebarb, Louisiana, both of which are in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, where the group have lived since the early 18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mission Dolores State Historic Site</span> United States historic place

Mission Dolores State Historic Site (41SA25) is a 36-acre historic site including a 9-acre (3.6 ha) archaeological site listed on the National Register of Historic Places in San Augustine County, Texas that preserves the location of a Franciscan mission originally established in 1721. The site is located on the original El Camino Real de los Tejas trail. The site has no above ground remains of the mission but the mission's location is confirmed through archeological excavations. It is located half a mile south of San Augustine in the Piney Woods region of east Texas. Operated by the Texas Historical Commission, the site includes a campground, museum, gift shop and hiking trails.

José Domingo Ramón was a Spanish military man and explorer who founded several missions and a presidio in East Texas to prevent French expansion in the area.

Anne des Cadeaux (unknown—1754), was a Native American active in early colonial Louisiana, and was from one of the early Louisiana Creole families. She was a devout Catholic, and was enslaved but later gained her freedom.

The Adai Caddo Indians of Louisiana is a state-recognized tribe in Louisiana and 501(c)(3) organization in Robeline, Louisiana. Its members are descendants of the Adai people. The chief is John Mark Davis, as of 2023.

References