Mark Marscio, age 11, of Shreveport, La., for his question:

WHO WERE THE CADDO INDIANS?

The Caddo Indians formed a group of allied tribes that once lived in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. Caddo is an abbreviation of the native name Kadohadacho, meaning real chiefs.

The Caddo lived in large houses of post framework covered with grass. Each house had several families. The Caddo cultivated fields of corn, beans and pumpkins, and collected wild grapes and berries. They also hunted deer, bear, wild fowl and buffalo.

The men in the group cut and traded wood of the Osage orange, the favorite bowwood among tribes of the Western plains. The women made excellent pottery. Caddo chiefs were highly respected and rode from place to place on litters or on the shoulders of their subjects.

Early Spanish explorers learned to respect the Caddo warriors. But during the 1700s, warfare between the Spanish and French in Caddo territory killed many of these Indians, and most of the remainder moved to Texas.

In 1855, The United States government assigned the Caddo a reservation on the Brazos River in Texas. They were moved in 1859 to southwestern Oklahoma, where their descendants still live.