Return to First Page----ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY, Volume 2 (June 1943), p.107
They practiced inhumanation, but always placed the body in a flexed position, and like the Marksville, seldom buried anything with the body.
There are not as many sites in Clark county that yield evidence of Cole's Creek occupation as of Marksville, but enough evidence has been found, and at enough different points, to draw the conclusion that at some period there was quite a colony of these people.
Again, it is only a guess as to what happened when these people ceased to exist as a Cole's Creek cultural level. They may have gradually changed into the last cultural complex, the one the white man found when he first came here, or they may have moved entirely out of the picture and the modern or historical tribes moved in from somewhere and took their lands and their fields. There seems to be more evidence pointing to the former theory than the latter. Of the Caddoes who where the historic Indians, we have much first- hand information left us in the narratives of the early explorers.
The Caddoan peoples consisted of ten tribes of which the Caddoes of Clark County were one. They had all the kindred linguistic characteristics. Joutel passed through the middle of the Caddo country in 1687 on his journey from the Texas coast to Arkansas Post. He must have passed very near the southern part of Clark county, if not through it. The following quotation taken from his journal gives a very clear picture of some of the Caddo customs and methods of house construction. (2)
"The cottages that are inhabited, are not
each of them for a private family, for in some of them there are fifteen
or twenty, each of which has its nook or corner, bed and other utensils
to itself; but without any partition to separate it from the rest. However,
they have nothing in common besides the fire, which is in the midst
of the hut, and never goes out."
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