SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I93I 171 



now occupied by the city of Shreveport, so that all traces of it have 

 now been lost. Several miles north of the town is Caddo Lake, on 

 the north side of which was the village of the Petit Caddo. The 

 Grand Caddo were still farther north on the bend of Red River some- 

 where near where Texarkana now stands. These sites are the ones 

 visited by Athanase de Mezieres, governor of Natchitoches first under 

 French and later under Spanish dominion in the latter part of the 

 eighteenth century. In addition to the village sites there are many 

 conical and some flat-topped mounds in this part of Red River valley. 

 It is likely that they were built by the Caddo, but it will require 

 further systematic digging to determine this point ; unfortunately 

 these mounds have been particularly subject to the destructive digging 

 mentioned above, so that very few are left intact. 



An attempt to locate the Koasati village, which presumably gave 

 its name to the town of Coushatta, revealed that the site had been 

 completely swept away when the river changed its course, eating into 

 the point of land between Red River and Coushatta Bayou. The high 

 water of 1908 cut into the eastern bank until a bluff some 20 feet 

 high was formed. 



About a mile south of Natchitoches on the bank of Cane River 

 lake a new fish hatchery is being constructed by the United States 

 Bureau of Fisheries. During the course of this work several Indian 

 burials were discovered and with them some pieces of pottery. Un- 

 fortunately most of this material was destroyed or damaged beyond 

 repair. The writer hearing of this discovery, hastened to the spot, 

 where through the courtesy of the superintendent, Mr. Casler, it 

 was possible to save some of the pottery fragments. These when pieced 

 together disclosed a portion of a beautiful polished black ware vessel 

 decorated with incised scroll designs typical of the Caddo pottery. A 

 few days later a long distance telephone call told of the discovery of 

 another burial. Fortunately this one was damaged but little by the 

 scraper, and it was possible to uncover the entire skeleton of a 

 female, lying extended at full length, with an excessively flattened 

 skull due to fronto-occipital pressure. This extreme type of artificial 

 deformation has very rarely been observed in this part of the south. 

 Lying by the right side of the head were two pieces of pottery, a 

 jug and a bowl, of simple workmanship in coarse, poorly fired clay, 

 heavily shell-tempered, and without decoration. Careful investigation 

 of the surrounding area for about 20 square feet failed to reveal any 

 other burials. There was no indication of a mound over the body, 

 which lay on red sandy soil deposited by the river overflows, and the 

 depth was estimated at about 2 feet below the original ground surface. 



