NO. 14 CADDO BURIAL SITE WALKER 1 5 



seventeenth century, where pottery of a high degree of excellence in 

 manufacture is found associated with objects of unmistakable Euro- 

 pean origin. This would indicate for the burials a period probably in 

 the early half of the eighteenth century, at the epoch when French 

 influence was at its height in Louisiana. By the time of the Spanish 

 occupation after 1763, it is unlikely that the Indians who had been 

 long in contact with European traders would still have pursued their 

 ancient potter's art with the same skill and craftsmanship that pro- 

 duced the beautiful specimens of pottery found at the Cane River site. 

 Furthermore, none of the vessels from this or the sites at Glendora 

 and Keno Place was found in mounds, and in cases where this type of 

 pottery has been reported from mounds, it has been proved almost 

 without exception that such burials were intrusive in nature. Ap- 

 parently, therefore, the tribes that had reached this height of ceramic 

 perfection were no longer builders of mounds, if indeed they had 

 ever been such. The close similarity in type between the Red River 

 and Ouachita specimens is explained historically by Tonti's account 

 of finding the " Ouasita " and " Nachitoches " together at the latter's 

 village, and also by LaFon's map of the Territory of Orleans in 1806, 

 on which the old trading path from Natchitoches to the villages on the 

 Ouachita is plainly shown. 



These significant chronological data ofifer a clue that should assist 

 considerably in the interpretation of many of the archeological re- 

 mains in northwestern Louisiana, southern Arkansas, and northeastern 

 Texas. 



