Hasinai
Caddo people |
The Hasinai Confederacy (
Name
The name Hasinai (with the variants Hasini, Asenai, Asinai, Assoni, Asenay, Cenis, Senis, and Sannaye) means "our own people" in Caddoan. The Spanish knew the Hasinai as the Tejas or Texas, from a form of greeting meaning "friend", which gave the state of Texas its name.[3]
Government
When the Spanish and the French encountered the Hasinai in the 1680s, they were a centrally organized chiefdom under the control of a religious leader, known as the Grand Xinesi. He lived in a secluded house and met with a council of elders.
The chieftainship consisted of several subdivisions, which have been designated "cantonments". Each was under the control of a Caddi. There were also men designated as Canahas and Chayas, who helped the Caddi run the system.[4]
History
During the 17th century, the Hasinai traded with the
Historic populations
It is estimated that in 1520, the people who would become the Hasinai, the
In 1690, the Hasinai numbered in the vicinity of 10,000 people or a little more. By 1720, as a result of infectious diseases such as smallpox, the Hasinai population had fallen to 2,000.[7]
See also
- Caddoan Mississippian culture
- Caddo
- Caddo language
- Yowani Choctaw
- El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail
Notes
- ^ 2011 Oklahoma Indian Nations Pocket Pictorial Directory. Archived 2012-04-24 at the Wayback Machine Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission. 2011: 7. Retrieved 20 Aug 2013.
- ^ Edmonds 27
- ^ "Hasinai Indians". Texas State Historical Association.
- ^ Gary Clayton Anderson, The Indian Southwest, 1580-1830: Ethnogenesis and Reinvention (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999) p. 44
- ^ Anderson, The Indian Southwest, p. 47
- ^ Juliana Barr, Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007) p. 20
- ^ Anderson, The Indian Southwest, p. 57
References
- Edmonds, Randlett. Nusht'uhtiʔtiʔ Hasinay: Caddo Phrasebook. Richardson, TX: Various Indian Peoples Publishing, 2003. ISBN 1-884655-00-9.