Description
Cahinnio were a Native American tribe that lived in Arkansas and part of the Caddo Confederacy and was probably affiliated with Caddo Hadacho. In 1687, French explorer Rene-Robert Cavlier, encountered the tribe and settled near the Red River in southwestern Arkansas. In July 1687, Father Anastasius Douai, a French priest, visited the village of Cahinio, near present-day Arkadelphia, Arkansas. During the vicissitudes of the 18th century the tribe moved north west, and in 1763 were on upper Arkansas River, near their old allies, the Mento. By the close of the 18th century they were extinct as a tribe. They settled along the southern bank of the Ouachita River. By 1763, they moved to the upper Arkansas River. In 1771, the Cahinnio and several neighboring tribes signed a peace treaty with the French.
Language
Caddo is a Caddoan language of the Southern Plains. Only a few dozen speakers remain, mostly elders in Texas and Oklahoma, but the tribe is working to teach the youngest generation of Caddo Indians their ancestral language again.
Culture
In the 1680s, French explorer Henri Joutel traveled with the La Salle expedition, to Cahinnio territory. He wrote that they presented his expedition with two loaves of corn bread, describing it as "the finest and the best we had so far seen; they seemed to have been baked in an oven, and yet we not noticed any among them." Joutel noted that corn was an important food staple among the Cahinnio, as were beans and sunflower seeds. Additionally he recorded that the Cahinnio used deer hide for pouches and bearskins for rugs. The Cahinnio were known for their superior bows, which they made from Osage orange wood.