Tyler Settlers Eradicate Caddo People & The Discovery Doctrine
“America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.”
According to archaeological evidence, over 1200 years ago, the area where Tyler and Smith County now exists was inhabited by the Caddo. These Native Americans or First Peoples were the earliest known inhabitants of the piney wooded area we now call East Texas. The Caddo were spiritual farming peoples who worshipped the Sky Chief. They lived in thatched huts and were experts in ceramics. The Caddo descended from the Paleo- Indians and other archaic cultures dating back over 12,000 years.
Native Americans existed for thousands of years without foreign influence; then European explorers arrived. Eager to earn their fame and fortune, European authorities commissioned these explorers to loot the newly discovered lands for king and crown. The kingdoms were legally empowered to steal and kill by the Catholic Church.
In the mid-1500s, Spanish conquistadores (invaders) exploring the area described three confederacies of Caddo people living between the Sabine and Trinity River area, among them the Hasinai. The Hasinai were a confederation of Caddo tribes occupying part of what is now the Tyler and foreign people and their goods, which proved incredibly deadly for the first peoples.
By the late 17th century, explorers from both Spain and France were working hard with the Hasinai to establish, govern, and maintain territories and trade dominance over each other. Both parties sought to assert themselves as sole deal brokers with Caddo traders. After the French rule of the area, the Spanish Consultation in Tejas ironically gave Caddo peoples squatters’ rights to the land. Previously the Caddo were promised title to their ancestral lands. But the dream of restoring The Caddo to their pre-European glory would never come to pass.
Soon, European epidemics arrived and decimated the population. According to the Texas State Historical Museum, 95% of the Caddo were annihilated in major smallpox, cholera, and other epidemics between 1691 and 1816. Specifically, a virulent deadly smallpox epidemic in 1801, which was followed by a measles epidemic in 1803, devastated the community. Grievously, by 1820 there were less than 2000 Caddo left in the area or less than 300 families.
Then American settlers, influenced by their own culture’s long history of warring with Native Americans, moved to modern-day East Texas from South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Empowered by their sense of racial superiority and validated by their Christian faith, southerners imported to the northernmost region of Tejas their dreams of accumulating incredible wealth using the relatively free labor of “subhuman” African peoples.
“By 1820 there were less than 2000 Caddo left in the Smith County area or less than 300 families.”
What justified white settlers taking lands that did not belong to them? The Catholic Church took most of the credit. Between 1452 - 1493 the Church issued a series of Papal Bulls (public decrees issued by the infallible Pope) now known as the Doctrine of Discovery. The Doctrine of Discovery defined Indigenous Peoples as “infidels” or “subhuman.” The doctrine gave Europeans the theological support, and later the legal foundation, for land ownership. According to the Church, “discovered” peoples and lands, if claimed for Christ, could be appropriated for use.
Simply put, Indians could not own land. They were merciless savages, so the land and people were good for the taking. According to Mark Charles, a Native American activist and speaker,
“The Doctrine of Discovery is a series of papal bulls, or edicts, of the Catholic Church. The first one, from 1452, is titled Dum Diversas, written by Pope Nicholas V. It authorized the Portuguese to “invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans, … reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and … convert them to … their use and profit” [as detailed in the follow-up Romanus Pontifex of 1455]. It’s the Church in Europe saying to the nations of Europe, “Wherever you go, whatever land you find not ruled by white European Christian rulers, those people are subhuman, and their land is yours to take.” [2]
Not surprisingly, the language in the U.S. Constitution would assert rights and privileges for only white land-owning men. Native American peoples are excluded. The Declaration of Independence calls natives “merciless Indian Savages” who are subhuman, distinctly different from the “all men.” Africans are only partially human. They are three-fifths or not fully human. 26
Lastly, women are not even mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. These plainly white supremacist and misogynistic ideologies made subjugation of others possible - it was right, honorable, and surprisingly a Christian imperative.
FOOTNOTES:
Douglass, F. (1852, July 5). What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? [Speech recording]. Lee, Mann and Co.
Mark Charles: There must be real repentance for the Doctrine of Discovery. (2019, November 28). Faith & Leadership. https://faithandleadership.com/mark-charles-there-must-be-real-repentance-doctrine-discovery.
