From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Chief Caddo
Chief Caddo
Chief Caddo is the name of the statue given to the winner
of the annual football game between Southland Confer-
Importance of the Caddo Tribe
ence members Northwestern State University (NSU) of Historians say had it not been for the Caddo Indians,
Natchitoches, Louisiana and Stephen F. Austin State the Spanish and French colonists who came to the area
University (SFA) of Nacogdoches, Texas. would not have survived the onslaughts of Apache and
Made of solid wood, Chief Caddo is the largest trophy Comanche warriors from the west, and the Natchez from
in college football, standing 2.3-metre (7.5 ft) and weigh- the east. In addition, French and Spanish writers of the
ing in excess of 150-kilogram (330 lb). time said it was certain, wise Caddo chiefs made it pos-
sible for the colonists to live as neighbors while their
mother countries were at war against each other.
History Nacogdoches and Natchitoches both received their
The idea of the statue was created in 1960 when longtime names from Caddo place names. In Caddo language "Na"
rivals NSU and SFA decided to award the winner of the simply means "place of." Nacogdoches is thought to
game a trophy. The two schools settled on a wooden stat- mean "the place of places." Two myths exist about how
ue (both schools are located in heavily forested areas) the cities got their names. Both versions of the myth
of a legendary Indian chief whose tribe (the Caddo) was agree that an Indian chief with two sons sent one east
responsible for settling the locations that became the and the other west, and they traveled the same distance
cities in which university was located (both of which are and established villages. As for the folklore in question:
named for branches of the tribe)[1]. Under the agree- One version, as reported by historian Samuel Stewart Mims
ment, the losing school would chop down a tree from one in "Rios Sabinas", credits the chief of an Adae Indian village on
of its nearby forests, while the winning school would re- the Sabine River. The village was overpopulated and the chief
ceive the log and carve the statue from it. ordered his two grown sons to report to him precisely at sunrise.
NSU won the 1961 game 35-19; thus, SFA delivered a He told one son to walk east and the other to walk west until the
2,000-pound black gum log to NSU. Woodcarver Harold very moment of sunset. The sons were to establish a village at
Green spent some 230 hours fashioning the statue. He the place they reached. The son who went west wound up in a
was named Chief Caddo to honor the Indian tribe that not grove of persimmon trees, and named his village Nacogdoches,
only settled the two communities, but provided safety for meaning persimmon. The eastbound son reached a grove of pa-
the early white settlers in the area. paw trees and named his village Natchitoches, meaning papaw.
NSU and SFA have been playing for Chief Caddo since Another version says that the chief had twin sons,
1961 and NSU has a 28-14-1 advantage in the trophy game Nacogdoches and Natchitoches, and could not decide
[2]. who would lead the tribe following his death. The chief
Currently he is at SFA, and on Saturday November 20, split the tribe between them and sent each in different
2010, Chief Caddo was awarded to SFA again for its sec- directions. They traveled for three days, one eastbound
ond year as SFA won the battle with a 36-13 lead. and one westbound, and wound up where the cities are
located today.
Controversy
The Caddo people see Chief Caddo as a racist symbol and
References
in April of 2011 asked both SFA and NSU to discontinue [1] http://www.sa.sfasu.edu/traditions/caddo.htm
the tradition. No formal response has been made by ei- [2] http://sfajacks.cstv.com/trads/sasu-chief.html
ther university.[citation needed]
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chief_Caddo&oldid=452929219"
Categories:
• Student culture
• Northwestern State Demons football
• Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks football
• College football rivalry trophies in the United States
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Chief Caddo
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