October is Louisiana Archaeology Month, and Northwest Louisiana, including Bossier Parish, has had some important and fascinating archaeological investigations conducted here. This is especially true of Caddo Indian archaeological sites, because Louisiana is part of the homeland of the Caddo Nation, which is now headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma.
If you’ve ever visited the “old” Bossier Parish Libraries History Center on Beckett Street, then perhaps you remember our diorama of Caddo daily life in a village along Willow Chute Bayou. This diorama was constructed by the late Mr. Louis Baker, an archaeology enthusiast from Benton in Bossier Parish. He was one of the local residents who was instrumental in the beginnings of the History Center, which started in 1997 as a room in the Central library and later moved into its own, but connected, building in 1999. Not only did this skilled craftsman build our diorama, but he also did much of the archaeological field work at the Caddo Indian village site of Vanceville along Willow Chute Bayou. The diorama is based on this work.
Louis Baker was born in 1930 in North Carolina. He served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War, met his wife Dot while stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base, and they eventually settled in Benton. Louis worked in civil service until retirement, when he established Baker Heating and Air.
Louis didn’t take up his archaeology avocation until he was roughly in his 50s, but according to Jeff Girard, retired archaeologist from the Louisiana Division of Archaeology, Louis Baker’s contributions to Louisiana archaeology were immense, and his skill with a trowel was considered among the best around. He identified and plotted over a hundred archaeological sites in northwest Louisiana and worked with professional archaeologists on numerous projects in both Louisiana and Arkansas.
As told by Jeff Girard, when Louis began recording sites in Bossier Parish, he made extensive surface collections and kept excellent records. His favorite area of investigation was along Willow Chute Bayou, a stream on the eastern side of the Red River floodplain between Benton and Bossier City. Now largely developed by residential expansion, the area was cultivated in the 1980s and 1990s. Louis maintained close relationships with the local farmers and systematically surveyed most of the existing fields, recording almost 100 sites.
After Louisiana’s Regional Archaeology Program was established in 1989, Jeff Girard worked with Louis re-visiting these sites, making additional collections, conducting test excavations, and analyzing the extensive collections which are now curated at Northwestern State University. The broad and systematic nature of Louis’ endeavors enabled Louis, Jeff, and other archaeologists to interpret the area as home to a dispersed Caddo village relating to the Middle Caddo period, about 1200 to 1500.
The Caddo lived on the Vanceville site for approximately 500 years. Midden at the site was about six to eighteen inches thick, with lots of artifacts scattered in it. Midden, in archaeologist-speak, is soil that is a darker color due to the discarded debris of humans living on it, such as from years of preparing food and making tools.
As seen in the diorama, Caddo houses were large, housing groups of up to 18 or so people. The houses Louis and Jeff excavated locally were around 33 to 35 feet in diameter and about the same height, containing two stories. The upper story was used to for food storage for field crops like corn, beans, and squash. The grass roof had to be re-covered every fall to get ready for the cold rainy days of winter. The thatch used is a grass similar to what we call “saw grass” that still grows today in Willow Chute next to the banks of the bayou.
Louis Baker also was an accomplished craftsman and artisan. He replicated a set of Indian tools including bows, atlatls, shell dippers, knives, celts, and ornamental items of wood and bone. Many of the implements are comprised of stone tools made by local flintknappers and hafted by Louis into finely carved and polished bois d’arc handles. The tools and ornaments are housed at the History Center and History Center staff use them in public presentations and hands-on demonstrations for groups of all ages. (See our contact information at the end of this article if you’d like to schedule a program). Louis’ many years of field research and the inherent difficulty of carving bois d’arc, the hardest dried wood in North America, make these replicas even more impressive.
History Center staff will be displaying and demonstrating this set of replicas at the Annual Pioneer Heritage Day at the Pioneer Heritage Center at LSU-Shreveport on Saturday, October 24 from 10 AM–3 PM. Visit the History Center’s display in the general store, then spend the day exploring the historic buildings, watching demonstrations of historic craft and experiencing history in a whole new way!
For more information, visit https://www.lsus.edu/community/pioneer-heritage-center www.laexhibitmuseum.org.
In a new format, the Willow Chute Caddo Indian village diorama will continue to be displayed among our exhibits that will be opening soon in the History Center’s latest home in the Bossier Central Library Complex, 7204 Hutchison Drive, Bossier City. This time, the diorama is inside a replica Caddo Indian grass house, where you can enter the house to view it, or peek through a viewing window. Watch this column or the library website, bossierlibrary.org or BPL social media for updates on our re-opening! You can follow us on Facebook @BPLHistoryCenter or check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org
Images:
Same caption for first two pics (can use one or both) Louis Baker at an archaeological dig on Loggy Bayou south of Bossier Point in 1999
Second two pics (can use one or both): View of the Caddo Indian village diorama inside a Caddo grass house replica that is among the History Center exhibits, opening soon.
Close-up of a figurine in the Caddo Indian village diorama at the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center
Article by Pam Carlisle
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