Preliminary Comments on Dog Interments from Archeological Sites in Northeast Texas: Folklore and Archeology

Abstract

Dogs have been associated with humans for thousands of years, and dog interments—either associated with human interments or as separate interments—also have an antiquity of thousands of years. This brief paper will summarize dog burials in a worldwide context, and then focus on the folklore, ethnology, and archeology of dogs among the Caddo. The information for the dog in Caddo culture will be summarized from George A. Dorsey’s Traditions of the Caddo and John R. Swanton’s Source Material on the History and Ethnology of the Caddo Indians. Then, dog interments from northeast Texas will be listed and discussed. By examining the folklore, ethnology, and archeology of the dog in Caddo contexts, it is hoped that a greater understanding of the role of dogs in prehistoric Caddo culture might be attained.