The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 92, July 1988 - April, 1989 Page: 420
682 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
and archaeological records" is explored here with a reexamination of
the eighteenth-century site now named the Woldert site.12 Known since
the 1870s, and described in this journal in 1952," the site has generally
been overlooked since it was first discovered.
The Woldert site is intriguing for several reasons. First, it is located
north of the Sabine River and near to known historic eighteenth-
century Caddoan and Wichita settlements. Second, the large quantity
of European manufactured goods found there suggests the existence
of a sizable encampment. Finally, available archival information de-
scribes one or two eighteenth-century French "factories" or trading
posts that were located in the vicinity. 4 Thus, the site could conceivably
represent an important aboriginal settlement as well as a French trad-
ing establishment set up to deal in the deer and peltry trade.'5
East Texas include the Natchitoches Archives, the Records of the Cabildo (the Spanish admin-
istrative bureaucracy in Louisiana) available at the New Orleans Public Library in New Orleans
and the Spanish Governor Dispatches in the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library at Tulane Uni-
versity in New Orleans. See A. O. Hebert, "Resources in Louisiana Depositories for the Study
of Spanish Activities in Louisiana," in The Spanish in the Mississippi Valley, I762-1804, ed.
J. McDermott (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illihnois Press, 1965), 26-37. The Spanish documents
deal with aspects of military and economic policy involving Indian, American, and French
groups under Spanish Louisiana administration (1763-1803). The Natchitoches Archives are
available at the Natchitoches Parish Courthouse in Natchitoches, Louisiana, but have not been
systematically indexed or catalogued at this time. This is a potentially very important source of
information because the Natchitoches Post (Fort St. Jean Baptiste aux Natchitoches) was the
first trade post maintained among the Caddoan groups and Spanish occupants of the East
Texas missions until about 1780. French merchants and traders working among the different
Caddoan groups during Spanish administration in Natchitoches were required to have a li-
cense or permit with the authorities prior to conducting trading ventures. Information con-
tained in these permits or contracts may prove to be important in tracing the history and use of
Le Dout or other French trading posts in the Upper Sabine Basin.
" This is usually referred to as the Direct Historical Approach. See Juhan H. Steward, "The
Direct Historical Approach to Archaeology," American Antiquity, VII (Apr., 1942), 337-343-
The implementation of this approach has been attempted on the basis of archaeological data
on aboriginal material culture, the presence of European trade goods in the archaeological as-
semblages, and the identification of settlement locations from archaeological and historical in-
formation that coincide in space and time.
iTimothy K. Perttula, Bob D. Skiles, Michael B. Collins, Margaret C. Trachte, and Fred Val-
dez, Jr., "This Everlasting Sand Bed": Cultural Resources Investzgations at the Texas Big Sandy Project,
Wood and Upshur Counties, Texas, Reports of Investigations No. 52 (Austin: Prewitt and Associ-
ates, Inc., 1986), 6o.
1"Albert E. Woldert, "Relics of Possible Indian Battle in Wood County, Texas," Southwestern
Historical Quarterly, LV (Apr., 1952), 484-489.
14 American State Papers: Indian Affairs, in Documents, Legislatve and Executzve, of the Congress
of the United States (1780-1815), Vol. I, Class II (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing
Office, 1832), 721i-725; American State Papers: Foreign Relations, in Documents, Legislative and
Executive, of the Congress of the United States (1780-1815), Vol. II, Class I (Washington, D.C.:
Government Printing Office, 1832), 693-694 (quotation); Bolton, Texas in the Middle Eighteenth
Century, 91-92; Herbert E. Bolton (ed.), Athanase de Mezzares and the Louzszana-Texas Frontier,
1768-1780 ... (2 vols.; Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Co, 1913-1914).
15 Daniel H. Usner, Jr., "The Deerskin Trade in French Louisiana," in Proceedings of the Tenth
Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Soczety, April 12-14, 1984, ed. Philip P Boucher (Boston:
University Press of America, Inc., 1985), 75-93.420
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 92, July 1988 - April, 1989, periodical, 1989; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101212/m1/474/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.