The Identity of Columbus (Part II)

In 1898 Celso Garcia de la Riega, a native of Pontevedra, Galicia, presented some manuscripts from the XV and XVI centuries before the members of the Geographic society of Madrid. The documents cited several seamen from Pontevedra whose last name was "de Colon." As a result of this discovery Garcia de la Riega published a book titled, Colon espanol, or Columbus, the Spaniard. Garcia de la Riega died two months after the book was published and, soon thereafter, Serrano Sanz alleged that the documents had been altered, or manipulated. It was not until 1964 that Professor Rodriguez Solano declared, "after an exhaustive investigation," (Colon era de Pontevedra) that the documents presented by Garcia de la Riega were free of falsification. (Ibid)

Likewise, Carlos Brant, who was born in Venezuela in 1875, had a similar theory. Brant wrote more than thirty books, and devoted time to study the life of Columbus while he lived in exile in Spain, Italy, Belgium, and the US, the result of the Gomez dictatorship. At the age of 49, Brant wrote, misterioso almirante, or, Mysterious Admiral, a book that dared to affirm that "Colon" was not the Admiral's real name. (Carlos Brant y el misterioso almirante que nos descubrio) Brant's observations in this respect can be supported by the observations of Las Casas, cited in Tzevetan Todorov's, The Conquest of America. The following citation seems to indicate that Bartolome de las Casas took this matter for granted, since the custom of changing one's name was commonplace in some circles. According to Rosina Serrano Diaz, D'Olwer, and others, the Franciscan practice of changing one's name persisted until recent years. Other mendicant orders of different religions still practice this rite. According to Serrano Diaz, "it was a general custom [for Franciscans] to change their names upon entering the order." Motolinia's case is a good example within this context. Serrano Diaz asserts a new first name should be taken, different from the one given at birth. In addition, as a last name, the practice was to take, as a last name, the name of a place belonging to friar's original birthplace. The advantage of that custom is "knowing with certainty, at the very least, the geographical location of a document." (Serrano Diaz, Sobre Tres Documentos de Aragoneses en Venezuela) Perhaps this procedure could be viewed as a precursor of today's zip-code system.

Bartolome de las Casas, a member of the Dominican order (a fact that should be kept in mind as we proceed) states that "the persons designated to serve (often a euphemism for members of the clergy) should receive names and surnames corresponding to the task entrusted to them." (Todorov, The Conquest of America)

In the Conquest of America, Todorov attempts to sort out the mystery surrounding Columbus's name, no doubt an important matter, to the Admiral who "seems to pay attention only to names, which in some respects are closely related to natural indices." (Ibid) Todorov also notes, the high degree of concern the Admiral attached to his name, since "he changes his orthography several times during his life."

"...But this illustrious man, renouncing the name established by custom, chose to be called Colon, restoring the ancient form less for this reason than it would seem because he was moved by the divine will which had elected him to achieve what his surname and given name signified. Divine providence habitually intends that the persons designated to serve should receive the given names and surnames corresponding to the task entrusted to them, as we see in many a place in the Scriptures; and the philosopher says in the chapter IV of his metaphysics, 'Names should accord with the qualities and uses of things.' This is why he was called Cristobal, which is to say Christum Ferens which means the bearer of Christ, and it was this that he often signed his name for in truth he was first to open the gates of the Ocean sea, in order to bear our Savior Jesus Christ over the waves to those remote lands and those realms hitherto unknown....His surname was Colon which means repopulator, a name befitting the man whose enterprise brought about the discovery of these people. These infinite numbers of souls who, thanks to the preaching of the Gospel...have proceeded and will every day proceed to populate the glorious city of Heaven.''

(Bartolome de las Casas, (Historia I and II), Todorov, The Conquest of America)

On the 11th of June, 1496, upon his return to Spain, at the end of his second voyage, Columbus disembarked in Cadiz, with the intention of propping up his image. He was wearing a Franciscan "sayal," or habit. The fact that Columbus viewed himself as a "savior" is evident in his own writings, including his Book of Prophecies, a compilation of Biblical texts that, according to some, indicate that Columbus felt he had been "chosen" to accomplish a historic mission. (Historiadores de Indias)

Brant also disagreed about Columbus's alleged place of birth, noting that Magallanes, Americo Vespucci, and other foreigners had to become naturalized Spanish citizens to obtain the title of Major Pilot, a requirement that Columbus was not asked to provide for himself while, at the same time, he was granted the titles of Viceroy and Major Admiral of the Sea Ocean, titles that were alleged to have been bequeathed to him before the actual "discovery." (Carlos Brant y el misterioso almirante que nos descubrio.)

The thesis of a Galician Columbus has been supported by a good number of Galician authors, historians and linguists, including the highly esteemed Countess Emilia Pardo Bazan. In 1961, Jose Mosqueira published, La cuna Gallega de Cristobal Colon. (The Galician Crib of Christopher Columbus.) In addition to citing the documents of Garcia de la Riega, Mosqueira, who was convinced of Columbus's Galician origin, came up with some startling conclusions, aided only by the use common sense and simple arithmetic:

1) The Genoese were the best cartographers and oceanographers during Columbus's era. (Supported by Menzies, 1421) Therefore, it would be absurd, or counterproductive to hide his true name, which, in any case would have been Colombo.

2) According to his biographers, Columbus was born in Genoa in 1451, and stayed with his parents until 1474. However, in an entry in his Diary (in Santo Domingo) Columbus states that he has "navigated for 23 years, without leaving the sea for any amount of time that is worth counting." If he entered Spain from Portugal, in 1484, and did not go out to sea until 1492, then those 23 years 'without leaving any amount of time that is worth counting" must be subtracted from 1484 to know the date when he began to navigate: 1461. He would have been ten years old. Therefore he could not have been in Genoa at his father's weaving establishment until 1474. Mosqueira determines from these calculations that either Columbus lied, or that two different people were involved. In addition, Mosqueira also feels Columbus was not telling the truth when he wrote, in his will (Mayorazgo), that he was born in Genoa. Some believe that the Mayorazgo might be a false document. If so, then those who support the Genoese thesis are left without the only document in which Columbus allegedly wrote that he was born in Genoa. ("Yo nacido en Genoa....")

3) The Admiral declared in 1505 that he lived in Portugal for fourteen years. If the Genoese Columbus first entered Portugal "clutching an oar," after the Cape St. Vincent shipwreck, leaving that country to enter Spain for the first time, how many years correspond to his stay in Portugal? Only eight. In that case, the Genoese could not be the Galician Columbus that entered Portugal in 1470.

[If Mosqueira is alluding to Pedro Madruga, the Galician man some believe was Christopher Columbus, the exact date for Madruga's entry into Portugal, according to Carlos Barros, author of Mitos de la histografia galleguista, might even be, at least, a year earlier. Barros states that Pedro Alvarez de Soutomaior, aka, Pedro Madruga, brought back troops from Portugal to squelch the Irmandino rebellion in 1469. His purpose was to achieve the unification of Castile and Portugal, viewed by some as a preferred alternative for Galicia for a variety of social and geographic reasons.

4) Why did Columbus fail to give a single one of his caravels a Genoese or Savonese name? Two of them were baptized "La Gallega," or "Gallego." The first, in his inital voyage, the second, shipwrecked in Santo Domingo in 1495, during the second voyage, the third one abandoned in Panama in April 1503.

[In The Conquest of America, Todorov points out (see above) that Columbus attaches a great deal of importance to names in general, and their associations: "Columbus is profoundly concerned with the choice of names for the virgin world before his eyes and in his own case, these names must be motivated. At the beginning we observe a kind of diagram. The chronological order of baptisms corresponds to the order of importance of the objects associated with these names..." (Todorov, The Conquest of Armerica) Wouldn't the same logic apply to such important objects as his own flagships?

5) Mosqueira wonders why Columbus did not follow Pinzon's example, that is arriving at the port of Bayona (Baiona, Pontevedra, Galicia), choosing instead to arrive to the port of Lisbon, known to have difficult access during winters because of its "bar". Mosqueira is not convinced that a tempest separated them. Instead, he feels that Columbus wished to avoid recognition by the citizens of Baiona, who, if Alfonso Philippot it correct in his thesis, would be reluctant to give him a triumphant welcome for reasons that will become increasingly obvious.

Alfonso Philippot Abeledo, who believes the remains of the Admiral are buried in Santo Domingo, is also a dedicated , knowledgeable, and qualified researcher that supports the Galician thesis. He was a Captain of the Merchant Marine, and author of a well documented book in the subject that is more than 600 pages in length. An outline of his thesis is available in the Internet.

Philippot's outline begins with a an old story that was told to all Galician children of this author's generation, either at home, or elsewhere. The story began with Porto Santo, not in Madeira, but in the Parish of San Salvador de Poio, in Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain. As Philippot accurately states, a "cruceiro" or cross monument, the ancient totem of aldeas, or small villages, in Galicia stood at the above location, facing a house known as Casa da Cruz, or the house where Columbus was born. An inscription at the bottom of the monument read, "Juan Colon, 1490." That inscription has been "filed" down, "according to Philippot. However, photographs taken by a known archaeologist in 1917, confirms the contents of the inscription. It must be noted that even well into the nineteen seventies, this area of Spain retained much of its rural flavor, and architectural changes of any sort were the exception, rather than the rule.

It would not be an exaggeration to state that before televisions and amusement parks were created, the Cruceiro de Poio, and "the house where Colon was born" was a place of pilgrimage. A visit to the cross monument usually included conversations and polemics about local history, and geneaology. Philippot has dedicated a good portion of his life documenting the thesis of a Galician Columbus. He has come to the conclusion that the man called Pedro Madruga, a Galician folk hero of the XV century, and Columbus, are one and the same. To arrive at this conclusion he supports his thesis with data in the fields of linguistics, history, navigation, geography and anthropology. He also presents documents from the local government of the region, including records of court cases, births, deaths, marriage certificates, and so forth. It is no doubt, for this reason that his thesis about Columbus's identity has been called, "the best documented one of all." His conclusions have yet to be refuted by a single historian.

Juan Colon, the man whose name once appeared on the inscription mentioned above, is the first great-grandchild of Bartolome (!), the first Genoese that settled in Spain and Galicia around 1,380 A.D. and the grandfather of Cristobal's mother. It is for this reason that the Genoese ancestry of Columbus is not denied in Philippot's thesis of a Columbus born in Galicia. Philippot points out that the first, male Colon settlers were active in the commercial maritime guild of the area and that their ships were built in the Moureira neighborhood where he also states that the Santa Maria, La Gallega was built. The Santa Maria is, in fact, Pontevedra's patron saint. This observation should be taken into account, once again, in the context of Columbus's preoccupation with names and naming things, as cited by las Casas, Todorov, and others. Certainly, a psychological profile of the Admiral would be much easier to reconstruct knowing whether or not, Pedro Madruga and Columbus are one and the same.

Philippot's reconstruction of Columbus's ancestry is as follows. In 1440, Fernan Yanez (sp. "Eanes," in Galician, also the paternal last name of the Pinzon brothers, Martin Alonso, and Vicente) de Soutomaior, Count of Carminas died in 1440 in Valladolid, Spain. His only legitimate son, Alvar Paez de Soutomaior, was already dead. As a result, his heir became Pedro Alvarez de Soutomaior, known later as Pedro Madruga. Pedro Alvarez de Soutomaior was the "natural son" of Fernan Eanes de Soutomaior and Constanca Colon, the granddaughter of the first Genoese who emigrated to Galicia, mentioned above. Constanca was already married (according to a 1435 document) with Juan Goncalves.

Because the laws at that time gave "natural" fathers the right to select the education of their children, and the the right "to grant them last names"(Tesis sobre colon gallego) the child born to Fernan and Constanca became Pedro Alvarez de Soutomaior, in memory of his grandfather. The name Cristobal Colon, given to him initially by his mother, (who also lived in Porto Santo, Pontevedra) was discarded. In Trinidad, a cape was named Cabo Casa da Crus, by Columbus.

As a child, Pedro Madruga received his education with the Dominican order where he was taught Latin, a language known by Columbus. Pedro Madruga's interest in navigation began at an early age. He travelled to Portugal to learn cosmography and navigation, and worked as a navigator for 23 years, the same number of years Columbus cites in his Diary.

It is known that Columbus had a son Diego, (who later married into the Duke of Alba's family), the product of his marriage with Felipa Muniz, and another son, Fernando, the product of an affair with Beatriz Enriquez. In a letter written to Diego (1504) Columbus made a reference to Diego's "ten siblings." Pedro Madruga had nine children with Teresa Tavora, Columbus one with Beatriz Enriquez. Nine plus one equals ten.

The Wikipedia describes Pedro Madruga as a "tireless and bellicose man of bastard origin that, against all odds rose to the highest echelons of the Soutomaior lineage." (Pedro Madruga) Hundreds of studies have been written about his life. His most bitter enemy was Alfonso II of Fonseca. However, Pedro Madruga was a staunch defender of the right of succession of Juana La Beltraneja, the contender to Isabel the Catholic for the Spanish crown. The description of Pedro Madruga's character provided below, written by Galician chronicler Vasco de Aponte, bears a striking resemblance to Columbus's personality:

"[Pedro] was very crafty, very subtle, very wise, and very knowledgeable in affairs of war, he was very sincere, and treated those close to him very well, and he was very cruel with his enemies, he ate much food that belonged to others, he was one of the most diligent workers in all of Spain, neither rain, nor snow, nor freezing weather, nor all the tempests in the world could stop him from doing his work, nor would he care to sleep outside in winter. Lack of linens did not stop him from sleeping on top of a table." (de Aponte, Pedro Madruga, Wikipedia)

The year 1468 marked the beginning of the second Irmandina Rebellion, near Tui, where Pedro Madruga was educated by members of the Dominican order. It was an event provoked when the Galician peasants rebelled against the ill treatment they received at the hands of the nobles, or "feudales." As a result, many Galician nobles found refuge in Portugal, after the loss of their lands. Pedro Madruga, along with other Galician nobles led a force against the insurgents. The forces of Madruga were the first ones to use firearms (arcabuzes) against their enemies in Spain. The insurgents were defeated, and the confiscated lands and estates were returned to the nobles.

The composers of a recent opera about the life of Pedro Madruga state that, "After the death of Enrique IV Madruga led a group of Galician noblemen that included the Portuguese King Alfonso V in a war that confronted the sister and the daughter of the deceased, Isabel the Catholic, and Juana la Beltraneja for the crown of Spain." (El compositor Rogelio Groba finaliza su quinta opera inspirada en la figura del noble gallego "Pedro Madruga.") La Beltraneja was accused of being the "natural" child of Beltran, the King's favorite, ergo, the name, Beltran ,attached to the suffix, " eja," implying, "worthlessness." Although no proof of such allegations was ever produced, Isabel crowned herself three days after the death of Henry IV, even though Juana La Beltraneja was recognized as the legitimate heiress to the throne by the Courts of Castile. Isabel triumphed in the end. La Beltraneja died in a convent.

An analysis of the events cited above clearly shows that Pedro Madruga could have easily been in Portugal at the same time Columbus proposed his voyage of King John II of Portugal. Furthermore, Pedro Madruga disappeared on the 11th of April of 1486. (Vidas Paralelas) His death, which allegedly occurred in Alba de Tormes, Salamanca, has been described as "shrowded in doubt and mystery." According to Carlos Barros (University of Santiago de Compostela), at that time Madruga engaged the efforts of the Duke of Alba to mediate in the "shameful fight in which Madruga was involved with his son for the ownership of the fort and estate of the Soutomaior family. Likewise, it must be noted that on the first of May, 1486, less than a month after Madruga's mysterious disappearence, Columbus proposed his voyage to the Catholic Kings of Spain.

Not much is known about the whereabouts of Pedro Madruga, or Columbus after 1487. On December of 1487, Columbus wrote a letter to John II from Seville, asking permission to return to Portugal. (Vidas Paralelas) Roughly around this time Zvi Dor-Ner and other chroniclers and historians place Columbus in Andalucia, where he visited the Franciscan convent in La Rabida, and where he met with Fray Antonio de Marchena. According to Dor-Ner, and others, the Duke of Medinaceli, wanted Columbus to "take the scheme to the man he thought was the likeliest sponsor in Andalucia, Don Enrique de Guzman, Duke of Medina Sidonia, the wealthiest man in Christian Spain and one of the highest ranking grandees in the Court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella." Though the current Duchess of Medina Sidonia has stated that her ancestor never met Columbus, Dor-Ner states that the Duke "was intrigued by Columbus's plan. and that the Duke "...was himself a man with no small interest in maritime affairs, owning a shipyard near Palos, and having financed trading voyages across the coast of Africa in defiance of the 1480 Treaty of Alcacovas, which reserved that sphere of influence for the Portuguese." Dor-Ner asserts that "Medina Sidonia felt it prudent to clear his involvement with the king and the queen."(Zvi-Dor-Ner, Columbus and the Age of Discovery) Other historians contend that the port of Palos was owned by Medina Sidona at one time. When the Catholic Kings found it advisable to own shares in a port that was entirely, or partially, owned by the crown, it is believed they approached Medina Sidonia who refused to sell his shares of Palos. Another share-holder is said to have sold their shares to the Catholic Kings.

In a letter to the Archbishop of Toledo, dated the 9th of March, ostensibly written very soon after the return of Columbus, from his first trip, the Duque of Medinaceli states that Columbus was "detained" in "his house" [The Duke's house] for a period of two years. According to the letter, during those two years, Luis de la Cerda, Duke of Medinaceli, tried to "direct" Columbus in the service of Queen Isabel, Madruga's prior nemesis. The letter also states that Columbus intended to present his voyage plans to France.

"...pues yo no lo quise tentar y lo aderezaba para su servicio..."

Translation:

"...and I did not wish to tempt him and was directing him to Her Majesty's service..."

The verb "aderezar" in the context above means, "to direct." However, before signing off, the Duke uses stronger language. He begs the archbishop to appeal to Queen Isabel to allow him certain concessions to which he feels entitled, after having Columbus "detained" in "his house" for a period of two years while he "directed him," (or more than likely), "straighted him out." The verb "enderezar" as used by Medinaceli at the end of his letter, has 11 meanings. The first one is, to straighten out "something crooked." Other meanings are, "to right," "to put in order," "to correct." Only the sixth, and tenth meanings of "enderezar" mean"to direct." (The Langenscheidt New College Spanish Dictionary) If the Duke meant "direct" [Columbus] in the midst of claiming what is rightfully owed to him by virtue of having Columbus "detained," for two years in his house, while he "directed" him, or or "advised" him, he could have just written "aderezado" (a much "gentler sounding" word than, "enderezado") once again:

"...Suplico a vuestra Senoria me quisiera ayudar en ello, e ge lo suplique de mi parte, pues a mi cabsa y por yo detenerle en mi casa dos anos y haberle enderezado a su servicio, se ha hallado gran cosa como esta."


"....I beg his Lordship will be predisposed to help me and implore on my behalf since I had him detained in my house for two years and 'straightened him out' to the service of Her Highness..." If Pedro Madruga and Columbus are one and the same, the Duke of Medinaceli should be credited for accomplishing such a major transformation in record time.

In conclusion, the events described above show a man whose initial name, Cristobal Colon, was given to him by his mother, in Galicia, where she gave birth to him. That man was the "illegitimate" child of a Galician noble, Fernan Eanes of Soutomaior, Count of Caminas (ergo the assumption of Las Casas, about Colon's noble roots), and a woman born in Galicia, but of Genoese descent, named Constanca Colon. After Cristobal Colon, of Poio, Pontevedra, was given a new name, Pedro Alvarez de Soutomaior, and increased access to power, he began to be known as Pedro Madruga. Galician historians assert Pedro Alvarez, (b. Cristobal Colon)de Soutomaior earned his name because his intense type of dilligence which would be classified today as an extreme version of "workaholism," if not downright compulsive addiction. It is also told that he was named, "Madruga" (early riser) because he had roosters that served him as alarm clocks. Madruga was adamant about not wasting a single moment of his life.

The lives of Madruga and Columbus are fraught with coincidences and paradoxes. Both were born around the same time, had the same number of acknowledged children, and shared many other interesting life parallels through 1487, the year of Madruga's "disappearance." Unfortunately, Madruga, (b. Cristobal Colon, Pontevedra, Galicia) was on the wrong side of the power struggle for the Spanish throne that eventually took the power away from La Beltraneja, the rightful heir to the Crown. Thus, if Madruga, (b. Cristobal Colon), and Columbus are one and the same, as the above evidence seems to suggest, that entity was put in contact with important people, merchants, nobles, and members of the clergy (in very high places), that provided him with enough support, and credibility to organize his trip, and to make a proposal to the Catholic Kings, on his behalf. Cristobal Colon had both political and personal reasons to suppress knowledge of his origins, and ongoing, complex reasons to promote his "new," ( but in reality, "old") name, Cristobal Colon , "Bearer" of Christ to colonies. Colon, from, Colono, means "A Colonist."


habanera

A)Todorov, Tzevetan. The Conquest of America. New York. Harper. 1992.
B)Dor-Ner, Zvi. Columbus and the Age of Discovery. New York. Morrow. 1991
C) Menzies, Gavin. 1421. The Year China Discovered America. New York. Harper. 2004
D) Marga. Colon era de Pontevedra. El Segundo Viaje Colombino. Commentary of Work. Monserrat Leon Guerrero
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/MuestraForo?obra=7779co&mentario=8441
D)Barros, Carlos. Mitos de la histografia galleguista. Universidad de Santiago de Compostela.
http://www.h-debate.com/cbarros/spanish/mitos.htm
E) Rosina, Serrano Diaz. Sobre Tres Documentos de Aragoneses en Venezuela. Universidad de Zaragoza.
http://home.pages.at/resdi/Numeros/Numero2/Parte1_Art41.pdf
F) El gran viaje de Cristobal Colon.
http://www.hispamar.com/PAG_HISPAMAR/gran_viaje_de_cristobal_colon.htm
G) El compositor Rogelio Groba finaliza su quinta opera inspirada en la figura del noble gallego Pedro Madruga.
http://www.galespa.com.ar/groba_manrique_pedromadruga.htm
H) Pedro Madruga. Wikipedia
http://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_%C3%81lvarez_de_Soutomaior
I ) Tesis sobre colon gallego y de Pontevedra. Cristobal Colon Nacio en Galicia.
http://www.cristobal-colon.com/COLON/TESISGALLEGA/MARTHAGONZALEZ/MA
J ) de la Cerda, Luis, duque de Medinaceli. Carta del Duque de Medinaceli sobre el alojamiento que dio a Cristobal Colon. Biblioteca Virtual Cervantes
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/80283841767695942754491/p000000
k) Historiadores de Indias.
http://www.spanisharts.com/books/literature/america.htm

Wonderful Work

Hi Misha, Dulce and Lynette: I just want to tell you folks how proud I am of your work; The New World Blog is excellent and thought provoking! corky

The Caddo People of the East Texas Red River Valley

Much of the information below was comprised from mining the wonderful site, Beyond Texas History, The Virtual Museum of Texas Cultural Heritage. University of Texas at Austin. Please check it out for a complete exhibit on the Caddo.

Kadohadacho (later shortened to Caddo), were the advanced civilization of peoples inhabiting the Red River region of East Texas. The loose-knit province or kingdom(1) was composed of about two dozen tribes. They inhabited modern day Marion, Grimes, Madison, and Walker Counties, to the North and East of today's Houston, Texas.

Despite their collapse before Texas became a state, they were the most important of the state's natives in their level of cultural development, advanced techniques and tools, and success in agriculture...It is probable that they were a part of the Mississippi Pattern, an advanced and vigorous Caribbean people who migrated by sea and established themselves along the Gulf Coast sometimes before A.D. 500. In this new land, the transplanted culture was highly successful, the people multiplied, and spread, in time, to the Trinity River in Texas on the west, and the Atlantic on the east.(2)

Caddo Homeland in the Greater Mississipian Cultural area: Source: UT Austin

Citations 1-4: The Caddo Indians by Anne Ford. Archeology and Anthropology of the Americas.

As the westernmost expression of the larger Mississippian cultural tradition, the Caddo culture emerged around A.D. 800. With strong oral traditions, easily as relevant and powerful as our own written Western history, the Caddo have handed down their peoples' story. Unfortunately, much of this oral history has been terminated by the "catastrophic losses of life forced upon the Caddo by the invasion of America by Europeans. [However,] there are surviving bits of early Caddo history preserved in the traditions maintained by Caddo peoples today, in early Spanish and French accounts, and in later written histories as well as in the oral traditions recorded by ethnographers and folklorists."(6) These sources are important clues to the culture of the Caddo, and provide a limited glimpse into their past, going back approximately 300 hundred years, a short time in Caddo history.

"Studies of the Caddoan languages suggest that ancestors of the Caddo and the ancestors of the Plains Caddoans (Wichita, Kichai, Pawnee, and Arikira) split from a common ancestor (ancestral group) in the distant past, at least 3,000 years ago and probably even earlier. The Caddo cultural tradition as recognized now by archeologists begins about 1200 years ago (A.D. 800)."(7) 12,000-13,500 years ago very mobile hunter-gather peoples inhabited the area that became the Caddo Homeland. These early Paleoindain era peoples who emerged at the end of the Pleistocene era (the last ice age) may even have been pre-dated by earlier in habitants, but scholars have debated their impact.(8)

Distinctive styles of dart points made my early hunters, and which archeologists have named Dalton and Sam Patrice, categorize the first of many Archaic cultures in the Southeastern United States. The Archaic period spans approximately 7500 years (from about 8000 B.C.-1000-500 B.C.). During this period, there was a gradual shift from very mobile hunting cultures, to more settled groups reliant on gathering wild plants, small games and taking advantage of aquatic resources.(9) Although this broad definition of the culture of the era remains true, scholars now believe this era was also responsible for cultural development once thought to belong to "the succeeding Woodland era. For example, permanent or semi-permanent village settlements, pottery, horticulture (gardening), artificial earthen mounds, and extensive, long-distant trade of exotic materials all appeared during Archaic times in various places in the Southeast."(10)

Dalton and San Patrice styles of arrow points divide the peoples of this area into two separate cultures that were essentially developing populations along-side each other in the region. "Within the Caddo Homeland, evidence of Dalton culture is found mainly to the north, while that of San Patrice is mainly to the south."(11) The contrasting geographic distribution of this archeological evidence "may reflect an early split between ethnic/linguistic groups."(12) Later Caddo speaking peoples are categorized among the San Patrice due to the distribution of these points.

Although societies that have been categorized as seemingly advanced cultures that developed during the Archaic period hundreds of miles from the Caddo area, advanced cultural development was also taking place in the Caddo Homeland of the lower Mississippi Valley. "In what is today northeastern Louisiana, Archaic peoples began building large earthen mounds as early as 4,000 B.C."(13) These mounds were used as platforms for the inhabitants of the region, and not as burial mounds. There are 11 mounds in Watson Brake near Monroe, Louisiana, ranging in size from 1-8 meters tall and "connected by ridges to form an oval enclosure over...261 meters across."(14) The hunter-gatherers that lived in the area took advantage of the "local swampy environments rich in aquatic life including fish, fowl, and beast."(15)

Massive earthworks have also been found in roughly the region (if only a few hundred miles due East), dating from 1700 B.C., at the site of what is today Poverty Point National Monument in northeastern Louisiana. Included at this amazing Archaic era site is "a huge bird-shaped mound more than 21 meters high and 216 meters in length and a unique C-shaped array of raised berms arranged into six concentric and nested rings that are nearly three-quarters of a mile across (3,950 feet or 1.2 km)"(16) This delta-like complex overlooking the Mississippi floodplain is one of the most important archeological sites in North America, and parallels on the time-line the building of the pyramids in Egypt.

Poverty Point is thought by many experts to have been the center of a precocious society with far-flung trade connections as indicated by the finding of many artifacts made of exotic or non-local stone (some coming from sources hundreds of miles away). These exotic items may have been sent to Poverty Point in exchange for shell beads and ornaments, produced at Poverty Point and at linked sites on the Gulf coast. For reasons yet unclear Poverty Point culture had declined by 1000 B.C. and left no obvious successor.(17)

Image above, artist illustration of Poverty Point from Poverty Point Earthworks: Evolutionary Milstones of the Americas

There is archeological evidence to connect the peoples that built the massive earthworks with the later Archaic era Caddos, primarily quartz from the Ouachita Mountains: evidence of a long distance trade relationship shared with the later Caddo and the Poverty Point builders. But the Late Archaic peoples in the Caddo Homeland had smaller societies and did not have close ties with the Eastern Woodlands.

Radiocarbon dating of domesticated squash and bottle gourds has shed new light on early plant domestication and horticulture, putting these developments earlier than previously thought (5000 years ago), shattering "the traditional notion that the Archaic cultures of the Eastern U.S. were purely hunters and gatherers. Clearly, Archaic peoples were experimenting with plant cultivation and probably all sorts of other manipulations of the natural environment like selective clearing, spreading desirable plants to new areas, and so on. Archeologists are now reevaluating existing ideas about Archaic life."(18)

Although little is known of the Late Archaic period (roughly 2000-500/200 B.C.) and the Caddo Homeland, evidence of dart-point styles reveals that societies in the Caddo Homeland "persisted longer than elsewhere in the Eastern Woodlands."(19) Evidence of "black middens" or kitchen "dumps" as it were, begin to be seen in this era, from the north side of the Ouachita Mountains and also in the Great Bend area of the Red River. These waste mounds are clues that settlements became more permanent and there was less mobility amongst these hunting and gathering peoples, and a favoring of sites most suitable for habitation.

The extensive use of local stones to make tools also points to a lessening of trade and resourcefulness in finding local (if inferior) materials with which to fashion tools (dart points, knives, and wood-working tools). Dependence on a wide variety of mammals, fish, birds, seeds, nuts, berries, and roots continues to be supportive of the hunter-gatherer nature of these Late Archaic peoples. In the Cypress Creek basin in northeast Texas evidence has also been found for the use of roots such as scurfy pea, prairie turnip, and breadroot. "Preparing tubers for eating is a labor-intensive process. They had to be located, dug up, baked or boiled, and then dried (or eaten immediately). The two advantages of tubers are that they are available when nothing else is and that they can be dried and stored for later use."(20)
This evidence gives us a sketch of the Caddo Homeland. People settled down into localized territories, used local resources. This also suggests that the regional population as relatively high, not offering the option to relocate due to neighboring groups. During this time, it is generally thought, the ancestors of the Caddo settled into what became the homeland of the later Caddo peoples.

Woodland Period
Woodland period is a time of specific cultural developments and the crystallization of Caddo cultural tradition(21). Woodland culture is roughly dated from between 1000 B.C.-1000 A.D. and is characterized by specific cultural developments, including increased settled village life, spread of pottery, building of burial mounds, "the establishment of extensive long-distance trade networks (or the expansion of existing ones)"(22), rise of elaborate ritual practices, cultivation of plants (gardening), "and the rise of societies led by hereditary leaders"(23). The patterns for these developments were begun in the Archaic period. The timing of these developments is not exact across the region, so "we will stick primarily to what is known about the Caddo area and the adjacent lower Mississippi Valley." (24)

Because of its geographic location on the southwestern edge of the Eastern Woodlands, where many of the developments above took place (closer to the Mississippi River Valley), "the Caddo Homeland was a cultural frontier of sorts"(25). Yet the Caddo developed pottery styles as early as 800 A.D. that rivaled the more "advanced" at an earlier date than the Mississippian settlements works of 1000 A.D.

Woodland Developments
The first part summarizes the chronological sequence of Woodland developments in the nearby lower Mississippi Valley with discussion of certain related developments in the Caddo area. The second part reviews the specific Woodland-period cultures from which Caddo culture developed. During this period agriculture became increasingly important and, ca. 700 A.D., the atlatl and dart were replaced with the bow and arrow. The construction of planned villages and civic and ritual centers also were characteristics of this period. These "mound centers" featured flat-topped mounds arranged around and open plaza. Ceramic technology (pottery) also developed during this time, and generally we see "the transformation from small egalitarian groups of mobile hunters and gatherers to larger, ranked societies who depended on agriculture....[and occupied the] Caddo 'heartland'—the Red River Valley at and below the Great Bend."(25)

Until roughly 800 A.D., developments in the Caddo Homeland shadow the cultural developments in the Lower Mississippi River Valley (east), but now we see the emergence of a distinct Caddo culture arising from the Late Woodland period.

Emerging Caddo (approximately 800-1000-1200 A.D.)
"The Mississippian world was a mosaic of cultural traditions sharing overlapping themes including maize agriculture, settled life, elaborate ritual life, ranked societies, mound-building, ancestor veneration, ritual/political centers, long-distance exchange, warfare, competition, effective methods of food gathering, hunting, processing, and storage, and sophisticated craft production. Such themes were shared mainly through the exchange of ideas and things from group to group rather than through migration."(26)

With lack of concrete evidence and few radiocarbon dates relating to the Caddo, much is left to inference, and many of the sites excavated are burial sites which give insight into burial practices but little information on everyday Caddo life. The George C. Davis site in east Texas has been a site of extensive scientific investigation. "The site consists of a village and a ritual center marked by three earthen mounds...The Crenshaw site on the west side of the Red River in Miller County, Arkansas (and, more generally, the Great Bend area) is a prime candidate as one of the key places where the Caddo cultural tradition developed."(27) Beginning with roughly 600-900 A.D., the site was used as a burial ground and ceremonial center. Some of the mass burials and rituals which took place here were unknown elsewhere in the Caddo Homelands. "Sometime after A.D. 900 people with a recognizable Caddo culture began using the Crenshaw site as a ceremonial center, adding some bizarre twists of their own."(28) Yaws and skulls were found in these sites, presumably with the bodies deposited elsewhere, as well as mass graves, yet there is nothing similar in practice in the historic accounts of the Caddo area.

A final example of fascinating but unique early Caddo behavior at the Crenshaw site is a set of features dubbed the 'Antler Temple' and an associated refuse pile containing the antlers and frontal skull sections of over 1000 white-tailed deer...[the site may date] to early Caddo times and might have been the residence of a shaman or priest, similar to the Hasinai fire temples documented in early Spanish accounts...While the Antler Temple seems to represent an early example of ritual practices still present among historic Caddo groups some 700 years later, it is still unique among known Caddo.(29)

The Middle Caddo period (A.D. 1200-1400)
The society of the Caddo appears to have been in flux during this time period. There is evidence of economic and settlement changes and also an increase in experimentation in pottery styles. The pottery found during this period exhibits a sense of individualism and creativity, and as such, is often difficult to categorize compared to the more standard ceramic styles associated with other periods.

A shift to farmstead life and corn farming may be supportive of the types of settlements see during this time. As the Caddo shifted from larger communities indicative of the earthworks and mound culture found in earlier archeological sites, to small village agricultural communities, "Caddo farmers moved to the country, so to speak."(30) Archeological findings from this time period show both these "rural" communities, and also a continued pattern on the "city" life of the large mound and ceremonial centers. There is speculation that the mound civic and ritual centers which are spaced rather evenly along the red river valley, served associated villages as places of interaction. "For example, the Jamestown (eight mounds and village), Boxed Springs (four mounds, village, and large cemetery), and Hudnall-Pirtle (eight mounds and 60-acre village) sites appear to represent the apexes (central places) of three Early and Middle Caddo networks in the Sabine River basin...[including] premier mound centers in the Neches-Angelina river basin, and the Washington Square site in the middle of what is today Nacogdoches, Texas"(31), just north of present day Houston, Texas.

The Oak Hill Village site in Rusk County, Texas, occupied a small ridge overlooking Mill Creek, a tributary of the Sabine River. More is now known about this Oak Hill Village site in Rusk County, Texas than perhaps any other site dating to the period. On behalf of TXU Mining Company LP, archeologists from the private consulting firm PBS&J used heavy machinery and hand excavation to open up broad areas, researchers were able to expose the "footprint" of virtually an entire small village...Oak Hill Village had at least 42 circular and rectangular structures representing at least three successive villages. The structures that were part of the last and largest village were arranged over a 3.5-acre area in a circular pattern around a central plaza area....analysts were able to work out the basic sequence of the village phases, called here the early, middle, and late villages.(UT Austin)

The Early Village style (ca. 1150 A.D. is characterized by rectangular structures and the village lacked a central plaza. The population of this village may have been up to 70 individuals. The Middle Village (ca. 1250 A.D.) exhibited circular structures, similar to other Texas Caddo sites. This era appears to have spanned approximately 100 years, the dwellings were contracted around a central plaza, and the population may have approached 100 inhabitants. The Late Village (ca. 1350-1450 A.D.) shows an expansion of the houses, continuing to be built as circular structures, and the village may have had a population of a little over 100 people. There is also evidence of "special structures" with long entryways pointing north, interior partitions to some of the buildings, and possible evidence of circular buildings used for grain.(32) The homes were constructed primarily of oak, and evidence of cooking fires or "smudge pits" perhaps designed for meat smoking or mosquito protection had also been found. Through this archeological site, and charred corn cobs unearthed, it has been determined that the Caddo of this period grew several different types of corn, perhaps at different times of the year and with different susceptibility to drought. "The 300-year span of the successive Oak Hill villages illustrates nicely the increasing importance of corn. Corn was found in 32% of the Early Village soil samples from hearths and pits, 50% of the Middle Village samples, and 97% of the Late Village samples."(33) The village economy also depended on a mix of crops, the gathering of wild plants, and hunting of small game (deer was a favorite, rabbits, buffalo, and squirrel). Hickory nuts were abundant in the archeologists findings, as were acorns, walnuts, and evidence of persimmons, dewberries, and grapes.

Late Caddo Period (ca. 1400-1680 A.D.)
The high point in the Caddo population where ritual centers, villages, hamlets, and farmsteads flourished in the Caddo homeland. The small village societies did not form any central alliance, but formed small, competing village-groups (polities) and maintained competition with neighboring Caddo. It is also during this time in the Caddo history that there is some supporting archeological evidence for specific geographic territories throughout the Caddo Homeland: Clusters of villages that intermarry and share ritual, economic and military ties. The larger mound community centers as well as the smaller farmstead/villages had circular homes constructed with oak poles and grass, and included outdoor shaded areas, household cemeteries and refuse areas. "The Spanish noted that successful fall harvests occasioned major festivals at the principal villages that drew kinfolk and allies near and far for several-day celebrations of Caddo life. Such events would have involved feasting, special ceremonies, tobacco smoking, dancing, performances of stories and songs, trading, negotiating, courtship, and many other activities."(34)

Titus Phase
Between 1430-1680 A.D., the specific society of Caddo living between the Sabine and Sulphur rivers in the East Texas Pineywoods between are known as the Titus phase. Styles of pottery define the phases of the culture within this timeframe and geological region. There is a marked variety and artistry to the pottery unearthed and linked to this period exhibited in a plethora of vessel shapes, decoration, and multiplicity of uses including as both fine and utility ware: cooking and serving food, personal possessions, social identifiers.(35)

Examples of fine ware include highly polished and decorated vessels with crushed clay and bone, vessels engraved "with engraved lines, with scrolls, scrolls and circles, pendant triangles, and other curvilinear motifs."(36) Ochre and white kaolin were used on the surface as coloration. "The diversity of vessel forms is impressive: carinated bowls, compound bowls, bottles, cone-shaped bowls, ollas, jars with flaring rims, square bowls, globular peaked jars, and chalices. Animal effigies and rattle bowls were also made."(36) Utility vessels were characterized by plain conical shapes, larger vessels with wide mouths and vessels for liquid with narrow "necks". They were decorated with bands, brush strokes, and punctures, and as is expected, the utility vessels comprise the bulk of the archeological finds. Ceramic, siltstone, sandstone, and wood body decoration included earspools and elbow pipes of clay.

The Caddo made their first, limited European contact with DeSoto's army in 1542-1543. The "protohistoric" period refers to the period after the first contact with Europeans. However, it was not until 1686 that Europeans returned to the area bringing diseases, horses, Old World plants, and European trade goods, this is when the catastrophic impact on the Caddo can been seen.(36)

The 1541-1543 Spanish entrada led by Hernando de Soto, and, following De Soto's death at the Mississippi River, by Luis de Moscoso, was the first European penetration into the interior of the Southeastern U.S. It was a long and often violent intrusion that left Native American societies in its wake in turmoil and resulted in uncounted casualties, some killed outright by the Spanish army and others gradually by inadvertently unleashed Old World diseases. The large Spanish army fed itself by demanding or simply confiscating food stores from native peoples as they moved from place to place attacking and usually defeating the towns and peoples who stood up to them. The De Soto chronicles are the first written accounts describing Caddo peoples.(37)

Within the last 10 years, archeologists and ethnohistorians studying the Caddo have been attempting to map more precisely the routes of Spanish and French explorers and colonists and determine the impact of this European contact on the Caddo. Although European contact with the Caddo was irreparable and catastrophic for these relatively peaceful farmers of the southeast river valleys, the impact of the fist meeting with De Soto's army in 1542, and then the subsequent 144 years of non-intervention before European return, points to a gradual decline in Caddo population unfolding "in fits and starts over several centuries ."(38)

It was in 1686 when La Salle's expedition again met the Caddo along the Red River in East Texas. Over the next 150 years as Europeans laid claims to Caddo lands and beyond, the Caddo became sandwiched between French and Spanish settlements. Between 1691 and 1816 it is estimated that 95% of the Caddo populous succumbed to epidemics brought by the Europeans.(39) The remaining Caddo gained economically in trade with the Europeans. "The resulting economic symbiosis between the Caddo groups and Europeans was the key to the political success, resilience, and strength of the Caddo tribes through much of the colonial era."(40) What was left of the Caddo population gave rise to diverse groups uniting, and to practical and forced migration. There is evidence to support the idea that the Caddo societies of the late 17th and early 18th centuries enjoyed a successful relationship with the French and Spanish, not succumbing to the mission culture, and welcoming the Europeans into their society in order to maintain good sociopolitical ties with them.

This helps explain why Caddo rituals and greetings seemed excessive to Europeans and why discussions of these exchanges seem to dominate much of the Spanish and French archival documents. Similar interactions are sadly missing from the observations and records of the Americans, strongly hinting that the Caddo by the 1810s were unable to exploit existing American trade and military relationships in the same way they had the Spanish and the French.(41)

Citations 6-41:
Texas Beyond History. University of Texas, Austin

Other sources and sites of intererst:
Recreated drawing of Poverty Point Earthworks: Louisiana Public Broadcasting
Caddo Homeland interactive tool
Caddo Pottery Tradition
Mississippian Mound Builders and Their Artifacts

Poverty Point Earthworks: Evolutionary Milstones of the Americas

The Identity of Columbus (Part I)

The identity and character of Columbus is still a subject of intense inquiry and debate, more than five hundred years after the discovery of the New World. In a recent interview, Luis Melero, author of Colon el impostor (Columbus the Impostor) states that the thesis of a Genoese Columbus is "discredited" since it is based on two vague assumptions, namely Columbus's generally accepted date of birth (1451), and the assumption that the Admiral's name was, in fact, Christopher Columbus. In the same interview, Melero, a native of Malaga who is also an essayist and a newspaper editor, mentioned the ongoing DNA investigation carried out by the University of Granada on the scant remains housed in the Cartuja, Seville. Recent findings have not ruled out the possibility that the remains could be those of the man known as Columbus. Other "remains" of Columbus are allegedly buried in Santo Domingo, and elsewhere. (chat con el escritor Luis Melero sobre la historia oculta del descubridor)

In addition to the Seville DNA investigations, a team of historians and scientists under the direction of Professor Charles Merrill is conducting anthropological and linguistics studies, as well as a psychological profile to determine the true identity of Columbus.

Merrill has concluded that Columbus was not Genoese. Likewise, it has been reported that Professor Merrill is partial to the Catalan thesis of Columbus's birth, supported by Salvador de Madariaga, Ulloa, and others. (Pito catalan a la historia oficial)

This brief analysis, in three parts, will aim to show that the well-documented Galician hypothesis, supported by an extensive number of scholars, is likely to be the correct one. In addition, it will also attempt to show why Christopher Columbus may have found it necessary to change his name.

LINGUISTICS

The linguistics aspect of this mystery has been the object of intense scrutiny and debate for centuries. More than one historian has noted that Columbus, supposedly born in Genoa, where he lived for twenty four years, could not speak Italian, even though he may have been able to read and write it. Enrique Zas, author of Galicia patria de Colon (1923), was skeptical of the Galician thesis at first, but became convinced of its veracity after noticing a number of Galician words in the Admiral's diary, and other facts that will be addressed in Part II of this analysis. However, this observation (pertaining to lexicon), is the weakest one in the polemic, in the cases of both the Galician and the Catalan theses. Linguists are aware of the fact that lexicon is the first component (of any language) that will be influenced from "without."

Historian Consuelo Varela has noted that "the Admiral was used to jabbering away in a thousand different languages and he and his shipmates understood each other perfectly in a patois which was known in those days as 'Levantine,' from the Mediterranean area as a whole..." (Catalan, the Language of Columbus) Some object to the Levantine lingua franca argument because they view it as an "excuse" (Ibid) that perpetuates the validity of the commonly accepted Genoese theory. However, it should be noted that the Admiral's ability to converse in Levantine Lingua Franca does not automatically mean that Levantine (a "trading" language) was his first, or native tongue. Furthermore, in linguistics, a patois could refer to a pidgin, a creole, or a dialect, but a pidgin is not considered "stable" until it develops its own grammatical rules.

Martinho Montero Santalha, a linguistics professor at the University of Vigo, Galicia, recently presented the results of his investigations in a seminar (A Lingua de Cristovao Colom) at the University of Santiago de Compostela. Montero Santalha is well known for his work on The Cantigas de Santa Maria (Songs of the Virgin Mary) written in Galician-Portuguese during 1221-1284, during the rule of Alfonso X, the Sage.

Some of Montero Santalha's observations are significant. They not only point to the existence of lexicon common to the indigenous languages of Galicia and Portugal in the writings of Columbus, in addition, they show unusual grammatical features that are also common to those languages. Certain words that are feminine in Spanish such as "nose" (la nariz) or "signal" (la senal), are masculine in Galician/Portuguese. In his writings, Columbus adhered to the Galician/Portuguese forms of gender classification. Likewise, Columbus made use of the rare (plural) neutral grammatical gender, i.e. "esses," instead of "essos," that while non-existent in Spanish, is common in Galician/Portuguese.

Thus far, researchers that support the Catalan thesis have not been able to come up with any grammatical examples that can justify their claims, or beliefs. Their observations rely only on lexicon, a weak, if not completely unsustainable argument in the field of linguistics as it is taught at present. Furthermore, it must be noted that, in regard to the weakness of the lexicon argument, there are similarities between Catalan and Gallego/Portuguese, since both languages retain more elements of Latin than (Castilian) Spanish.

habanera

Chat con el escritor Luis Melero sobre la historia oculta del descubridor
http://actualidad.terra.es/cultura/articulo/chat_colon_luis_melero_881087.htm

Pito catalan a la historia oficial: Colon no seria genoves sino que habria nacido en Barcelona
http://www.clarin.com/diario/2004/10/13/um/m-849148.htm

A Lingua de Cristovao Colom. Resumo. Martinho Montero Santalha (III Seminario de Politicas Linguisticas)
http://www.lusografia.org/amizadegp/IIISeminario/m-montero-resumo.htm

Catalan, The Language of Columbus
http://www.cristobalcolondeibiza.com/eng/eng08.htm