The Tula were a Native American group that lived in what is now western

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

.Sturtevant, 617 The Tula are known to history only from the chronicles of Spanish conquistador

Hernando de Soto Hernando de Soto (; ; 1497 – 21 May 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, ...

's exploits in the interior of North America.

History

The Tula were possibly a Caddoan people, but this is not certain. Based on the descriptions of the various chroniclers, "Tula Province", or their homeland, may have been at the headwaters of the Ouachita, Caddo, Little Missouri, Saline, and Cossatot Rivers in Arkansas.Swanton, 29 They may have lived along the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in Colorado, specifically ...

in western Arkansas. They are also thought to have lived in the northern

Ouachita Mountains The Ouachita Mountains (), simply referred to as the Ouachitas, are a mountain range in western Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. They are formed by a thick succession of highly deformed Paleozoic strata constituting the Ouachita Fold and Thru ...

in the Petit Jean and Fourche valleys.Perttula, 23 De Soto entered Tula territory on September 30, 1541, near present-day

Fort Smith, Arkansas Fort Smith is the List of municipalities in Arkansas, third-most populous city in Arkansas, United States, and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County, Arkansas, Sebastian County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the pop ...

and violently clashed with the tribe multiple times during the beginning of October 1541. His secretary, Rodrigo Ranjel described the Tula as, "the best fighting people that the Christians met with." A statue was erected in the late 20th century to commemorate the Tula, but de Soto scholars suspect that the location of the statue does not correspond with the Tula's actual homeland. The Tula are thought to be the first Caddo band to encounter Europeans. The 16th-century Spanish chroniclers wrote that the Tula practiced cranial deformation and tattooed their faces. They fought with large spears. An archaeological site, Bluffton Mound site (3YE15), 35 to 40 miles southwest of the

is associated with the Tula. The site is a Caddoan Mississippian culture

mound A mound is a wikt:heaped, heaped pile of soil, earth, gravel, sand, rock (geology), rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded ...

center. Ethnographer John Reed Swanton proposed that the Tula assimilated into other Kadohadacho tribes, whose descendants would be enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma today.

Language

Their language was unlike the Quapaw language, leading historians to believe they spoke a Caddoan language.

Synonymy

The word "Tula" is not a Caddo word. The tribe and province are also known as Tulia.Swanton, 30

Notes

References

* Carter, Cecile Elkins
''Caddo Indians: Where We Come From''.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. * Perttula, Timothy K
''The Caddo Nation: Archaeological and Ethnohistoric Perspectives.''
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997. . * Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast''. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004. . * Swanton, John Reed
''Source material on the history and ethnology of the Caddo Indians''.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996. .

External links