Friends of Caddo Mounds State Historic Site

The Friends of Caddo Mounds is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization that operates under a Memorandum of Agreement with the Texas Historical Commission. The Friends provide support for the operations, maintenance, and educational programs of the Caddo Mounds State Historic Site.

The Friends Association’s primary purpose is to aid in increasing public awareness and knowledge of the various historic and natural resources associated with the Caddo Mounds site. The Friends also aid in perpetuating the memory and history of the Caddo people as they relate to the culture, historical events, and early history of Texas.

The Friends have long been active in supporting the historic site’s outreach and educational programs including the annual springtime Caddo Cultural Day event where members of the Caddo Nation from Oklahoma perform traditional Caddo dances and where other traditional Caddo lifeway activities are demonstrated.

Members of the Friends Association assist with educational programs such as leading interpretive talks and guided hikes of the Site’s grounds as well as acting as museum Docents with school groups and the public. In 2014, the Friends begin raising the funds to build an authentic Caddo grass thatched house. The Friends contracted with Phil Cross, a Caddo Elder out of Oklahoma, who had the knowledge and skills to design and supervise the building of a traditional Caddo grass house.

During the summer of 2016, the Friends Association built a Caddo grass thatched house and stocked it with Caddo made and other household goods as a way to provide an authentic experience for visitors and to use as a functional space for the Site’s expanded educational programs.

The grass house and the Caddo Mounds museum were destroyed in 2019 by a tornado. The Friends are currently raising funds to rebuild the Caddo grass house during the summer of 2022.