Family Division
Five languages belong to the Caddoan language family:
- Caddo
- Northern Caddoan
- Wichita
- Pawnee–Kitsai
- Kitsai (also known as Kichai) (†)
- Pawnee
- Arikara (also known as Ree)
- Pawnee
The Kitsai language is now extinct, as its members were absorbed in the 19th century into the Wichita tribe. All of the other Caddoan languages are critically endangered; Caddo is now spoken by only 25 people, Pawnee by 20, Arikara by three, and Wichita by just one tribal elder, Doris McLemore. Caddo, Wichita, and Pawnee are spoken in Oklahoma by small numbers of tribal elders. Arikara is spoken on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota.
Speakers of some of the languages were formerly more widespread; the Caddo, for example, used to live in northeastern Texas, southwestern Arkansas, and northwestern Louisiana, as well as southeastern Oklahoma. The Pawnee formerly lived along the Platte River in what is now Nebraska.
Read more about this topic: Caddoan Languages
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