Kitsai

The Kitsai belonged to the Caddoan-speaking world of the southern plains, where river valleys and grasslands supported both cultivation and hunting. Villages could draw on maize and other crops while obtaining meat, hides and materials from the surrounding country. Exchange connected communities with neighbours across the plains and woodland margins. Rivers, water sources and seasonal conditions shaped movement and the distribution of settlement.

French explorers encountered the Kitsai on the Red River in 1701. Their relations with neighbouring peoples varied: in 1712 they fought the Hainai on the Trinity River, while they also maintained alliances and marriage ties with other Caddoan communities. By 1772 many lived east of the Trinity River near present-day Palestine, Texas. Their history reflects the changing diplomacy of the southern plains as Indigenous peoples dealt with one another and with expanding colonial interests.

The later city of Fort Worth lies here.