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About Us
Alaina Tahlate
Language Revitalizationist &
Director of Caddo Language Program
(405) 779-9112 Mobile
The Caddo Nation Language Program began on August 1st, 2022, when the Caddo Nation hired language revitalizationist, Alaina Tahlate.
She established the Caddo Nation's current language archive and develops community language learning resources for all ages of learners. She apprenticed under speaker Edmond Johnson (1929-2025) for the last three years of his life.
Tahlate draws from her training in endangered language revitalization methodology, archival resources, and experience with Caddo heritage speakers to facilitate weekly Caddo language classes with focus groups for preservation, reclamation, and revitalization.
Nathanael Thompson
Linguistic consultant
Nathanael Thompson joined the Caddo Nation Language Program on August 26th, 2026, as a linguistic consultant. He assists with transcribing Caddo language documents and audio recordings for the forthcoming Caddo language online dictionary and archive.
Thompson provides support for weekly community Caddo language classes. Thompson conducts linguistic research and analysis to further our understanding of Caddo through academic scholarship in joint partnership with Alaina Tahlate and the Caddo Nation Language Program.
Language News over the years
KERA News: Only 2 people alive can speak the Caddo language fluently. They hope a new program can save it - by Pablo Arauz Pena. (March 15, 2023)
NPR: The race to save Indigenous languages - by Avery Keatley and Scott Detrow. ( February 25, 2024)
https://www.npr.org/2024/02/25/1233819688/the-race-to-save-indigenous-languages
KOSU / NPR: 'Keep going': Efforts to preserve Caddo language continue, despite death of last fluent speaker - by Sarah Liese Twilla. (July 21, 2025)
About Us
Wednesday Evenings
Every Wednesday 6pm-7pm CST
Please join us for online caddo language classes via Zoom!
What's the difference?
There are many types of language work, and each one serves a different function in creating and sustaining a healthy community of speakers. Each one of these types of language work is necessary for meeting the program's goal of reversing language loss.
Program Goals
ARCHIVE OF CADDO LANGUAGE RESOURCES
Caddo language learning resources are available to all Caddo tribal citizens and descendants. Contact the language program to gain access to the Caddo Nation's growing language archive.
SHARING THROUGH COMMUNITY EVENTS AND PROGRAMS
The program aims to create more opportunities for Caddo families to share their communal knowledge of our Caddo history, language and culture with one another both online and in-person. Contact the language program to sign up to receive notice of upcoming language events or classes.
Intro and History
The Caddo language is a part of the Caddoan language family. The Caddoan language family includes Caddo, Pawnee, Wichita, Arikara, and Kitsai (also spelled Keechi and Kichai). Although linguistically related, the tribes that compose the Caddoan language family are culturally, historically, and archaeologically separate Nations. The Caddo language is known as Hasinai (ha-SEE-nay) to its native speakers. Caddo people typically refer to their own people and language as Caddo when speaking English.
The Caddo language was spoken in what is now called Southeastern Oklahoma, Northeastern Texas, Southwestern Arkansas, and Northwestern Louisiana prior to the Caddo’s forced removal from their homelands by the United States government. Caddo people belonged to three confederacies at the point of contact with European colonizers; the Kadohadacho, Natchitoches, and Hasinai (see fig. 1).
The confederacies were socio-culturally and linguistically synonymous. Within the three historical confederacies there were many confederated sub-tribes, colloquially known as bands. There were mutually intelligible dialectal differences between the bands. Even today, different speakers may speak different dialects and have different ways to pronounce words.
Caddo Language Documentation & Preservation Efforts
The Caddo language has been documented by some linguists through the years. Much of the linguistic analysis done on the language has been the work of Dr. Lynette Melnar and the late Dr. Wallace Chafe. The linguistic anthropology of the language was the emphasis of Dr. Alice Anderton and Brian Levy. Despite the diligent efforts of linguists over the years, there is still much left of the Caddo language and wider Caddoan language family that is yet to be linguistically described.
Caddo language preservation efforts have been hosted by Caddo community members for decades. The leaders in language preservation were interested in documenting Hasinai where it intersected with cultural practices that were at the heart of Caddo culture as a whole. This approach employs language as a means of greater cultural revitalization; language is not seen as separate from the history and living culture, but rather, the thing that binds the people and their shared spirituality, land, and history together. Cultural gatherings such as annual dances became the center of Caddo language use, and remain the most likely place you will hear Caddo language spoken today.
Caddo language efforts continue today at the individual and community level.
