Cataye Indians

The Cataye Indians, a Caddoan tribe of the southwestern or Hasinai division in eastern Texas, are known from a single Spanish document that was written near the end of the seventeenth century. H. E. Bolton assumed that Cataye was a variant of the name Cachaé, but these similar names both occur in the same document without any indication that they are variants of the same name. Bolton also argued that Cachaé was an early name for the Hainai Indians (they seem to have occupied the same territory). J. R. Swanton accepted Bolton's interpretations and also linked Caxo with Cachaé. This is all largely a matter of modern inference and opinion. As no early Spanish authority ever stated that Cataye, Cachaé, Caxo, and Hainai were names that referred to the same people, the case is still open.