Caddo ethnic terms

[Wallace Chafe]

Unlike John, I find it hard to let go of Mexicanos as the origin of ka:nos
etc. It seems relevant that among the Tonkawas ka:nos did in fact mean
Mexicans. So we have the Tonkawas with that meaning, and their neighbors,
Caddos and others, with the meaning Frenchmen for what seems obviously to
be the same word. Exactly how that happened, historically and
sociopolitically, may be a puzzle, but clearly we need to know a lot more
about how the name Mexicanos was being used where and at what time.

> I suppose there may have been a point at which creoles and especially
> mestizos began to call themselves Mexicanos just as Americans began
> calling themselves Americans to some extent before independence.  But
> before a development of national sentiment, calling oneself a Mexicano or
> an American would have been tantamount to admitting a degree of social
> inferiority.  "Yes, I'm a colonial."

That could be more or less the right scenario. We're not concerned here
with what these people called themselves, but with what other people
(Tonkawas, Caddos, etc.) called them, and it need not have been
complimentary.

The other suggested origins for ka:nos seem too far-fetched to take
seriously.

Wally