The Wichita people or Kitikiti'sh are a confederation of
Southern Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, step ...
Native American tribes. Historically they spoke the
Wichita language
Wichita is an extinct Caddoan language once spoken in Oklahoma by the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. The last fluent heritage speaker, Doris Lamar-McLemore, died in 2016, although in 2007 there were three first-language speakers alive.Rood, 2008 ...
and
Kichai language
The Kitsai (also Kichai) language is an extinct member of the Caddoan language family. The French first record the Kichai people's presence along the upper Red River in 1701. By the 1840s Kitsai was spoken in southern Oklahoma, but by the 1930s ...
, both
Caddoan languages
The Caddoan languages are a family of languages native to the Great Plains spoken by tribal groups of the central United States, from present-day North Dakota south to Oklahoma. All Caddoan languages are critically endangered, as the number of sp ...
. They are indigenous to
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, and
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
.
Today, Wichita tribes, which include the
Kichai people
The Kichai tribe (also Keechi or Kitsai) was a Native American Southern Plains tribe that lived in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Their name for themselves was K'itaish.
History
The Kichai were most closely related to the Pawnee. French explore ...
,
Waco
Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...
,
Taovaya
The Taovaya tribe of the Wichita people were Native Americans originally from Kansas, who moved south into Oklahoma and Texas in the 18th century. They spoke the Taovaya dialect of the Wichita language, a Caddoan language. Taovaya people today a ...
,
Tawakoni
The Tawakoni (also Tahuacano and Tehuacana) are a Southern Plains Native American tribe, closely related to the Wichitas. They historically spoke a Wichita language of the Caddoan language family. Currently, they are enrolled in the Wichita and ...
, and the Wichita proper (or Guichita),
[ are ]federally recognized
This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...
as the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes (Wichita, Keechi, Waco and Tawakoni).
Government
The Wichita and Affiliated Tribes are headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma
Anadarko is a city in Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. The city is fifty miles southwest of Oklahoma City. The population was 5,745 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Caddo County.
History
Anadarko got its name when its post off ...
. Their tribal jurisdictional area is in Caddo County, Oklahoma
Caddo County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 29,600. Its county seat is Anadarko. Created in 1901 as part of Oklahoma Territory, the county is named for the Caddo tribe who were s ...
. The Wichitas are a self-governance tribe, who operate their own housing authority and issue tribal vehicle tags
Several Native American tribes within the United States register motor vehicles and issue license plates to those vehicles.
The legal status of these plates varies by tribe, with some being recognized by the federal government and others not. Som ...
.[2011 Oklahoma Indian Nations Pocket Pictorial Directory.]
''Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission.'' 2011: 38. Retrieved 8 Feb 2012.
The current tribal administration is as follows.
* President: Terri Parton
* Vice-President: Jesse E. Jones
* Secretary: Myles Stephenson Jr.
* Treasurer: Vanessa Vance
Economic development
The tribe owns the Sugar Creek Casino, several restaurants, the Sugar Creek Event Center, and Hinton Travel Inn in Hinton. It owns a smoke shop, travel plaza, and historical center in Anadarko.[ Their annual economic impact in 2010 was $4.5 million.
]
Culture
The Wichita language is one of the Caddoan languages
The Caddoan languages are a family of languages native to the Great Plains spoken by tribal groups of the central United States, from present-day North Dakota south to Oklahoma. All Caddoan languages are critically endangered, as the number of sp ...
. They are related by language and culture to the Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language:
* Pawnee people
* Pawnee language
Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States:
* Pawnee, Illinois
* Pawnee, Kansas
* Pawnee, Missouri
* Pawnee City, Nebraska
* ...
, with whom they have close relations.
The Wichita lived in settled villages with domed-shaped, grass lodges, sometimes up to in diameter. The Wichita were successful hunters, farmers, traders, and negotiators. Their historical homelands stretched from San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
, in the south to Great Bend, Kansas
Great Bend is a city in and the county seat of Barton County, Kansas, United States. It is named for its location at the point where the course of the Arkansas River bends east then southeast. As of the 2020 census, the population of the ci ...
, in the north. A semi-sedentary people, they occupied northern Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
in the early 18th century. They traded with other Southern Plains Indians
Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of N ...
on both sides of the Red River and south to Waco
Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...
.
The Wichita made much of their own art, including ceramic pottery that greatly fascinated French and Spanish traders.[Long unreported artifact collections from Spanish Fort Bend Wichita Indian Sites in Oklahoma and Texas. ''Plains Anthropologist'', 57 (221), 63-69.] To the untrained eye Wichita pottery was "virtually indistinguishable from the Osage and Pawnee", two other neighboring Indigenous groups.
Historically, for much of the year, the Wichita lived in huts made of forked cedar
Cedar may refer to:
Trees and plants
*''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae
*Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar
Places United States
* Cedar, Arizona
* ...
poles covered by dry grasses. In the winter, they followed American bison
The American bison (''Bison bison'') is a species of bison native to North America. Sometimes colloquially referred to as American buffalo or simply buffalo (a different clade of bovine), it is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the ...
(buffalo) in a seasonal hunt and lived in hunting camps. Wichita people relied heavily on bison, using all parts—for clothing, food and cooking fat, winter shelter, leather supplies, sinew, medicine, and even armor. Each spring, Wichita families settled in their villages for another season of cultivating crops. Eventually, horses played a large role in the Wichita people's lifestyle. Increased access to horses in the mid 17th century caused Wichita hunting styles and seasons to become longer and more community-oriented. The Wichita economy also focused on horticulture, root-gathering, and fruits and nuts.
Wichita people wore clothing from tanned hides, which the women prepared and sewed. They often decorated their dresses with elk
The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...
canine teeth
In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dog teeth, or (in the context of the upper jaw) fangs, eye teeth, vampire teeth, or vampire fangs, are the relatively long, pointed teeth. They can appear more flattened howeve ...
. Both men and women tattoo
A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several Process of tatt ...
ed their faces and bodies with solid and dotted lines and circles.
Wichita people had a history of intermarriage and alliance with other groups. Notably, the women of the Wichita worked with the Pueblo to harvest crops and engage in trade. Pueblo women were recorded to have intermarried with Wichita people and lived together in Wichita villages.
The social structure was organized by ranking of each tribe. Tribes were also led by two chiefs.
Bands
The Wichita tribes call themselves Kitikiti'sh or Kirikirish ("raccoon
The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...
-eyed people"), because of the historical practice of tattoo
A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several Process of tatt ...
ing marks around their eyes. The kindred Pawnee called them Kírikuuruks or Kírikuruks ("bear
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...
-eyed people") and the Arikara referred to them as Čirikuúnux (a reference to the Wichita practice of tattoos
A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing pr ...
). The Kiowa called them Thoe-Khoot ("tattoo
A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several Process of tatt ...
faces").
Bands
Wichita people have been a loose confederation of related peoples on the Southern Plains, including such bands or sub-tribes as Taovayas (Tawehash), Tawakoni
The Tawakoni (also Tahuacano and Tehuacana) are a Southern Plains Native American tribe, closely related to the Wichitas. They historically spoke a Wichita language of the Caddoan language family. Currently, they are enrolled in the Wichita and ...
s, Waco
Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...
s (who appear to have been the Yscani or Iscanis of earlier times), and Guichitas or Wichita Proper; smaller bands are listed as well: Akwits (also Akwesh, Asidahetsh, or Asidahesh, a former northern Pawnee splinter group, which joined the Wichita), Itaz, Kishkat, and Korishkitsu (the two latter names may be a Wichita name for the Kichai). The Taovaya were the most important in the 18th century. The French called the Wichita peoples Panis Piqués (Pawnee Picts) or Panis Noirs (Black Pawnees), because they practiced tattooing; sometimes the Panis Piqués or Panis Noirs are included into the listing of Wichita sub-tribes, but it seems that there were no known separate sub-tribe which can be identified by this name. One Pawnee splinter grouping known as Panismahas moved from what is now Nebraska to the Texas-Arkansas border regions where they lived with the Taovayas.
Language
The Wichita people had a unified language system with minor dialectical differences based on the geography of unique tribes. Derived from the Caddoan language, much of the Wichita language was indistinguishable between tribes they shared close alliances with.
Cultural institutions
In 2018, the Wichita Tribes opened the Wichita Tribal History Center in Anadarko, which shares Wichita history, archaeology, visual arts, and culture with the public.
The Wichita Annual Dance, a powwow
A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Powwows today allow Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or pu ...
, is held at the Wichita Tribal Park on US-281, north of Anadarko, every August.
Historical sites
Several sites spanning across different time periods are spread around the United States. These sites are terraced around the Red River in Oklahoma and Texas, and they contain artifacts such as pottery, arrows, knives, clay figurines, and European trade goods. Extensive excavation of these sites revealed large ritualistic and burial structures common in the territory and culture of the Wichita people.
History
Precontact history
The Ancestral Wichita people lived in the eastern Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
from the Red River in Arkansas north to Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
for at least 2,000 years. Early Wichita people were hunters and gatherers
A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...
who gradually adopted agriculture. Farming villages were developed about 900 CE on terraces above the Washita and South Canadian Rivers in present-day Oklahoma. The women of these 10th-century communities cultivated varieties of maize, beans, and squash (known as the Three Sisters), marsh elder (''Iva annua
''Iva annua'', the annual marsh elder or sumpweed, is a North American herbaceous annual plant in the family Asteraceae that was historically cultivated by Native Americans for its edible seed.
Description
''Iva annua'' is an annual herb up to ...
''), and tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
, which was important for religious purposes. The men hunted deer, rabbits, turkey, and, primarily, bison, and caught fish and harvested mussels from the rivers. These villagers lived in rectangular, thatched-roof houses.[
Archaeologists describe the Washita River Phase from 1250 to 1450, when local populations grew and villages of up to 20 houses were spaced every two or so miles along the rivers.] These farmers may have had contact with the Panhandle culture
Panhandle culture is a prehistoric culture of the southern High Plains during the Middle Ceramic Period from AD 1200 to 1400. Panhandle sites are primarily in the Oklahoma Panhandle, panhandle and Oklahoma, west central Oklahoma and the northern ...
villages in the Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
and Texas Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a square-shaped area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. It is adjacent to ...
s, farming villages along the Canadian River. The Panhandle villagers showed signs of adopting cultural characteristics of the Pueblo peoples
The Puebloans or Pueblo peoples, are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Currently 100 pueblos are actively inhabited, among which Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Zun ...
of the Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico.
The length of the Rio G ...
Valley, with whom they interacted.
In the late 15th century, most of these Washita River villages were abandoned for reasons that are not known today.[
]
Great Bend settlements and council circles
Numerous archaeological sites in central Kansas near the Great Bend of the Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...
share common traits and are collectively known as the "Great Bend aspect." Radiocarbon date
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.
The method was dev ...
s from these sites range from AD 1450 to 1700. Great Bend aspect sites are generally accepted as ancestral to the Wichita peoples described by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''.
Nicknames
In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...
and other early Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an explorers. The discovery of limited quantities of European artifacts, such as chain mail
Chain mail (properly called mail or maille but usually called chain mail or chainmail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common military use between the 3rd century BC and ...
and iron axe heads at several Great Bend sites, suggests contact of these people with early Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
explorers.
Great Bend aspect peoples' subsistence
A subsistence economy is an economy directed to basic subsistence (the provision of food, clothing, shelter) rather than to the market. Henceforth, "subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself at a minimum level. Often, the subsistence econo ...
economy included agriculture, hunting, gathering, and fishing. Villages were located on the upper terraces of rivers, and crops appear to have been grown on the fertile floodplains below. Primary crops were maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
, beans, squash, and sunflowers, cultivated for their seeds. Gathered foods included walnut
A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''.
Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...
and hickory
Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...
nuts, and the fruits of plum, hackberry, and grape. Remains of animal bones in Great Aspect sites include bison
Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.
Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...
, elk
The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...
, deer
Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...
, pronghorn
The pronghorn (, ) (''Antilocapra americana'') is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American a ...
, and dog, one of the few domesticated animals in the pre-Contact Plains.
Several village sites contain the remains of unusual structures called "council circles," located at the center of settlements. Archaeological excavations
In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...
suggest they consist of a central patio surrounded by four semi-subterranean structures. The function of the council circles is unclear. Archaeologist Waldo Wedel suggested in 1967 that they may be ceremonial structures, possibly associated with solstice
A solstice is an event that occurs when the Sun appears to reach its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. Two solstices occur annually, around June 21 and December 21. In many countr ...
observations. Recent analysis suggests that many non-local artifacts occur exclusively or primarily within council circles, implying the structures were occupied by political and/or ritual leaders of the Great Bend aspect peoples. Other archaeologists leave open the possibility that the council circle earthworks
Earthworks may refer to:
Construction
*Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour
* Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil
*Earthworks (military), m ...
served a defensive role.
One of these sites was the city Etzanoa
Etzanoa is a historical city of the Wichita people, located in present-day Arkansas City, Kansas, near the Arkansas River, that flourished between 1450 and 1700. Dubbed "the Great Settlement" by Spanish explorers who visited the site, Etzanoa may ...
, located in present-day Arkansas City, Kansas
Arkansas City () is a city in Cowley County, Kansas, United States, situated at the confluence of the Arkansas River and Walnut River in the southwestern part of the county. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 11,974. The n ...
, near the Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...
, that flourished between 1450 and 1700.
Post-contact history
In 1541 Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''.
Nicknames
In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...
journeyed east from the Rio Grande
The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico.
The length of the Rio G ...
Valley in search of a rich land called Quivira
Quivira is a place named by Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541, for the mythical Seven Cities of Gold that he never found.
Quivira was a province of the ancestral Wichita people, located near the Great Bend of the Arkans ...
. In Texas, probably in the Blanco River Canyon near Lubbock
Lubbock ( )
is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the northwe ...
, Coronado met people he called Teyas
Teyas were a Native American people living near Lubbock, Texas who first made contact with Europeans in 1541 when Francisco Vásquez de Coronado traveled to them.
The tribal affiliation and language of the Teyas is unknown, although many scholars ...
who might have been related to the Wichita and the earlier Plains villagers. The Teyas, if in fact they were Wichita, were probably the ancestors of the Iscani and Waco, although they might also have been the Kichai
The Kichai tribe (also Keechi or Kitsai) was a Native American Southern Plains tribe that lived in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Their name for themselves was K'itaish.
History
The Kichai were most closely related to the Pawnee. French explo ...
, who spoke a different language but later joined the Wichita tribe. Turning north, he found Quivira and the people later known as the Wichita near the town of Lyons, Kansas
Lyons is a city in and the county seat of Rice County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,611.
History
For millennia, the land now known as Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans.
Although Coro ...
. He was disappointed in his search for gold as the Quivirans appear to have been prosperous farmers and good hunters but had no gold or silver. There were about 25 villages of up to 200 houses each in Quivira. Coronado said: "They were large people of very good build", and he was impressed with the land, which was "fat and black." Though Coronado was impressed with Wichita society, he often treated the Wichita poorly in his expedition.[Wedel, Mildred M. 1982a The Wichita Indians in the Arkansas River Basin. In Plains Indian Studies: A Collection of Papers in Honor of John C. Ewers and Waldo R. Wedel, edited by D.H. Ubelaker and H.J. Viola, pp. 118-134. Smithsonian] Even after Wichita migration, some settlements were thought to have remained in northern Quivira in 1680.
It was also noted: "They eat meat raw/jerky
Jerky is lean trimmed meat cut into strips and dried (dehydrated) to prevent spoilage. Normally, this drying includes the addition of salt to prevent bacteria growth before the meat has finished the dehydrating process. The word "jerky" derive ...
like the Querechos
The Querechos were a Native American people.
In 1541 the Spanish conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and his army journeyed east from the Rio Grande Valley in search of a rich land called Quivira. Passing through what would later be the ...
he Apache">Apache.html" ;"title="he Apache">he Apacheand Teyas
Teyas were a Native American people living near Lubbock, Texas who first made contact with Europeans in 1541 when Francisco Vásquez de Coronado traveled to them.
The tribal affiliation and language of the Teyas is unknown, although many scholars ...
. They are enemies of one another...These people of Quivira have the advantage over the others in their houses and in growing of maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
".
The Quivirans apparently called their land Tancoa (which bears a resemblance to the later sub-tribe called Tawakoni) and a neighboring province on the Smoky Hill River was called Tabas (which bears a resemblance to the sub-tribe of Taovayas). Settlements existed here until the Wichita were driven away in the 18th century.
Sixty years after Coronado's expedition the founder of New Mexico Juan de Oñate
Juan de Oñate y Salazar (; 1550–1626) was a Spanish conquistador from New Spain, explorer, and colonial governor of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México in the viceroyalty of New Spain. He led early Spanish expeditions to the Great Pla ...
visited Etzanoa
Etzanoa is a historical city of the Wichita people, located in present-day Arkansas City, Kansas, near the Arkansas River, that flourished between 1450 and 1700. Dubbed "the Great Settlement" by Spanish explorers who visited the site, Etzanoa may ...
, the Wichita city. Oñate journeyed east from New Mexico, crossing the Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
and encountering two large settlements of people he called Escanjaques (possibly Yscani) and Rayados, most certainly Wichita. The Rayado city was probably on the Walnut River
The Walnut River is a tributary of the Arkansas River, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 29, 2011 in the Flint Hills region of Kansas in the United States. Via ...
near Arkansas City, Kansas
Arkansas City () is a city in Cowley County, Kansas, United States, situated at the confluence of the Arkansas River and Walnut River in the southwestern part of the county. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 11,974. The n ...
. Oñate described the city as containing "more than twelve hundred houses" which would indicate a population of about 12,000. His description of the Etzanoa was similar to that of Coronado's description of Quivira. The homesteads were dispersed; the houses round, thatched with grass and surrounded by large granaries to store the corn, beans, and squash they grew in their fields. Oñate's Rayados were certainly Wichita, probably the sub-tribe later known as the Guichitas.
What the Coronado and Oñate expeditions showed was that the Wichita people of the 16th century were numerous and widespread. They were not, however, a single tribe at this time but rather a group of several related tribes speaking a common language. The dispersed nature of their villages probably indicated that they were not seriously threatened by attack by enemies, although that would change as they would soon be squeezed between the Apache
The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...
on the West and the powerful Osage The Osage Nation, a Native American tribe in the United States, is the source of most other terms containing the word "osage".
Osage can also refer to:
* Osage language, a Dhaegin language traditionally spoken by the Osage Nation
* Osage (Unicode b ...
on the East. European diseases would also probably be responsible for a large decline in the Wichita population in the 17th century.
In 1719, French explorers visited two groups of Wichita. Bernard de la Harpe
Bernard (''Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname.
The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "brav ...
found a large village near present-day Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...
and Claude Charles Du Tisne Claude may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People and fictional characters
* Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Claude (surname), a list of people
* Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...
found two villages near Neodesha, Kansas
Neodesha is a city in Wilson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,275. The name is derived from the Osage Indian word, ''Ni-o-sho-de'', and is translated as ''The-Water-Is-Smoky-With-Mud''.
H ...
. Regarding religion, La Harpe noticed that the Wichita people "had little of it". He did, however, gain knowledge on the presence of a Great Spirit that the Wichita worshipped.[ Wedel, Mildred Mott (1982) A The Wichita Indians in the Arkansas River Basin. In Plains Indian Studies: A Collection of Papers in Honor of John C. Ewers and Waldo R. Wedel, edited by D.H. Ubelaker and H.J. Viola, pp. 118-134. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge 30, Washington, D.C.] Coronado's Quivira was abandoned early in the 18th century, probably due to Apache attacks. The Rayados of Oñate were probably still living in about the same Walnut River location. Archaeologists have located a Wichita village at the Deer Creek Site dating from the 1750s on the Arkansas River east of Newkirk, Oklahoma
Newkirk is a city and county seat of Kay County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,172 at the 2020 census.
History
Newkirk is on land known as the Cherokee Outlet (popularly called the "Cherokee Strip"), which belonged to the Chero ...
. By 1757, however, it appears that all the Wichita had migrated south to the Red River.
The most prominent of the Wichita sub-tribes were the Taovayas. In the 1720s they had moved south from Kansas to the Red River establishing a large village on the north side of the River at Petersburg, Oklahoma and on the south side at Spanish Fort, Texas
Spanish Fort is an unincorporated community in north central Montague County, Texas, United States at the end of Farm Road 103 one mile south of the Red River.
History
Native Americans long used the fertile areas near the Red River for farming ...
. They adopted many traits of the nomadic Plains Indians and were noted for raiding, trading. They had a close alliance with the French, and in 1746 a French brokered alliance with the Comanche
The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...
revived the fortunes of the Wichita. The village at Petersburg was "a lively emporium where Comanches brought Apache slaves, horses and mules to trade for French packs of powder, balls, knives, and textiles and for Taovaya-grown maize, melons, pumpkins, squash, and tobacco."
The Wichita and their Comanche allies were known to the Spanish as the ' (Northerners). The Wichita people and the Comanche attacked a Spanish military expedition in 1759. Afterwards, in response to the destruction by the of the San Saba Mission the Spanish and their Apache allies undertook an expedition to punish the Indians. Their 500-man army attacked the twin villages on Red River, but was defeated by the Wichita and Comanche in the Battle of the Twin Villages
The Battle of the Two Villages was a Spanish attack on Taovaya villages in Texas and Oklahoma by a Spanish army in 1759. The Spanish were defeated by the Taovaya and other Wichita tribes with assistance from the Comanche.
Background
The San ...
. The Spanish army suffered 19 dead and 14 wounded, leaving two cannons on the battlefield, although they claimed to have killed more than 100 Indians.
The alliance between the Wichita, especially the Taovayas, and the Comanche began to break up in the 1770s as the Wichita sought a better relationship with the Spanish. Taovaya power in Texas declined sharply after an epidemic, probably smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
, in 1777 and 1778 killed about one-third of the tribe. After the United States took over their territory as a result of the Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...
in 1803 and the independence of Texas in 1836, all the related tribes were increasingly lumped together and dubbed "Wichita". That designation also included the Kichai
The Kichai tribe (also Keechi or Kitsai) was a Native American Southern Plains tribe that lived in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Their name for themselves was K'itaish.
History
The Kichai were most closely related to the Pawnee. French explo ...
of northern Texas, who spoke a different although a related language.
The principal village of the Wichita in the 1830s was near the Wichita Mountains
The Wichita Mountains are located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the principal relief system in the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen, being the result of a failed continental rift. The mountains are a northwest-southea ...
of Oklahoma although the Tawakoni and Wacos still lived in Texas and were moved onto a reservation on the upper Brazos River
The Brazos River ( , ), called the ''Río de los Brazos de Dios'' (translated as "The River of the Arms of God") by early Spanish explorers, is the 11th-longest river in the United States at from its headwater source at the head of Blackwater Dr ...
. They were forced out of Texas to a reservation in Oklahoma in 1859. During the Civil War, the Wichita allied with the Union
The Union may refer to:
Politics
* The Union (Germany) or CDU/CSU, the partnership of the German political parties the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union
* The Union (Italy), a former coalition of political parties in Ital ...
side. They moved to Kansas, where they established a village at the site of present-day Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...
. In 1867 they were relocated to a reservation in southwest Indian Territory
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...
(present-day Oklahoma) in the area where most of them continue to reside today. On June 4, 1891, the affiliated tribes signed an agreement with the Cherokee Commission
The Cherokee Commission, was a three-person bi-partisan body created by President Benjamin Harrison to operate under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, as empowered by Section 14 of the Indian Appropriations Act of March 2, 1889. Sec ...
for individual allotments.
Relationships with other indigenous tribes
Wichita relationships were mostly harmonious and cooperative. The Wichita were allies with the Comanche and traded with them. However, they were enemies with groups such as the Pawnee, the Missouri, and the Apache. The Apache were the Wichita's worst enemies, having driven them out of their homes before contact with Europeans.
The Wichita people's relationship with the Osage is ambiguous. It is said to have been "cautiously hostile", but many Osage groups attacked them in the 18th century, eventually driving them out of the Arkansas River Basin.
Trade
Due to geographical isolation, it was difficult for the French and Spanish to trade with the Wichita. The French traded with the Wichita primarily for their horses during the 16th century. The Wichita sensed that trading with the French would be ideal. Their migration in 1714 was partly motivated by their desire to move closer to European traders.
The Wichita first gained their European commodities in the mid 18th century, inspiring them to maintain close ties with the French in the 19th century. French traders were eager to exchange their goods with Wichita settlements as they traveled from Louisiana to Santa Fe.
Population
The Wichita had a large population in the time of Coronado and Oñate. One scholar estimates their numbers at 200,000.[Smith, F. "Wichita Locations and Population, 1719-1901. ''Plains Anthropologist'' Vol. 53, No. 28, 2008, pp.407-414] Villages often contained around 1,000 to 1,250 people per village. Certainly they numbered in the tens of thousands. They appeared to be much reduced by the time of the first French contacts with them in 1719, probably due in large part to epidemics of infectious disease
An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...
to which they had no immunity
Immunity may refer to:
Medicine
* Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease
* ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press
Biology
* Immune system
Engineering
* Radiofrequence immunity desc ...
. In 1790, it was estimated there were about 3,200 total Wichita. Conflict with Texans in the early 19th century and Americans in the mid 19th century led to a major decline in population, leading to the eventual merging of Wichita settlements. By 1868, the population was recorded as being 572 total Wichita. By the time of the census of 1937, there were only 100 Wichita officially left.
In 2018, 2,953 people were enrolled in the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.[ In 2011, there were 2,501 enrolled Wichitas, 1,884 of whom lived in the state of Oklahoma. Enrollment in the tribe required a minimum ]blood quantum
Blood quantum laws or Indian blood laws are laws in the United States that define Native American status by fractions of Native American ancestry. These laws were enacted by the federal government and state governments as a way to establ ...
of 1/32.[
]
See also
*Apache
The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...
*Caddo
The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language.
The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, wh ...
*Comanche
The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...
*Kichai people
The Kichai tribe (also Keechi or Kitsai) was a Native American Southern Plains tribe that lived in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Their name for themselves was K'itaish.
History
The Kichai were most closely related to the Pawnee. French explore ...
*Lipan Apache people
Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people, who have lived in the Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European and African contact, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and ...
*Taovaya people
The Taovaya tribe of the Wichita people were Native Americans originally from Kansas, who moved south into Oklahoma and Texas in the 18th century. They spoke the Taovaya dialect of the Wichita language, a Caddoan language. Taovaya people today a ...
*Tawakoni
The Tawakoni (also Tahuacano and Tehuacana) are a Southern Plains Native American tribe, closely related to the Wichitas. They historically spoke a Wichita language of the Caddoan language family. Currently, they are enrolled in the Wichita and ...
*Waco people
The Waco (also spelled ' and ') of the Wichita people are a Southern Plains Native American tribe that inhabited northeastern Texas. Today, they are enrolled members of the federally recognized Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, headquartered in Ana ...
References
Further reading
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*
*
*
External links
Wichita and Affiliated Tribes
official website
Wichita
article in the Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
The last word on 'Wichita'. One person left who speaks 'Wichita'
Interview with Doris McLemore
Doris Jean Lamar-McLemore (April 16, 1927 – August 30, 2016) was an American teacher who was the last native speaker of the Wichita language, a Caddoan language spoken by the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, indigenous to the U.S. states of Oklah ...
, "the last fluent speaker of Wichitan language". Video by Al Jazeera
Wichita art and photographs
National Museum of the American Indian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wichita people
Plains tribes
Native American tribes in Oklahoma
Native American tribes in Texas
Native American tribes in Kansas
Federally recognized tribes in the United States
Caddo County, Oklahoma