About the Wichita Indians

The Wichita Indians were a confederacy---a group of Native Americans consisting of several different tribes with similar cultural traits. The tribes belonging to the confederacy had a similar language, but different dialects. The Wichitas lived in a wide area ranging from what is now Kansas to Texas.

Features

From time to time, the semi-sedentary Wichitas moved from one location to another. They also hunted buffalo and cultivated crops, including pumpkins, corn, beans, maize and tobacco. When not traveling, the Wichita lived in cone-shaped dwellings. When moving from place to place, they dwelled in tepees made of animal skin.
Made from dried grasses, the large cone homes were up to 50 feet in diameter. Each one had enough room for about a dozen beds. The homes accommodated a kitchen with a large fire, with smoke exiting through a small hole in the ceiling. In the kitchen, the women would grind corn and make meals. Next to each dwelling was an arbor consisting of four wooden poles and a rectangular roof. This building offered protection from the hot sun or a place to dry plants and meat.
Wichitas also used animal hides for their clothing and shoes. Men dressed in shirts, loin cloths and leggings. Women wore long, body-length dresses that were frequently adorned with animal bones and teeth. Both also had many tattoos over their bodies. In fact, Wichitas called themselves Kitikitish, or "raccoon eyelids," because men tattooed their eyelids. Women put tattoos on their faces and breasts.

Benefits

The Wichita were known as excellent traders, because of all the vegetables they grew and their success at hunting buffalo. They also traded when traveling. Archeologists have found artifacts indicating that the Wichita traded even before the arrival of European explorers and settlers. Evidence suggests that the Wichita who lived in what is now Texas were exchanging items, such as dried corn, pumpkins and buffalo robes, with tribes much further away. When Europeans arrived, they also traded with these Native Americans.
Because the Wichita were so successful with their crops, they were also able to develop a complex culture that lasted for a millennium. The Wichitas were matrilineal---decent was traced from one generation to another through the mother's line. When a young man wanted to marry, he would arrange a large feast and present the woman's family with a gifts. The couple would live with the woman's family. Many men and women had more than one spouse during their lifetime, though not at the same time.

Significance

The Wichita had many different myths and stories. One creation story has several stages, as in the Bible. First came man, Kiarsidia, or "having the power to carry light," and woman, Kashatskihakatidise, or "bright-shining-woman." The animals also came at this time, as did the start of hunting. The next stage was the transformation and spreading of all the people over the world. They learned their names, and some were changed into animals. Things started to go badly. The chief's wife then gave birth to four monsters, who were destroyed in a great flood with the rest of the world.
The Wichita understand themselves to live in the time when the earth is being repopulated with flood survivors. Culture is being relearned, and inhabitants are once again understanding the animal mysteries. People are also learning about death and the journey to the spirit land. The last stage is the time "when everything begins to run out." Everything ends, and the earth wears out. A star comes to earth, and all the heavenly bodies become people again.

Effects

By the 1850s, a number of Wichitas had moved to Oklahoma, where some still live today. In 1859, they were relocated to the Wichita-Caddo Reservation. Others soon joined them from groups pushed out of Texas. During the Civil War, they first fought with the Confederacy. Many subsequently escaped and fled to Kansas. Some joined the Union forces. At the end of the war, they went back to their reservation and were soon known as the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. In 1894, they were allotted lands, and most of their millions of acres went to settlers.

Considerations

Today, the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes have more than 1,900 members. Each member must have at least one-eighth degree blood quantum of Wichita descent. Their government is called the Wichita Tribal Council, which oversees seven committee members, or the Wichita Executive Committee. Each member of this committee serves a four-year term, with re-election possible. The Wichita Executive Committee appoints commissioners to the Wichita Housing Authority. Wichita tribal members are also Oklahoma and United States citizens.