About the Wichita Indians of Texas

Francisco Vazques de Coronado, a Spanish explorer, and members of his expedition to the American Southwest during the early 1500s were the first Europeans known to have contact with the Wichita Indians. The expedition encountered the Wichita in 1541 in what is now south-central Kansas. The Wichita lived in villages, which they inhabited during the spring and summer, growing crops such as maize, squash, beans, and pumpkins, among others. During the fall and winter seasons, their villages were closed up and the people would migrate west to hunt buffalo.

Identification

Wichita villages were made up of very large, cone shaped grass houses. These were made of sturdy cedar poles that were covered by dry grass. In the roof was a small hole to release the smoke of the cooking fire, which was placed in the center of the floor. During the hunting season, the Wichita lived in tepees, as was common among Plains Indians. Wichita communities had a simple leadership structure, consisting of a chief, sub-chief, and a shaman. Clothes were made of tanned hides, with women wearing garments that covered them from chin to toes, while men wore loincloths, shirts, and leggings.

Features

While the Wichita were Plains Indians, they were set apart from others under that category by a number of distinguishing features. The Wichita tended to be darker skinned and stockier than other Plains Indians, and both women and men wore tattoos on their bodies and faces, made up of solid and dotted lines and circles. The Wichita often referred to themselves as the raccoon-eyed people due to distinctive tattoos around the eye area.

History

The Wichita were primarily an agricultural people, ranging from San Antonio to Great Bend Kansas. The Wichita were also known as hunters and prolific traders, with archaeologists finding evidence of Wichita trade that pre-dated contact with Europeans. They traded goods in an area that stretched from New Mexico to the Gulf Coast, and eventually became prominent middlemen who facilitated trade between the Comanches on the plains and the merchants of Louisiana from their village in northern Texas.

Size

Driven from their homelands by settlers in 1859, the Wichita Indians of Texas crossed the Washita River into Oklahoma to live in a reservation. At the time of this relocation, their numbers had declined to 572 people from the reported 30,000 found by the expedition of Francisco Vazques de Coronado. Present day numbers of Wichita living in Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas total about 1900 enrolled tribal members.

Significance

A number of archaeological sites show evidence of Wichita ancestors as far back as 1450 A.D. This resilient people lived through wars, epidemics, and famines to become one of the most influential of Native American tribes, its string of villages extending more than 25 miles. The Wichita also controlled a vast hunting ground and strategic salt and flint deposits. This influence in the region survived both Spanish and French exploration, diminishing only with the westward expansion of the United States in the late eighteenth century.