Precontact history The Ancestral Wichita people lived in the eastern
Great Plains from the
Red River in Arkansas north to
Nebraska for at least 2,000 years. Early Wichita people were
hunters and gatherers 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), and
tobacco, 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. These farmers may have had contact with the
Panhandle culture villages in the
Oklahoma and
Texas Panhandles, farming villages along the Canadian River. The Panhandle villagers showed signs of adopting cultural characteristics of the
Pueblo peoples of the
Rio Grande 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 aspect peoples'
subsistence 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, beans, squash, and sunflowers, cultivated for their seeds. Gathered foods included
walnut and
hickory nuts, and the fruits of plum,
hackberry, and grape. Remains of animal bones in Great Aspect sites include
bison,
elk,
deer,
pronghorn, 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 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 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 served a defensive role. One of these sites was the city
Etzanoa, located in present-day
Arkansas City, Kansas, near the
Arkansas River, that flourished between 1450 and 1700.
16th century In 1541 Spanish explorer
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado journeyed east from the
Rio Grande Valley in search of a rich land called
Quivira. In Texas, probably in the
Blanco River Canyon near
Lubbock, Coronado met people he called
Teyas 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, 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. 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. Even after Wichita migration, some settlements were thought to have remained in northern Quivira in 1680. 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.
17th century In 1601, 60 years after Coronado's expedition the founder of New Mexico
Juan de Oñate visited
Etzanoa, the Wichita city. Oñate journeyed east from New Mexico, crossing the
Great Plains 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 near
Arkansas City, Kansas. 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 on the West and the powerful
Osage on the East. European diseases would also probably be responsible for a large decline in the Wichita population in the 17th century.
18th century In 1719, French explorers visited two groups of Wichita.
Bernard de la Harpe found a large village near present-day
Tulsa, Oklahoma and
Claude Charles Du Tisne found two villages near
Neodesha, Kansas. 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. 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. 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. 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 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 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, 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 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 of northern Texas, who spoke a different although a related language. == 19th century ==