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Wichita Indian Tribe
Location
Wichita. From wits, "man."
Also known as:
Black Pawnee, common early name.
Do'gu'at, Kiowa name, meaning "tattooed people."
Do'kănă,
Comanche name, meaning "tattooed people."
Freckled Panis, from above.
Guichita, Spanish form of the name.
Hin:4sso, Arapaho name.
Höχsúwitan,
Cheyenne name.
Ki'-¢i-ku'-¢uc, Omaha name.
Kirikiris, Kirikurus, or Kitikitish, reported as own name but
properly the name of one of their bands.
Mítsitá,
Kansa name.
Pá¢in wasábĕ,
Ponca and Omaha name, meaning "Black bear Pawnee." Paneassa, various
early writers.
Panis noirs, early French name.
Panis piqués, early French name.
Pányi Wacéwe,
Iowa, Oto, and Missouri name.
Picks, from Panis piqués.
Pitchinávo, Comanche name,
meaning "painted breasts."
Prickled Panis, referring to their tattooing.
Quirasquiris, French form of native name.
Quivira, from chronicles of Coronado expedition.
Sónik'ni, Comanche name, meaning
"grass lodges."
Speckled Pawnee, referring to their tattooing.
Túχquĕt,
see Do'gu'at.
Connections
The Wichita were one of the principal
tribes of the Caddoan linguistic family.
Location
Their earliest certain location was
on Canadian River north of the headwaters of the
Washita. (See also Texas.)
Subdivisions
Most of the so-called subdivisions of
the Wichita were independent tribes, some of which,
including the Tawakoni, Waco, Tawehash, and Yscani, have been
treated separately. The others—Akwits or Akwesh, Kirikiris, Isis (see
Yscani), Tokane (see Yscani), and Itaz—were probably only temporary bands.
Mooney (1928) also mentions the Kirishkitsu (perhaps a Wichita name for
the Kichai) and the Asidahetsh and Kishkat, which cannot be identified.
History
The Wichita rose to fame at an early period owing to the fact
that they were visited by Coronado in 1541, the Spaniards calling the Wichita
country the province of Quivira. They were then farther north than the location
given above, probably near the great bend of the Arkansas and in the center of
Kansas. A Franciscan missionary, Juan de Padilla, remained 3 years among them in
the endeavor to convert them to Christianity, but he was finally killed by them
through jealousy on account of his work for another tribe. In 1719 La Harpe
found the Wichita and several allied tribes on the south Canadian River in the
territory later embraced in the Chickasaw Nation. Within the next 50 years they
were forced south by hostile northern and eastern tribes and by 1772 were on the
upper courses of the Red and Brazos Rivers. In 1835 they made their first treaty
with the United States Government. They continued to live in southwestern
Oklahoma until the Civil War, when they fled to Kansas until it was over. In
1867 they returned and were placed on a reservation in Caddo County, Okla.,
where they have since remained.
Population
In 1772 the Wichita and the Tawehash seem to have had about
600 warriors. Mooney (1928) estimates that in 1780 the confederated Wichita
tribes had a population of about 3,200. Bolton (1914), on information derived
from Mézières,
estimated about 3,200 for the Wichita proper in 1778. In 1805 Sibley
estimated the Wichita at 400 men. In 1868, 572 were reported in the
confederated tribes. The census of 1910 gives 318, including the remnant
of the Kichai. In 1937 there were 385.
Connection in which they have become noted
Although a tribe of considerable power in early days, the
Wichita will be remembered in future principally from the prominence of the city
of Wichita, Kans., which bears their name. It is also the name of counties hi
Kansas and Texas, a ridge of hills in southwestern Oklahoma called the Wichita
Mountains, a river in Texas, and places in Oklahoma, besides Wichita Falls in
Wichita County, Tex. The identification of this tribe with the Province of
Quivira gives it additional interest.
Additional Resources:
Notes About the Book:
Source: The Indian Tribes of North America, by John R. Swanton, 1953, Bureau of
American Ethnology, Bulletin 145, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC.
Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. Minimal editing
has been done, and readers can and should expect some errors in the textual
output.
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