How did the Wichita make their lifestyle?
Each spring, Wichita families to 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.
Who are the Wichita people?
Jump to navigation Jump to search. The Wichita people are a confederation of Midwestern Native Americans. Historically they spoke the Wichita language, a Caddoan language.
Where did the Wichita tribe live in the 1830s?
The principal village of the Wichita in the 1830s was near the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma although the Tawakoni and Wacos still lived in Texas and were moved onto a reservation on the upper Brazos River.
What kind of government does the Wichita tribe have?
Government. The Wichita tribe is headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdictional area is in Caddo County, Oklahoma. The Wichitas are a self-governance tribe, who operate their own housing authority and issue tribal vehicle tags. The current tribal administration is as follows.
Was Wichita sedentary?
The Wichita, like other Caddoan peoples, were primarily sedentary and agricultural. However, having migrated close to the plains, they also hunted buffalo, using tipis made of skins as their dwellings while traveling.
Are the Wichita nomadic?
The Wichita used tipis when traveled, but were not a nomadic tribe. Generally, the Wichita people lived in an area known as Quivira, which was visited by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541.
What was the Wichita lifestyle?
Like most Caddoans, the Wichita traditionally subsisted largely by farming corn (maize), pumpkins, and tobacco; buffalo hunting was also an important part of their economy. They lived in communal grass-thatched lodges the shape of domed haystacks. On hunting expeditions they resided in tepees.
What Native American tribes were sedentary?
Sedentary farmers such as the Hopi, the Zuni, the Yaqui and the Yuma grew crops like corn, beans and squash. Many lived in permanent settlements, known as pueblos, built of stone and adobe. These pueblos featured great multistory dwellings that resembled apartment houses.
What were the Wichita known for?
The Wichita were successful hunters, farmers, traders, and negotiators. Their historical homelands stretched from San Antonio, Texas, in the south to as far north as Great Bend, Kansas. A semi-sedentary people, they occupied northern Texas in the early 18th century.
Why did the Wichita tribe migrate?
Lured by French trade goods and harried by enemy Osages, the Wichita moved south to the Red River, where they occupied fortified villages and, through their alliance with the Comanche, served as middlemen in the trade between the French and the Spanish in New Mexico.
How did the Wichita tribe travel?
No--the Wichita Indians weren't coastal people, and when they traveled by river, they usually built rafts. Over land, the Wichitas used dogs pulling travois (a kind of drag sled) to help them carry their belongings. There were no horses in North America until colonists brought them over from Europe.
How did the Wichita adapt to their environment?
The Wichita adapted to this environment and reaped abundant harvests for the land by farming and hunting. During the spring, summer and early fall, they lived in grass house villages while the women cultivated nearby gardens. Crops were planted together in the gardens.
Did the Wichita grow crops?
The Wichita, and possibly other southern peoples, planted or tended thickets of low-growing Chickasaw Plum trees separating and bordering their maize fields. Tobacco was planted in separate fields and tended by old men. Women did most of the other farming, although men assisted in clearing land.
Were Plains Indians nomadic or sedentary?
nomadicPlains Native Americans lived in both sedentary and nomadic communities. They farmed corn, hunted, and gathered, establishing diverse lifestyles and healthy diets.
Who was the most vicious Native American tribe?
The Comanches, known as the "Lords of the Plains", were regarded as perhaps the most dangerous Indians Tribes in the frontier era. One of the most compelling stories of the Wild West is the abduction of Cynthia Ann Parker, Quanah's mother, who was kidnapped at age 9 by Comanches and assimilated into the tribe.
Who was the tallest Native American?
Some, like the Cheyenne, were as tall as the Americans today. All, with the exception of the Comanche, were as tall as the contemporary white Americans, and most were taller than them....The Tall-but-Poor 'Anomaly'TribeHeight, cmBlackfeet172.0Crow173.6Sioux172.8Arapaho174.35 more rows•Nov 5, 2013
Overview
Culture
The Wichita language is one of the Caddoan languages. They are related by language and culture to the Pawnee, with whom they have close relations.
The Wichita lived in settled villages with domed-shaped, grass lodges, sometimes up to 30 feet (9.1 m) in diameter. The Wichita were successful hunters, farmers, traders, and negotiators. Their historical homelands stretche…
Government
The Wichita and Affiliated Tribes are headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdictional area is in Caddo County, Oklahoma. The Wichitas are a self-governance tribe, who operate their own housing authority and issue tribal vehicle tags.
The current tribal administration is as follows.
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.
History
After the man and woman were made they dreamed that things were made for them, and when they woke they had the things of which they had dreamed... The woman was given an ear of corn... It was to be the food of the people that should exist in the future, to be used generation after generation. —Tawakoni Jim in The Mythology of the Wichita, 1904
Population
The Wichita had a large population in the time of Coronado and Oñate. One scholar estimates their numbers at 200,000. 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 to which they had no immunity. In 1790, it was estimated there were about 3,2…
See also
• Apache
• Caddo
• Comanche
• Kichai people
• Lipan Apache people
Further reading
• Wedel, Mildred Mott; Blaine, Martha Royce; Moore, Gordon (1981). The Deer Creek Site, Oklahoma: A Wichita Village Sometimes Called Ferdinandina: an Ethnohistorian's View. Issue 5 of Series in Anthropology. Oklahoma City, OK: Oklahoma Historical Society.
• Wedel, Mildred Mott (1988). The Wichita Indians 1541–1750: Ethnohistorical Essays. Volume 38 of Reprints in Anthropology. J & L Reprint Company.