Table of Contents
How did the Wichita adapt?
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.
What did the Wichita people do?
The Wichitas were farming people. Wichita women worked together to raise crops of corn, beans, squash and pumpkins. Men hunted deer and small game and took part in seasonal buffalo hunts. The Wichitas also collected fruits and nuts to eat.
What type of shelter did the Wichita tribe live in?
The Wichita built beehive-shaped grass lodges as permanent homes. Willows and cottonwood trees grew in central Kansas and grasses were in abundance. The whole family worked together gathering needed materials, but the women and children actually constructed the lodge.
How were the Wichita different from other Native American groups in Texas?
Wichita, Kansas, owes its name to the early presence of the tribe in that area. Slightly darker in color than other native people of Texas, the Wichitas were distinguished by their elaborate tattoos, the scalp-lock worn by the men, and the custom of the women to remain nude from the waist up.
What did the Wichita Indians use for shelter?
When Wichita men went on hunting trips, they often used small buffalo-hide tipis(or teepees) as temporary shelter, similar to camping tents. Unlike other Plains Indian tribes, though, the Wichitas were not migratory people, and did not use tall teepees for their regular houses.
What did the Wichita people do in the winter?
In the winter, they followed American bison (buffalo) in a seasonal hunt and lived in hunting camps. Wichita people relied heavily on bison, using all parts—for clothing, food and cooking fat, winter shelter, leather supplies, sinew, medicine, and even armor.
Where did the Wichita tribe live during the Civil War?
The Wichita settled in the Washita Valley and established fields, gardens, and villages. When the Civil War began, representatives of the Wichita signed a pact, later repudiated by the tribe, with the Confederacy. Many residents of the reservation took refuge in Kansas and returned, following the war, to their homes in Indian Territory in 1867.
What did the Wichita Indians do to the Spanish?
The Wichita and their Comanche allies were known to the Spanish as the Norteños (Northerners). The Wichita people and the Comanche attacked a Spanish military expedition in 1759. Afterwards, in response to the destruction by the Norteños of the San Saba Mission the Spanish undertook an expedition to punish the Indians.