Good Winter's Eve to all my blogging friends,
Today is February 4, 2014 and it has snowed all day. It looked so beautiful coming down and the Cardinals and House Finches were having a ball at the flower pots on my porch that serves as feeders. I can stand inside my nice warm house and snap pictures of them as much as I please; it's so fun.
Well, lets get back to the business of the Wichita Indians. Information about the Wichita's and their decision to back the Union side during the Civil War is still eluding me, but I have a lot of material that I haven't gotten to yet, so we will continue researching for that.
Looking online at the Kansas Memory web site, I came across a cool document that is the minutes of a tribal meeting, The purpose of the meeting was to tell the history of the Wichita Indians. This meeting took place on November 23, 1935 at Anadarko, Oklahoma. I would like to quote the beginning acknowledgement from this document, it is as follows.
Minutes of a tribal Association meeting in Anadorko, Oklahoma to the Wichita City Library; The Kansas Historical Society; The Wichita Indian Historical Society Who Have So Faithfully Devoted The Necessary Time Energy Research as Endeavoring To Uncover Evidence Concerning The Habitat Custom Tradition History Of The Wichita Indians Who Were Our Ancestors And To Exhibit Our Unbounded Affection We Are Pleased To Dedicate This Writing --The Wichita and Affiliated Bands Of Indians Of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. (The Wichita Indians by Charles H. Pratt, Historian for the Wichita Nation Association and Affiliated Bands of Indians.) ( www.kansasmemory.org/item/219783).
I typed it as it was, with all words capitalized and no punctuation. Above the acknowledgement was written the names of the Officers and stated that Dennis Warden was the Tribal Chief. The objectives: Tribal. There were about a dozen pages with information from as far back as the oldest man could remember, but the part I want to blog about has to do with my research paper. There was a small portion that mentioned James Mead who reported, (I don't know if he was at the meeting or not, but it states that James Mead reported, (so I am relating what he said). that the language of the Wichita Indians was similar to that of Indians in Oregon. A Mrs. Russel who worked at the Kiowa's agency had also reported at some point, that the language of the Wichita's was very much like the languages of Indians she had heard in Oregon. The writer of the document said that he to had heard of this before, many times from a number of different people. (vol.8, Kans. Hist. Coll. P. 171)
The next section of the document was about the origin of the name of the Wichita Indian. I thought this was very interesting, but then I find languages fascinating. I had already read that they were named Wichita's by the Osage. The Osage were living in about the southern third of Kansas when the Wichita came and started camping along the Arkansas River. This made the Osage unhappy, they didn't like the Wichita's encroaching on their land and there eventually was some fighting between the two tribes. The Osage did allow the Wichita's to stay on their land.
The Wichita's called themselves Kiddi-Ki-dish. It means tattooed around the eyes, guess they looked like they had raccoon eyes. The Osage named them Wee-che-taws' which means scattered villages. (p. 140, made April 2, 1928, at "Ashington, D.C.). A Deposition by General H. L. Scott.
In a library book that I'm looking at titled: Cowtown Wichita and the Wild, Wicked West, by Stan Hoig, there is a passage of interest giving the impression that the Wichita's made on Coronado and his band of Spaniards back in the 1500's. The Indians were very tall; over six feet in height. They were tattooed around their eyes and their houses were in no particular formation, but put wherever the builder (the women) decided to put them. It also described the shock of the Wichita's when they laid eyes on the Conquistadors. The Indians had never seen horses before, not to mention these beings in very bright shiny metal riding on these the beasts. They looked and ran, but the Coronado had an Indian guide from New Mexico who assured the Wichita's that the "shiny people" (my words) were friendly. (P. 4) University of New Mexico Press.
Well, it's been fun sharing a few tidbits with you again.  Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it for you.
Until next post,
Cheri