Description
Wichita, North American Indian people who originally lived near the Arkansas River in what is now the state of Kansas. They were encountered by the Spanish in the mid-16th century and became the first group of Plains Indians subject to missionization. The Wichita tribes call themselves Kitikiti'sh or Kirikirish ("raccoon-eyed people"), because of the historical practice of tattooing marks around their eyes. 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.
Language
Caddoan
Culture
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. Wichita men wore a scalp lock (a long lock of hair on the top of the head) and sometimes a porcupine roach, a head ornament made of such materials as porcupine guard hair and hair from the tail of a deer.