Wichita Girl, Kansas, United States

What the Coronado and Onate expeditions showed was that the Wichita people were both numerous and widespread. They were not, however, a single tribe at this time but rather a group of several related tribes speaking a common language. The dispersed nature of their villages probably indicated that they were not seriously threatened by attack by enemies, although that would change as they would soon be squeezed between the Apache on the West and the powerful Osage on the East. European diseases would also probably be responsible for a large decline in the Wichita population in the 17th century.
In 1719, French explorers visited two groups of Wichita. Bernard de la Harpe found a large village near present day Tulsa, Oklahoma and Claude Charles Du Tisne found two villages near Neodesha, Kansas. By this time, the Wichita were threatened by Apache and had moved east and south. Coronado’s Quivira was abandoned early in the 18th century. The Rayados of Onate were probably still living in about the same location. Archaeologists have located a Wichita village at the Deer Creek Site dating from the 1750s on the Arkansas River east of Newkirk, Oklahoma. By 1757, however, it appears that all the Wichita had migrated south to the Red River. The most prominent of the Wichita sub-tribes were the Taovayas. In the 1720s they had moved south from Kansas to the Red River establishing a large village on the north side of the River in Jefferson County, Oklahoma and on the south side at Spanish Fort, Texas. They adopted many traits of the Plains Indians and were noted for raiding, trading, and (reputedly) cannibalism. They had a close alliance with the French and in 1746 a French brokered alliance with the Comanche revived the fortunes of the Wichita.
The village at Spanish Fort was “a lively emporium where Comanches brought Apache slaves, horses and mules to trade for French packs of powder, balls, knives, and textiles and for Taovaya-grown maize, melons, pumpkins, squash, and tobacco.” The Wichita and their Comanche allies were known to the Spanish as the “Nortenos” (Northerners). In 1759, in response to the destruction by the Nortenos of the San Saba Mission the Spanish undertook an expedition to punish the Indians. Their 500 man army attacked Spanish Fort but was routed by the Wichita and Comanche. The Spanish suffered 19 dead and 14 wounded, leaving several cannon on the battlefield, although they claimed to have killed more than 100 Indians.
The alliance between the Wichita, especially the Taovayas, and the Comanche began to break up in the 1770s as the Wichita were lured into cooperation with the Spanish. Taovaya power in Texas declined sharply after an epidemic, probably smallpox, in 1777-1778 killed about one-third of the tribe. After the Americans took over their territory as a result of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the independence of Texas in 1836, all the related tribes were increasingly lumped together and dubbed “Wichita.” That designation also included the Kichai of northern Texas who spoke a different although a related language.