Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

NUMBER 30 119
the period has often clarified certain statements
that at first glance are bewildering.
The Wichita in the 1500s
The Wichita were first described by members
of two Spanish expeditions seeking gold and silver,
which went from New Mexico to an area
called Quivira. One was led by Francisco Vasques
de Coronado in 1541; the other by Juan de Onate
in 1601. Although these two journeys were separated
by 60 years, the resulting descriptions of the
Quivirans and of the routes followed to reach
them are similar enough to justify the conclusion
that in both cases the same region and people are
indicated.
It has been proposed and generally accepted
that the Quivirans were Wichita-speaking Caddoans.
They were extensively tattooed as the
Wichita are known to have been in later historic
times; they lived in tall grass houses typical of
those built by later Wichita; and two of their
settlements and/or subdivisions had names that
identify with 18th-century Wichita band names.
Hereafter, I shall use the term "Wichita" to mean
the Wichita-speaking Caddo and "Wichita
proper" for the band to which that name was
originally restricted.
The following descriptive information pertaining
to the 1500s is derived from documents based
on firsthand observations made by the two expedition
leaders, by two men who accompanied
Coronado to Quivira (Smith, 1857:147-163), and
in addition by those who testified both in the
1544 hearing conducted to determine what cruelties
Coronado perpetrated upon Indians during
his 1540-1542 journey northward (Informacion,
1544), and in the 1602 official inquiry conducted
by Don Francisco de Valverde into the accomplishments
of Ofiate the year before (Hammond
and Rey, 1953, 2:836-877). Twenty or more years
after the Coronado entrada, Pedro de Castaneda
de Najera (1596) composed a relation, which
contained firsthand knowledge of the Coronado
trek onto the Plains, but only secondhand data
on the region of Quivira.
In the 1500s the Wichita appear to have been
living northeast and possibly east of the Great
Bend of the Arkansas River, an area which was
bounded on the north by the Smoky Hill River
and is now within the State of Kansas (Figure
14). Herbert E. Bolton's (1949:427-428) on-theground
reconstruction of the Coronado route
based on documentary data, led him to this location
and later was corroborated by archeological
investigations conducted by Waldo R. Wedel.
More specifically, the 1541 party (Smith,
1857:160) found the Wichita living along two
small tributaries of the Arkansas, probably Cow
Creek and the Little Arkansas River (W. Wedel,
1942:12; 1959:585-587). Coronado then led his
slow-moving troops for four or five days to what
was described as the "end of Quivira" (Smith,
1857:160), where there was a larger river than the
previous ones along which settlements had been
seen. This is usually identified as the Smoky Hill.
Identification of Oiiate's specific destination is
less satisfactory, although his presence in the same
region is generally accepted. Bolton (1916:260)
suggested this Spaniard found Quivirans on one
of the same tributaries as did Coronado, while W.
Wedel (1942:18-20) has proposed that a location
farther east near present-day Arkansas City, Kansas,
near the mouth of Walnut River, should also
be given consideration. "Other people," presumably
Wichita, were reported in 1601 (Bolton,
1916:261-262) to be living "due east" down the
Arkansas. To judge by the known geographical
extent of the Great Bend Aspect archeological
materials (those that W. Wedel (1959:571-589)
has proposed include the cultural remains of 16thcentury
Wichita), they were not living east of the
Walnut River basin or south of the modern Kansas-Oklahoma
line.
In both 1541 and 1601 the Spaniards were
impressed by the large population in Quivira (M.
Wedel, 1979:187). There are many hazards involved
in making an estimate of their number
based on written records. With this in mind,
Newcomb and Field (1967:341) conjectured that
the population of all Quivira would fall between
15,000 and 33,000. These people were described