Plains Indian Studies - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

130 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY
mentation does not permit one to obtain a particularized
and coherent view of how the 16thcentury
Caddoan-flavored, but bison dependent,
lifeway of the Wichita became more oriented in
the following centuries toward that of the Plains
Indians.
Therefore, let us examine with greater care
some of the changes stimulated by Europeans,
that were recorded. In the 1500s the Wichita
though aggressive appear to have been living in
comparative peace well beyond European influence.
The raiding-type hostilities in which they
and their enemies engaged (Newcomb, 1976:11)
did not prevent certain bands from maintaining
residency just south of Smoky Hill River. The
situation evidently altered in the next century
when Indians living some distance to the north
and northeast inveigled Frenchmen with firearms,
who had taken up residence among them,
to join in assaults on their gunless foes, assaults
that were probably aimed at procuring horses
and slaves. There is documentation (M. Wedel,
1981:34) for destructive attacks on the Wichita
for a few years at the end of the 17th century.
The chief culprits may have been those called
enemies in 1719—the Missouri Indians and certain
Pawnee. In 1693, the French formed a trading
alliance (Thwaites, 1896-1901, 64:161, 169)
with the Missouri, their friends of a decade, who
were living in what is now central Missouri on
the river of that name. This may have led to a
series of cooperative war expeditions like those
reportedly made to the Wichita the following
year. In 1700 when Frenchmen were living and
intermarrying with Pawnee (C. Delisle, [1702])
on the Platte River, Apache Indians told Spaniards
(M. Wedel, 1981:34) that an entire Wichita
village had been "destroyed" by Frenchmen,
meaning probably an Indian-French party. Some
of the horses the Pawnee already possessed (M.
Wedel, 1973:205) may have been stolen earlier
from the Wichita. This joint warfare appears to
have eased when French traders, having become
aware of these Plains Caddoans, began to view
them as prospective trade associates. By this time,
however, the bands that had lived on Smoky Hill
River up until the 1680s or 1700 had moved to
more southern positions in the Arkansas River
basin. Their longterm penetration northward on
the Plains had been checked with the help of
French guns.
The Wichita, having become aware of the
benefits of French trade, may have located their
new villages that were recorded in 1719 with an
eye to acquisition of more European items. Their
thinking on this is neither stated in documents
nor readily apparent. Did those near the Verdigris
expect to benefit from trade directly with the
French or through Osage middlemen? Had the
Tawakoni set up a village on Wealaka Ridge
hoping to place themselves where French traders
or Indian entrepreneurs from Red River might
regularly contact them?
The new settlements were no longer composed
of hamlets like those the 16th and early 17th
century Spaniards described. Instead, their inhabitants
had joined together forming large villages,
presumably for greater security from gunbearing
enemies. By the middle of the 18th century,
thus at the end of the 200-year period under
study, it had evidently become necessary to fortify
villages to some extent.
What 18th-century warfare patterns had
brought this about? Hostile Indians to the southwest
never seem to have been a severe threat to
Wichita villages. Some, like the pedestrian Escanjaques,
may have caused temporary flight from
Quiviran hamlets when at times they raided gardens
and the stored food reserves, but they were
not responsible for permanent abandonment in
historic times. In the 16th century they and probably
other Indians on the southern Plains showed
their animosity chiefly by capturing Wichita to
trade as slaves to Pueblo Indians.
In the latter half of the 1600s, the Apache
became the leading enemies of the Wichita in
that southwest region, trading the captives they
procured to Spanish colonists now living in New
Mexico rather than to Pueblo Indians. The increased
mobility of the Apache, mounted by this
time on Spanish horses, created more opportunities
for hostile encounters with the Wichita. The
latter, on their part, found raids on the Apache a
good way to increase their precious horse herds.