The Wichita Tribe originally lived in North Texas and Southern Oklahoma, but moved to Kansas due to European influx. They relied on agriculture, fishing, hunting, and gathering, and built cone-shaped houses. They wore breeches, skirts, and adorned themselves with earrings, beads, and loafers. They did not wear long headdresses, but had unique hairstyles and tribal tattoos.
The Wichita Tribe is a group of American Indians indigenous to the portion of the United States that has become north Texas and southern Oklahoma. An influx of Europeans into these regions drove the Wichita tribe north into the state of Kansas, where the city of Wichita is named after them. Most of Wichita’s people have since moved back to the state of Oklahoma.
Archaeologists have uncovered artifacts and other scientific data showing that the Wichita tribe relied on a blend of agriculture, fishing, hunting and gathering for their livelihoods. Tribe members tended to build villages on the upper reaches of rivers so they could keep an eye on their crops below them in the floodplains. Some of the crops the Wichita tribe grew included corn, squash, beans, and sunflowers. The foods the tribe gathered from the surrounding land were nuts, hackberry and plums. Remains discovered during archaeological excavations suggest that the Wichita tribe hunted bison, elk, deer, and antelope antelope.
The Wichita tribe built tall cone-shaped houses covered with thatch. When men left the village to hunt for long periods of time, they erected temporary shelters called buffalo hide tipis. Unlike other Native American tribes of the time, the Wichita were not prone to migration. Traditionally they used types for transient purposes only.
Men of the Wichita tribe tended to wear breeches, which are long rectangular strips of tanned deerskin, cloth, or an animal’s fur. The breeches are placed between the legs and folded over a waistband, allowing the hems to fall over the front and back of the man. Women typically wore skirts that hugged their body and ponchos made of woven fiber and deerskin. Both men and women loved to adorn themselves with earrings, beads and loafers.
The Wichitas differed from some other American Indian tribes in that they did not wear long headdresses. Wichita men typically wore a Mohawk-style haircut or shaved their heads, leaving the scalp, a lock of hair on the crown of the head. The warriors of the tribe often added a touch of style to their hairdo with a colorful porcupine beetle. Women of the Wichita tribe mostly let their hair grow out so they can braid it or arrange it in a bun. Tribal tattoos were also part of the culture of the Wichita tribe, as was painting their faces for religious ceremonies and other significant events.
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