The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-04-09
LIVE IN GRASS HOUSES.
The Pretty wichita village in the Indian
Territory.

The Pretty Wichita Village in the Indian
Territory.
[By Jnmes Mooney Bureau OF Ethnology.1
On the north bank of the Washita, in
the west part of the Indian territory, lives
a small tribe known as the Wichitas, now
confederated with the remnants of sew
eral kindred tribes, altogether only about
400 souls.
Although never very numerous, the
Wichitas formerly ranged from Kansas
lar down into Texas, the rocky defiles Of
the Wichita mountains affording them
a secure retreat when hard pressed by an
enemy.
Their language is full of peculiar
sounds; as an old frontiersman once said
to me, SIT is all just Kitty Oshkosh and
Oshkosh Kitty.'' How far correct he was
may be judged from the names by which
they generally call themselves: 'sTawe-
hash'' and 'Kitik1teesh.'' They are
closely related to the Pawnees, and from
their chstom of tatooing they were known
among the French traders as 'Tatooed
Pawnees.'
A TRIBE WITH AGRICULTURAL INSTINCTS
Fully as predatory in their habits as
their northern cousins, the Wiehitas were
far more industrious. While most Of the
prairie tribe depended for food on the
chase-uot even knowing the taste Of
bread until put upon reservations-the
Wichitas have always cultivated large
fields of corn, beans and pumpkins, and
in front of every house may be seen the
mortar followed out from q log of wood
and the heavy wooden pestle with which
the women pound the corn into meal.
Most of them have adopted q fantastic
style of citizens dress, but they still re-
tain their soft moccaslns OF smoked deer
skin. and both men and women allow
their luxuriant black hair to fall loosely
its full length about their shoulders.
The women cut their calico dresses in
the prevailing style of the prairie tribes
with short sleeves open at the underarm
seam. so that when the arm is raised the
breast is exposed. Ihey TATTOO their faces
with circles and lines in various patterns.
In former times their only covering was 2
short skirt made of strings of bark fibre5.
A CHARMING SUMMER VILLAGE.
But the peculiar thing about the Wich-
itas is their house building. Like other
prairie tribes, they live during the winter
in tips of buffalo skins, or canvas stretched
over poles brought together at the top;
and as these can be set up or taken down
in half an hour, they are exactly suited
to a migratory people. But es
soon as spring comes on the tipI
is abandoned and they move
into their permanent village Of grass
houses, which remind one of those used
by the river tribes of the Amazon and the
Orinoco. No other Indians IN this coun-
try build such houses. And as the
Wichitas are but small tribe, there are
probably not fifty of them in all.
GOOD MODEL FOR SUMMER CAMPERS.
They are built round, with a diameter
OF twenty or thirty feet, and have the top
conical, instead of pointed, as in the skin
tipi The framework is of stout poles
bent over and fastened together at the
/ top with tough strips of bark. Parallel
rows of flexible withes are tied at right
angles to these supports, being brought
alternately over and under the larger poles
and held in place with the same bark ropes.
This framework il next covered with
thick thatch or long prairie grass, cut
when it is green and laid on lengthWise in
bundles, the upper ends OF each tier be-
ing covered by the lower ends of the tier
next above. in shingle fashion, in order to
throw rain better. The grass is held in placs
by small plant branches woven in and out
between the main poles 80 skilfully that
in new house they are scarcely noticea-
BILE.
The smoke hole is placed, not at the
top as is usual in most Indian structures,
but little below and at one side; it is
about eight inches square, the sides being
very neatly and regularly formed by plsit-
ing grass into border. There are com
monty two doorways. placed opposite and
facing the east and west. They are about
five feet high, rounded at the top and
coming straight down to the ground, the
borders being neatly plated as In the
smoke hole.
The doors are also of grass, woven up-
on frame OF small sticks; they are simply
set up against the opening when it is
desirable to close the lodge. The door
way is usually left open, however, sxcept-
ing in bad weather. There are no win
dows; the only light comes from the open
doors or from the fire at night, unless We
take into account the few struggling rays
from the smokehole. The ground is the
only floor
Within in the centre Is the Fireplace. a
shallow hole; on each side of this ia an
upright forked stick supporting a heri-
zontal pole, from which the kettle is