Waco people

Last updated
Waco
Long Soldier. Wacos - NARA - 519118.tif
Long Soldier, a Waco man, 1872
Total population
fewer than 2,953 [1] (2018)
Regions with significant populations
Oklahoma, historically Texas
Languages
English, formerly Wichita
Religion
Native American Church, Christianity,
indigenous religion
Related ethnic groups
Caddo, Pawnee, other Wichita and Affiliated Tribes

The Waco (also spelled Huaco [2] and Hueco [3] ) of the Wichita people are a Southern Plains Native American tribe that inhabited northeastern Texas. [4] Today, they are enrolled members of the federally recognized Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma.

Contents

History

The Waco were a division of the Wichita people, called Iscani or Yscani in the early European reports, kinsmen to the Tawakoni people. The present-day Waco, Texas, is located on the site of their principal village, that stood at least until 1820. [5] French explorer Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe travelled through the region in 1719, and the people he called the Honecha or Houecha could be the Waco. [6] They are most likely the Quainco on Guillaume de L'Isle's 1718 map, Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi. [7] [8]

The Waco village on the Brazos River was flanked by two Tawakoni villages: El Quiscat and the Flechazos. In 1824, Stephen F. Austin wrote that the Waco village was 40 acres large, with 33 grass houses and about 100 men. They grew 200 acres of corn, in fields enclosed by brush fences. As late as 1829, the village was protected by defensive earthworks. [6] In 1837, the Texas Rangers planned to establish a fort at Waco village, but abandoned the idea after several weeks. In 1844, a trading post was established 8 miles south of the village. [9] The anthropologist Jean-Louis Berlandier recorded 60 Waco houses in 1830. [10]

The tribe had a second, smaller village located on the Guadalupe River. [10]

In 1835, 1846, and 1872, the tribe signed treaties with the United States and the Wichita. The 1872 treaty established a reservation for them in Indian Territory, to which they were removed. In 1902, under the Dawes Allotment Act, the reservation lands were broken into individual allotments, and the Wacos became citizens of the United States. [6] Today, they are part of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.

Culture

The tribe lived in beehive-shaped houses, with pole supports, typically covered with rushes, but sometimes buffalo hides. The houses stood 20 to 25 feet tall. Besides corn, Wacos also grew beans, melons, peach trees, and pumpkins. [9]

Waco descendants and other citizens of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes are partnering with cultural organizations in Waco, Texas, educate the public about Waco history and create new opportunities for the city to work with Wichita people. [11]

Language

The Waco people spoke a dialect called Waco, which is a branch of Wichita (one of the Caddoan languages). The dialect is extinct.

Namesakes

The city of Waco, Texas, is named for the tribe, [12] [9] as probably is Hueco Springs (Waco Springs) near New Braunfels, Texas. [10] [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pawnee people</span> Indigenous people of the Great Plains

The Pawnee are a Central Plains Indian tribe that historically lived in Nebraska and northern Kansas but today are based in Oklahoma. They are the federally recognized Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, who are headquartered in Pawnee, Oklahoma. Their Pawnee language belongs to the Caddoan language family, and their name for themselves is Chatiks si chatiks or "Men of Men".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anadarko, Oklahoma</span> City in Oklahoma, United States

Anadarko is a city in Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. The city is fifty miles (80.5 km) southwest of Oklahoma City. The population was 5,745 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Caddo County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seminole</span> Native American people originally from Florida

The Seminoles are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, as well as independent groups. The Seminole people emerged in a process of ethnogenesis from various Native American groups who settled in Spanish Florida beginning in the early 1700s, most significantly northern Muscogee Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama.

Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people, who have lived in the Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European and African contact, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and northern Mexico. Historically, they were the easternmost band of Apache. Early adopters of horse culture and peyotism, the Lipan Apache hunted bison and farmed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caddo</span> Southeastern Native American tribe

The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wichita people</span> Confederation of Native Americans

The Wichita people, or Kitikiti'sh, are a confederation of Southern Plains Native American tribes. Historically they spoke the Wichita language and Kichai language, both Caddoan languages. They are indigenous to Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plains Indians</span> Native Americans/First Nations peoples of the Great Plains of North America

Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains of North America. While hunting-farming cultures have lived on the Great Plains for centuries prior to European contact, the region is known for the horse cultures that flourished from the 17th century through the late 19th century. Their historic nomadism and armed resistance to domination by the government and military forces of Canada and the United States have made the Plains Indian culture groups an archetype in literature and art for Native Americans everywhere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands</span> Indigenous groups in the US

Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, Southeastern cultures, or Southeast Indians are an ethnographic classification for Native Americans who have traditionally inhabited the area now part of the Southeastern United States and the northeastern border of Mexico, that share common cultural traits. This classification is a part of the Eastern Woodlands. The concept of a southeastern cultural region was developed by anthropologists, beginning with Otis Mason and Franz Boas in 1887. The boundaries of the region are defined more by shared cultural traits than by geographic distinctions. Because the cultures gradually instead of abruptly shift into Plains, Prairie, or Northeastern Woodlands cultures, scholars do not always agree on the exact limits of the Southeastern Woodland culture region. Shawnee, Powhatan, Waco, Tawakoni, Tonkawa, Karankawa, Quapaw, and Mosopelea are usually seen as marginally southeastern and their traditional lands represent the borders of the cultural region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kichai people</span>

The Kichai tribe was a Native American Southern Plains tribe that lived in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Their name for themselves was K'itaish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comanche history</span> History of Native American tribe

Comanche history is the story of the Native American (Indian) tribe which lived on the Great Plains of the present-day United States. In the 17th century the Eastern Shoshone people who became known as the Comanche migrated southward from Wyoming. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Comanche became the dominant tribe on the southern Great Plains. The Comanche are often characterized as "Lords of the Plains." They presided over a large area called Comancheria which they shared with allied tribes, the Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache, Wichita, and after 1840 the southern Cheyenne and Arapaho. Comanche power and their substantial wealth depended on horses, trading, and raiding. Adroit diplomacy was also a factor in maintaining their dominance and fending off enemies for more than a century. They subsisted on the bison herds of the Plains which they hunted for food and skins.

Buffalo Hump was a War Chief of the Penateka band of the Comanches. He came to prominence after the Council House Fight when he led the Comanches on the Great Raid of 1840.

The Kitsailanguage is an extinct member of the Caddoan language family. The French first record the Kichai people's presence along the upper Red River in 1701. By the 1840s Kitsai was spoken in southern Oklahoma, but by the 1930s no native speakers remained. It is thought to be most closely related to Pawnee. The Kichai people today are enrolled in the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Waco and Tawakonie), headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tawakoni</span> Indigenous tribe in the United States

The Tawakoni are a Southern Plains Native American tribe, closely related to the Wichitas. They historically spoke a Wichita language of the Caddoan language family. Currently, they are enrolled in the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, a federally recognized tribe.

The Kadohadacho are a Native American tribe within the Caddo Confederacy. Today they are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.

Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, 187 U.S. 553 (1903), was a United States Supreme Court case brought against the US government by the Kiowa chief Lone Wolf, who charged that Native American tribes under the Medicine Lodge Treaty had been defrauded of land by Congressional actions in violation of the treaty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seminole Nation of Oklahoma</span> Native reservation

The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the largest of the three federally recognized Seminole governments, which include the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. Its citizens are descendants of the approximately 3,000 Seminoles who were forcibly removed from Florida to Indian Territory, along with 800 Black Seminoles, after the Second Seminole War. The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma is headquartered in Wewoka within Seminole County, Oklahoma. Of 18,800 enrolled tribal citizens, 13,533 live in Oklahoma. The tribe began to revive its government in 1936 under the Indian Reorganization Act. While its reservation was originally larger, today the tribal reservation and jurisdictional area covers Seminole County, Oklahoma, within which it has a variety of properties.

The Nadaco, also commonly known as the Anduico, are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas. Their name, Nadá-kuh, means "bumblebee place."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nacogdoche</span> Native American tribe

The Nacogdoche are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas.

The Taovaya tribe of the Wichita people were Native Americans originally from Kansas, who moved south into Oklahoma and Texas in the 18th century. They spoke the Taovaya dialect of the Wichita language, a Caddoan language. Taovaya people today are enrolled in the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherokee Commission</span> Three-person bi-partisan body created by President Benjamin Harrison

The Cherokee Commission, was a three-person bi-partisan body created by President Benjamin Harrison to operate under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, as empowered by Section 14 of the Indian Appropriations Act of March 2, 1889. Section 15 of the same Act empowered the President to open land for settlement. The Commission's purpose was to legally acquire land occupied by the Cherokee Nation and other tribes in the Oklahoma Territory for non-indigenous homestead acreage.

References

  1. Gately, Paul (8 July 2018). "Native Americans chose Waco for water and abundance, like others". 10 KWTX. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  2. Straley, Wilson (1909). The Archaeological Bulletin. p. 132. [...] the city of Waco, Texas, the former home of the Huaco (Waco) Indians.
  3. Henry, Joseph; Baird, Spencer Fullerton (1856). Reports of explorations and surveys. A.O.P. Nicholson. p. 27. the Huéco tribe [...] Hueco Indians
  4. Sturtevant 6
  5. "Waco Springs, Site of the Waco Indian Village - Waco ~ Marker Number: 5692". Texas Historic Sites Atlas . Texas Historical Commission. 1936.
  6. 1 2 3 Waco Indian History. Access Genealogy. (retrieved 26 Oct 2010)
  7. Ricky, Donald (1998). Encyclopedia of Texas Indians. North American Book Dist. p. 353. ISBN   978-0-403-09774-6.
  8. de L'Isle's map.
  9. 1 2 3 Waco Convention & Visitors Bureau, "Waco History." Archived 2015-01-06 at the Wayback Machine (retrieved 26 Oct 2010)
  10. 1 2 3 Moore, R. Edward. "The Waco Indians or Hueco Indians." Texas Indians. (retrieved 26 Oct 2010)
  11. Hoover, Carl (3 November 2023). "Wichitas hope Waco visit builds beneficial relationships". Waco Tribune-Herald. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  12. Mencken, H.L. (1948). American Language Supplement 2. Knopf Doubleday (1990 reprint). p. 1050. ISBN   978-0-307-81344-2. Many other non-English place-names have been subjected to the same barbarization. [...] Waco in Texas was the Spanish Hueco.
  13. Greene, Daniel P. (2010). "Waco Springs, TX". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. There are differing explanations for the name of the site: that it was named for the Indian tribe; that the name comes from Spanish hueco (empty) and was chosen because the springs occasionally run dry.

Further reading