The Kichai tribe (also Keechi or Kitsai) was a Native American Southern Plains tribe that lived in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...

, and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

. Their name for themselves was K'itaish.

History

The Kichai were most closely related to the Pawnee. French explorers encountered them on the Red River in

in 1701.Kichai Indian History.
''Access Genealogy.'' (retrieved 6 Sept 2009) By 1772, they were primarily settled around the east of the Trinity River, near present-day

Palestine, Texas Palestine ( ) is a city in and the seat of Anderson County in the U.S. state of Texas. It was named for Palestine, Illinois, by preacher Daniel Parker, who had migrated from that town. The city had a 2020 U.S. census population of 18,544, ma ...

. After forced relocation, they came to share portions of southern and southwestern Oklahoma with the Wichita and in the

Muscogee Creek Nation The Muscogee Nation, or Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Muscogee Confederacy, a large group of indigenous peoples of the South ...

. The Kichai were part of the complex, shifting political alliances of the South Plains. Early Europeans identified them as enemies of the

Caddo The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language. The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, w ...

. In 1712, they fought the Hainai along the Trinity River; however, they were allied with other member tribes of the Caddoan Confederacy and intermarried with the Kadohadacho during this time. On November 10, 1837, the Texas Rangers fought the Kichai in the Battle of Stone Houses. The Kichai were victorious, despite losing their leader in the first attack.

20th and 21st centuries

Caddo-Wichita-Delaware lands were broken up to individual allotments in the beginning of the 20th century. Kichai people's allotted lands were mainly in Caddo County, Oklahoma. Forty-seven full-blood Kichai lived in Oklahoma in 1950. There were only four at the end of the 20th century. The Kichai are not a distinct

federally recognized tribe This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the Unite ...

, but they are instead enrolled in the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. These tribes live mostly in Southwestern

, particularly in Caddo County, to which they were forcibly relocated by the United States Government in the 19th century.

Language

The Kichai language is a member of the Caddoan language family, along with

Arikara Arikara (), also known as Sahnish,
''Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.'' (Retrieved Sep 29, 2011)

, Pawnee, and Wichita. Kai Kai, a Kichai woman from Anadarko, Oklahoma, was the last known fluent speaker of the Kichai language. She collaborated with Dr.

Alexander Lesser Alexander Lesser (1902–1982) was an American anthropologist. Working in the Boasian tradition of American Cultural Anthropology, he adopted critical stances of several ideas of his fellow Boasians, and became known as an original and critical thi ...

to record and document the language.Science: Last of the Kitsai.
''Time''. 27 June 1932 (retrieved 6 Sept 2009)

Notes

References

* Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. ''Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast''. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004. .

External links