Guichita

Guichita was a Spanish form of the name Wichita, applied to a people of the southern Plains. Wichita communities cultivated maize, beans and squash near grass-covered houses, while hunting parties followed bison across the prairie. Their language belonged to the Caddoan family, and their relatives included the Taovaya, Tawakoni and Waco.

In 1541 Francisco Vázquez de Coronado reached the Wichita country of Quivira in search of a wealthy land described to him by guides. Sixty years later Juan de Oñate encountered another large settlement on the southern Plains, whose people the Spaniards called Rayados. During the eighteenth century Wichita groups moved southward into Oklahoma and Texas, where they traded and negotiated with French and Spanish visitors while maintaining their own villages.