Tawehash

The Tawehash, also known as the Taovaya, were a Wichita people of the southern Plains. They cultivated fields near their villages and hunted bison, sending parties onto the grasslands while maintaining settlements beside the rivers. They were closely related to the Tawakoni, Waco and other Wichita-speaking communities.

In 1719 the French explorer La Harpe encountered Tawehash and their neighbors on the Canadian River. During the eighteenth century they moved south toward the Red River. They joined an attack on the Spanish mission of San Sabá in 1758 and defended their village against a retaliatory expedition the following year. Spanish diplomat Athanase de Mézières visited two of their villages in 1778, naming them San Teodoro and San Bernardo, when they remained an influential presence on the frontier.