Based in Anadarko, Oklahoma with a tribal enrollment of 2,463 as of June, 2008, Wichita memories exist to the beginning of time in southwestern Oklahoma. Modern historians indicate the tribe's ancestors have been in the Anadarko area for at leaset 3,000 years, making the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes one of the very first contemporary tribes in the state once known as Indian Territory.
In the past, the Wichita people called themselves the Kitikiti'sh, perhaps meaning "first people." The Kitikiti'sh were a native people of the central and southern plains living in the land now known as Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. They were not a single tribe but instead were several groups related by a similar language and a way of life based on farming and the hunting of buffalo. Some names of the tribe that are known to historians are Wichitas, Tawakoni, Waco, and Keechi. Today, the tribe takes its name from the Wichitas, but includes descendants of these other groups, as well as the Keechi people.
Although some of the names of the people known today as Wichita have been forgotten, memories of the Wichita's grass house villages and their life ways have endured. Ritual and ceremony have always played an important part in the lives of the Wichita with ceremonies being held to ensure the abundance of harvests, and the successful return of the war parties, or buffalo hunts. Through these ceremonies the people were able to give thanks to their spiritual benefactors via song and dance.
After decades of hardship in the 19th century, the Wichita were settled on their reservation in southwestern Oklahoma. Once there, some Wichita people became members of churches established by Muscogee (Creek) missionaries, notably Rock Spring Baptist Church, still active today north of Anadarko where hymns are sung in the Wichita language. Many people also joined the Native American church, which combines traditional and Christian beliefs and has its own unique set of songs and other tribal members took up the Ghost Dance religion in the 1890's, the songs of which are still sung today at Wichita gatherings.
Historically, the Wichita had many songs for many purposes, such as healing songs, prayer songs, lullabies, war dance songs, morning star songs, and ceremonialrain dance songs. Field recordings of Wichita music were first made in 1902 amking the tribe's singers some of the first recording artists in the pre-statehood history. Ethnomusicologists visited the tribe again in the 1930s and 1950s with some of those recordings being released on vinyl by the Smithsonian Institution. Contemporarily, the Wichita celebrate their music each year in August at the Annual Wichita Tribal Dance where one hears ancient songs in a modern context, songs that celebrate their country, veterans, their young people and elders, and the tribe's long association with the Pawnee, as well as songs related to the long tradition of Wichita tradition of ceremonial dance.
The Wichita and Affiliated Tribes' continuation of ancient musical traditions shows the power of music and song to bind people together under the harshest and best of times, and by honoring that music we express appreciation and respect for what American Indian music is, a lifeway and a lifeblood from which we can all learn about our shared humanity and the further depth of the musical experience in Oklahoma.