Taovaya Indians
Encyclopedia
The Taovaya tribe of the Wichita people were a Native American
people who spoke the Wichita language
which is in the Caddoan language
family. The Taovayas were absorbed into the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, headquartered in Oklahoma
.
; and (4) the Guichita or Wichita Proper. Of these the Taovaya were the most important in the eighteenth century, but are less remembered today because they have no important places named after them.
The Taovaya possibly enter history as early as 1541 when the Spanish
conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
led an expedition across the Great Plains
in search of a rich land called Quivira
. What he found were the ancestors of the Wichita, a numerous faming and buffalo hunting people in central Kansas
who possessed none of the wealth he sought. The furthest part of Quivira is believed to have been located on the Smoky Hill River
near Lindsborg, Kansas
. This area was called “Tabas,” similar to the later name of Taovaya. Somewhat later, from about 1630 to 1710, archaeological sites near Marion, Kansas
may have been inhabited by the Taovaya.
The Taovayas definitely enter history in 1719. In that year, French explorer Claude Charles Du Tisne
found two villages of people he called “Paniouassa” near the future Neodesha, Kansas
. “Pani” was a generic term the French called both Pawnee Indians and Wichita. These were probably Taovaya. That same year another French explorer, Bernard de la Harpe
, visited a village, probably a few miles south of Tulsa, Oklahoma
in which the inhabitants were from several Wichita tribes including the “Toayas” or Taovayas. The Toayas were said to be the most numerous of the tribes. In their Kansas and Oklahoma homelands, however, the Wichita were under intense pressure from the Osage
and Apache
. In the 1720s the Taovayas and their Guichita relatives began to move south to the Red River establishing a large village on the north side of the river in Jefferson County, Oklahoma
and on the south side at Spanish Fort, Texas
. By the late 1750s all the Wichita tribes were living in Texas and near the Red River
. The Taovaya achieved their maximum influence during the next few decades. The village at Spanish Fort was “a lively emporium where Comanches brought Apache slaves, horses and mules to trade for French packs of powder, balls, knives, and textiles and for Taovayas-grown maize, melons, pumpkins, squash, and tobacco.”
As French allies the Taovaya ran afoul of the Spanish
who had several posts and missions in southern Texas. 1758 the Comanche, Taovaya, and other Wichita destroyed the San Saba
mission of the Spanish. The next year the Spanish sent a 500 man army north to attack the Taovaya village at Spanish Fort. An Indian army met the Spaniards and routed them, capturing two cannons and killing or wounding about 50 of the Spaniards.
The loss by the French of their American colonies in 1763 in the French and Indian War
interrupted the flow of trade goods to the Taovayas and made them more receptive to the Spanish. In 1771 the Taovayas, the other Wichita, and the Tonkawa
concluded a peace agreement with the Spanish, defying the Comanche. The Comanche then whittled away at the Taovaya trading empire and an epidemic, probably smallpox, struck the Wichita in 1777 and 1778 killing more than 300 of them. In 1778, the Taovaya village at Spanish Fort had 123 houses and across the Red River a Wichita town had another 37 houses. Together the two towns counted 600 men and a total population of probably around 2,500. This however, was far less than the Wichita population in the time of Coronado when they numbered several tens of thousands. In 1801 another epidemic killed a great number of them. An American visitor in 1805, Dr. John Sibley, estimated that they numbered 400 men.
The Taovayas disappeared rather suddenly. In 1811 their chief, Awahakei, died during a visit to Americans in Natchitoches, Louisiana
. The tribe apparently could not select another leader and fragmented with some joining the Tawakoni on the Brazos River. The name Taovayas disappeared from history and the Americans came to collectively call them Wichita.
The Taovayas culture and language was virtually the same as the other tribes of the Wichita. See Wichita (tribe)
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
people who spoke the Wichita language
Wichita language
Wichita is a moribund Caddoan language spoken in Oklahoma by the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. Only one fluent speaker remains, Doris McLemore, although in 2007 there were only three first language learners still alive...
which is in the Caddoan language
Caddoan languages
The Caddoan languages are a family of Native American languages. They are spoken by Native Americans in parts of the Great Plains of the central United States, from North Dakota south to Oklahoma.-Family division:...
family. The Taovayas were absorbed into the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, headquartered in Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
.
Early history
The people which came to be called the Wichita had four tribes: (1) the Taovaya or Tawehash; the (2) the Tawakoni; (3) the Iscani or WacoWaco tribe
The Waco tribe of the Wichita people is a Native American Southern Plains tribe that inhabited northeastern Texas. Today, they are enrolled members of the federally recognized Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma.-History:...
; and (4) the Guichita or Wichita Proper. Of these the Taovaya were the most important in the eighteenth century, but are less remembered today because they have no important places named after them.
The Taovaya possibly enter history as early as 1541 when the Spanish
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado y Luján was a Spanish conquistador, who visited New Mexico and other parts of what are now the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542...
led an expedition across the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
in search of a rich land called Quivira
Quivira
Quivira may refer to:*Quivira, a place first visited by Francisco Vazquez de Coronado while in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Gold*Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, a salt marsh located in south central Kansas...
. What he found were the ancestors of the Wichita, a numerous faming and buffalo hunting people in central Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
who possessed none of the wealth he sought. The furthest part of Quivira is believed to have been located on the Smoky Hill River
Smoky Hill River
The Smoky Hill River is a river in the central Great Plains of North America, running through the U.S. states of Colorado and Kansas.-Names:The Smoky Hill gets its name from the Smoky Hills region of north-central Kansas through which it flows...
near Lindsborg, Kansas
Lindsborg, Kansas
Lindsborg is a city in McPherson County, Kansas, USA. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 3,458. It is known for its association with Swedish heritage and the biennial Svensk Hyllningsfest...
. This area was called “Tabas,” similar to the later name of Taovaya. Somewhat later, from about 1630 to 1710, archaeological sites near Marion, Kansas
Marion, Kansas
Marion is a city in and the county seat of Marion County, Kansas, United States. It was named in honor of Francis Marion, a Brigadier General of the American Revolutionary War, known as the "Swamp Fox". As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,927....
may have been inhabited by the Taovaya.
The Taovayas definitely enter history in 1719. In that year, French explorer Claude Charles Du Tisne
Claude Charles Du Tisne
Claude Charles Du Tisne led the first official French expedition to set foot in Kansas and visit the Osage and the Wichita Indians in 1719.-Life:...
found two villages of people he called “Paniouassa” near the future Neodesha, Kansas
Neodesha, Kansas
Neodesha is a city in Wilson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,486. The name is derived from the Osage Indian word, Ni-o-sho-de, and is translated as The-Water-Is-Smoky-With-Mud.-19th century:...
. “Pani” was a generic term the French called both Pawnee Indians and Wichita. These were probably Taovaya. That same year another French explorer, Bernard de la Harpe
Bernard de la Harpe
Bernard de la Harpe or Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe was a French explorer who is credited with the discovery of Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1722, la Harpe found two distinct rock formations on the Arkansas River, the smaller one the South bank he named La Petite Roche and the larger on the North...
, visited a village, probably a few miles south of Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
in which the inhabitants were from several Wichita tribes including the “Toayas” or Taovayas. The Toayas were said to be the most numerous of the tribes. In their Kansas and Oklahoma homelands, however, the Wichita were under intense pressure from the Osage
Osage Nation
The Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...
and Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
. In the 1720s the Taovayas and their Guichita relatives began to move south to the Red River establishing a large village on the north side of the river in Jefferson County, Oklahoma
Jefferson County, Oklahoma
Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of 2000, the population was 6,818. Its county seat is Waurika.-Geography:...
and on the south side at Spanish Fort, Texas
Spanish Fort, Texas
Spanish Fort is an unincorporated town in north central Montague County, Texas, United States at the end of Farm Road 103 one mile south of the Red River.-History:...
. By the late 1750s all the Wichita tribes were living in Texas and near the Red River
The Taovayas in Frontier Politics
The Taovaya had a close alliance with the French and in 1746 the French brokered a peace between the Taovaya and other Wichita with the ComancheComanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
. The Taovaya achieved their maximum influence during the next few decades. The village at Spanish Fort was “a lively emporium where Comanches brought Apache slaves, horses and mules to trade for French packs of powder, balls, knives, and textiles and for Taovayas-grown maize, melons, pumpkins, squash, and tobacco.”
As French allies the Taovaya ran afoul of the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
who had several posts and missions in southern Texas. 1758 the Comanche, Taovaya, and other Wichita destroyed the San Saba
Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá
Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá was one of the Spanish missions in Texas, established in 1757 in what is now Menard County. Located along the San Saba River, the mission was intended to convert members of the Lipan Apache tribe. Although no Apache ever resided at the mission, its existence...
mission of the Spanish. The next year the Spanish sent a 500 man army north to attack the Taovaya village at Spanish Fort. An Indian army met the Spaniards and routed them, capturing two cannons and killing or wounding about 50 of the Spaniards.
The loss by the French of their American colonies in 1763 in the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
interrupted the flow of trade goods to the Taovayas and made them more receptive to the Spanish. In 1771 the Taovayas, the other Wichita, and the Tonkawa
Tonkawa
The Tickanwa•tic Tribe , better known as the Tonkawa , are a Native American people indigenous to present-day Oklahoma and Texas. They once spoke the now-extinct Tonkawa language believed to have been a language isolate not related to any other indigenous tongues...
concluded a peace agreement with the Spanish, defying the Comanche. The Comanche then whittled away at the Taovaya trading empire and an epidemic, probably smallpox, struck the Wichita in 1777 and 1778 killing more than 300 of them. In 1778, the Taovaya village at Spanish Fort had 123 houses and across the Red River a Wichita town had another 37 houses. Together the two towns counted 600 men and a total population of probably around 2,500. This however, was far less than the Wichita population in the time of Coronado when they numbered several tens of thousands. In 1801 another epidemic killed a great number of them. An American visitor in 1805, Dr. John Sibley, estimated that they numbered 400 men.
The Taovayas disappeared rather suddenly. In 1811 their chief, Awahakei, died during a visit to Americans in Natchitoches, Louisiana
Natchitoches, Louisiana
Natchitoches is a city in and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the community was named after the Natchitoches Indian tribe. The City of Natchitoches was first incorporated on February...
. The tribe apparently could not select another leader and fragmented with some joining the Tawakoni on the Brazos River. The name Taovayas disappeared from history and the Americans came to collectively call them Wichita.
The Taovayas culture and language was virtually the same as the other tribes of the Wichita. See Wichita (tribe)
Wichita (tribe)
The Wichita people are indigenous inhabitants of North America, who traditionally spoke the Wichita language, a Caddoan language. They have lived in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas...