Wacos & Wichitas (pani Caddoan).—The Waco or Weeco Indians, affiliating with the Wichitas, form a small band, & are sometimes called Pawnee Picts, though they speak an unknown language. It is possible these Indians are an offshoot of the Orand Pawnees, but more probably a remnant of a tribe conquered & enslaved by the Pawnees. The Wacos, Wichitas, & Towaconies were doubtless one people, speaking the same language, the names Wacos & Towaconies being given to the descendants of 2 bands of Wichitas, who about 100 years ago left their home on the main branch of the Neosho river, in Kansas, one taking up a residence on the Arkansas, near the present town of Wichita, the other pushing into Texas, whence they often emerged to join their friends & relatives, the Wichitas, in the regular summer buffalo hunt on the plains in the vicinity of the Wichita mountains. Mr. Catlin saw them in 1834, & mentions their chief, who had the peculiar habit at the close of his speeches of embracing the officers & chiefs in council, taking them affectionately in his arms & pressing his cheek against theirs. This custom & his name, TJ'shee-Kitz (He Who Fights with a Feather), seem to indicate the nature of the tribes, who have always been peaceable & loyal to the government. Early accounts find the Wacos living on the Brazos river, in Texas, & taking part in a council held at Waco village in June, 1851. They were more inclined to a fixed habitation than most Indians & further advanced toward a semi-civilized condition, & had already made creditable efforts toward raising corn, beans, pumpkins, & melons. They used only the hoe in cultivating their patches of land, but asked for plows & light harnesses for their ponies. Their houses or lodges were roomy & comfortable, consisting of a network or frame of sticks & branches neatly thatched with long, coarse grass. The agent wishing to know the number in each tribe, the chiefs were induced to count them, but, having no system of numbers, they counted only by means of their lingers or by sticks. They therefore brought a bundle of sticks for each tribe: for the Wacos, 114; the Wichitas, 100. During 1865 & 1867 there were bands of Wacos, Towaconies, Wichitas, & Keechies located near the mouth of the Little Arkansas, in the Osage lands. They were called "refugee" Indians, though not properly absent from their homes, for, in fact, they had no home on the face of the earth, owners & occupants as they had once been of all the surrounding territory; bu t previous to the war they had lived on lands leased for their use near Fort Cobb, in Indian territory, where they were established by the treaty of July 4,1866. By an agreement made in 1872 they were assigned a reservation of nearly 3,000,000 acres lying between the Canadian & Washita rivers, west of 98° of longitude. Although the land has been defined & surveyed, the reservation has never been confirmed to the Indians, the treaty for some cause remaining unratified, to the great dissatisfaction of all the bands. Their agency is Anadarko, on both sides of the Washita river, & the Wichitas & affiliated bands live on the north bank, which connects with the south side by a new trestle bridge leading into the reservations of the Kiowa, Comanche, & Wichita agency, both using the same agency by the consolidation of 1878. The Wichitas are about the best farmers in tribal relations in Oklahoma territory. Living in villages of primitive huts in 1870, they now occupy very generally neat & separate log cabins on 150 farms scattered over the reservation. The tribal system is rapidly disappearing, aud in 1885 only 9 of the whole baud of Wichitas were without farms. In 1878 the united bands raised over 50,000 bushels of grain & had 3,000 head of cattle. They have advanced toward civilization much more rapidly than any of the neighboring tribes, & maintain a school & a flourishing church organization under a Seminole missionary. Their influence over their wilder brethren just across the river has always been on the side of law & order, &, in spite of the fact that the Wichitas were original proprietors of the very lands they now hold by a most precarious tenure, they have ever remained friendly & loyal to the government. In 1890 the Wacos (called Wacos & Wichitas) numbered 34 & the Wichitas 174. 1890 United States Census
