History
Wichita is a member of the Caddoan language family, along with modern Caddo, Pawnee, Arikara, and Kitsai. When the Europeans began to settle North America, Wichita separated into three dialects; Waco, Towakoni, and KirikirÉi:s (aka, Wichita Proper). However, when the language was threatened and the number of speakers decreased, dialect differences largely disappeared While at present there is one living native speaker, as late as 2007 there were three living native speakers. This is a sharp decline from the 500 speakers estimated by Paul L. Garvin in 1950.
Read more about this topic: Wichita Language
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“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
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“Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out.”
—G.M. (George Macaulay)