KICHAI INDIANS. The Kichais, a Caddoan Indian tribe linguistically related to the Pawnees, were on the upper waters of the Red River in Louisiana and as far south as the headwaters of the Trinity River in Texas by 1701. In 1719 Jean Baptiste BĂ©nard de La Harpe met the Kichai Indians on the Canadian River en route to New Mexico to fight the Apaches. The tribe was reduced in numbers by disease and participation in conflicts among the French, Spanish, and English. By 1772 their main village of thirty houses and eight warriors was located near the site of future Palestine. A second village was south of the main village in 1778. In 1855 the Kichais, with several other small tribes, were assigned to the Brazos Indian Reservation. In 1858 they fled north to Indian Territory and joined the Wichitas, whom they resembled in agricultural methods and general customs.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frederick Webb Hodge, ed., Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico (2 vols., Washington: GPO, 1907, 1910; rpt., New York: Pageant, 1959).
