Battle of the Wichita Village

The village was Wichita, a people who call themselves Kitikiti'sh, settled by the springs on Rush Creek around 1850. The Comanche camped beside them had come to hold a peace council with their Wichita hosts when Van Dorn's troopers struck in the early light of October 1, 1858, through fog and gun smoke. With their food crop destroyed, the Wichita fell back to Fort Arbuckle for help. The next year the government assigned them a reservation in the Leased District, and the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes are headquartered today at Anadarko.

What the plaque says

Battle of the Wichita Village 4.6 mi. S.E. A Comanche band near the village was attacked by Capt. Earl Van Dorn, with 4 companies of 2nd Cavalry, Oct. 1, 1858. Unknown to him, the Indians were on way from friendly council with officers at Ft. Arbuckle. In the furious fight, 70 Indians were killed. Among U.S. dead was Lt. Cornelius Van Camp (West Point-1855). Oklahoma Historical Society and State Highway Commission 1949

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chisholm Trail Heritage Center — 19 mi
  Duncan's museum of the cattle trail on US-81, with an 18-minute drive film, a western art gallery and the route through the Chickasaw Nation to Silver City and the Canadian.
• Southern Plains Indian Museum — 25 mi
  A free federal museum in Anadarko, open since the late 1940s, showing the clothing, shields, cradleboards and art of the Kiowa, Comanche, Wichita, Caddo, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Delaware and Apache nations.
• Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center — 28 mi
  The Comanche Nation's own museum in Lawton, built so that the history, art and lifeways of the Nʉmʉnʉʉ, The People, are told from a Comanche perspective.

More markers nearby

• Riverside School — 27 mi