Take the Tour!
The Heritage Village is currently not open to the public.
Please check back in the future for more information.
The village is 9,200 sq. ft. in size. The map above shows all the major features.
*A Kansa wigwam and lodge will be added in the future.
The Wichita Grass Lodge was constructed by hand from native grasses and materials. |
The Wichita grass lodge, 25-foot in diameter, is built from native grasses bound onto a frame of cedar poles and willow branches.
The four posts that extend through the roof point to the NE, NW, SE, and SW; the cardinal directions in the Wichita culture. The east door was used in the morning and the west door in the afternoon. The interior includes a fire pit and sleeping bunks.
The Wichita tribe is also represented by a garden of gourds and melons, a drying rack for meat and a grass arbor which the Wichita people used during the summer months and for ceremonial purposes.
The three tipis in Heritage Village represent three Plains tribes - the Kiowa, the Cheyenne and the Sioux.
The Kiowa tepee is an accurate reproduction of the tipi of Kiowa leader and war chief, Chief Stumbling Bear. Stumbling Bear was one of the signers of the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867. This tipi includes Stumbling Bear's symbols - a bear and a falcon with peace pipe.
The Sioux tipi has four eagles at the top, symbolizing the four directions. Painted on the bottom of the tipi is flowing water, symbolizing the importance of rivers to their life. The seven dots represent the seven bands of the Sioux nation: Blackfoot, Brule, Hunkpapa, Oglala, Minikorjjou, Sans Arcs and Two Kettles.
The Cheyenne tipi has no external decoration. Although in later years Cheyenne tipis were adorned with painted symbols, traditionally the Cheyenne considered their religion to be a very private matter and did not decorate the outside of their tipis.
One of the most identifiable characteristics of Plains Indian tipis were the smoke flaps at the top of the tipi. The various shapes and sizes of those flaps often made it possible to identify what tribe a village belonged to from a great distance.
Great care was taken to use only natural materials in the creation of Heritage Village. All the lodges contain ceremonial and household items that are authentic replicas of the shields, parfleches (rawhide bags), staffs, bows, etc. used by the Native American tribes.
The log stockade which surrounds Heritage Village is not typically associated with Indian villages, but in fact, was used by the Northern and Eastern tribes. The logs offered them protection while the gaps between the logs allowed archers to fire at their attackers.
A Kansa wigwam and bark lodge will eventually be added to the village.