Their permanent communal habitations were of conical shape, of diameter from 30 to 50 feet, and consisted of a framework of stout poles overlaid with grass thatch, which had the appearance of a haystack.

Around the inside were ranged the beds upon elevated platforms, while the fire-hole was sunk in the center. The doorways faced east and west, and the smoke-hole was on one side of the roof a short distance below the apex. There were also drying platforms and arbors thatched with grass in the same way. The skin tipi was used when away from home. The Wichita raised large quantities of corn and traded the surplus to the neighboring hunting tribes. They also raised pumpkins and tobacco. Their corn was ground upon stone metates or in wooden mortars. Their women made pottery to a limited degree. In their original condition both sexes went nearly naked, the men wearing only a breech-cloth and the women a short skirt, but from their abundant tattooing they were designated preeminently as the "tattooed people" in the sign language. Men and women generally wore the hair flowing loosely. They buried their dead in the ground, erecting a small framework over the mound.

The Wichita did not have a clan system, but were extremely given to ceremonial dances, particularly the picturesque "Horn dance," nearly equivalent to the Green Corn dance of the Eastern tribes. They also had ceremonial races in which the whole tribe joined. Later, they took up the Ghost Dance and Peyote rite. In general character, the Wichita were described as industrious, reliable, and of friendly disposition.

They first met European explorers in 1541, when the Spanish explorer Coronado entered the territory known to his New Mexican Indian guides as the country of Quivira. At this time, they were encamped about the great bend of the Arkansas River and northeastward, in central Kansas. Coronado and his men stayed in the area for about a month before departing. However, they left behind Franciscan father Juan de Padilla, with several companions, to undertake the Christianization of the tribe, this being the earliest missionary work ever undertaken among the Plains Indians. However, after more than three years with the Wichita, Padilla was killed by them through jealousy of his spiritual efforts for another tribe.

In 1719 the French commander La Harpe visited a large camp of the confederated Wichita tribes on South Canadian River, in the eastern Chickasaw Nation, Oklahoma, and was well received by them. He estimated the gathering, including other Indians present, at 6,000. They had been at war with another tribe and had taken a number of prisoners whom they were preparing to eat, having already disposed of several in this way.