The Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture is one of Americas largest sculptures that features the First Nation of America. The Sculpture features a Comanche Family crossing the Wichita River. The legend of their Crossing defines where Wichita got its name. Wee-Chi-Tah, "Waist Deep"

Streams and Valleys Inc. is a volunteer, non-profit organization of Wichita Falls Texas. The Junior League, Wichita Falls Bicycling Club, and the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Wichita Falls first established Wichita Falls Streams and Valleys Inc.. The organization was chartered in 1984 and granted 501 (c) (3) status Feb. 7, 1985. Streams and Valleys has provided the Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture to complement its first large project, the “Falls” on I 44.
In 1986 Streams and Valleys conducted the Put The Falls Back campaign which raised money for the “Falls”. The “Falls” campaign brought back our namesake. The Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture tells the legend of how our city got its name.
The Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture project has been fully funded by private contribution and placed here to honor the People that first called Texoma home. Understanding the culture and appreciating the "People" of the Plains is an essential part of the project.
This site was chosen because it is the site of the “Natural Falls” . The sandstone outcropping that created the natural falls was destroyed in a flood during the late 1800’s. There are ripples in the river below the sculpture. They are all that remain of the natural falls. There are also the remains of failed attempts to reconstruct the falls. Large block of concrete near the bank of the river remain as a testimony to man’s inability to undo what nature did on its own.
The following was adapted from an editorial by Wells Rowdy 2/15/2003

The Artist: Jack Stevens

I hope that everyone who looks upon this sculpture will see a people who loved their own, the land, the horses, things that The Great Creator gave, not to be sold or owned, but a way of life, free, free to enjoy, free to live.
-Jack Stevens-

Jack Stevens is an artist inspired by the Great Creator to share his respect for the Native American culture through his paintings and sculpture. Jack was born in 1934. He was orphaned when he was a very young boy. As a result, he learned to appreciate the simple pleasures of life. As a boy, he lived on the banks of Holiday Creek with his brother, and later found work as a cowboy and horse handler. Jack worked on cattle ranches in Texas and New Mexico but sought fame in the rodeo.
God’s blessings, his wife Jackie, and his artistic talent have brought him fame as a spiritual man and an artist instead. Today, he works on paintings, drawings, and sculpture at his ranch home near Wichita Falls.
His studio is located at: 10957 Longley Road, south of Iowa Park, Tx. He can be reached at (940) 438-2330.
Gallary size sculpture, paintings and stationary are on display in his studio. Other larger-than-life sculptures are on display at Midwestern State University. “The Sun Watcher” and “Hotter N Hell Hundred, Bicycle” sculptures are proudly displayed on the campus.
Dean Krakel, former Managing Director of the Cowboy Hall of Fame, has said” Jack Stevens has a fine and real feeling for the subject he sculptures and the West. He has the working cowboy’s outlook on life.” Others say that his detail is so lifelike that you can feel the dust and sense the smell of horses in the air. Look for the emotions of the horses and people in this sculpture and you will know it is true.
Jack Stevens was commissioned because of his love of God, people and the cultures he honors in his art. Jacks Stevens’ art comes from his heart and laid to canvas and metal by his talent and the Great Creator.


The Legend of Wee-Chi-Tah

The Wee-Chi-Tah sculpture combines art and legend to help us understand the gentle nature and humanity of the early “people” of the plans.

Comanches referred to themselves as “numenah”, “The People”.

The most vivid explanation of where Wichita Falls got it’s name depicts a Native American woman testing the depth of the water. “Wee-Chi-Tah”, she might have said in Comanche, “waist deep”. Riding through the heat of the day, the Comanche Woman went into the river in search of a safe passage for her family. Having found a good spot, she sank gratefully into the cool water. Her child was crouched on the edge of the falls and was eager to join her.
Another school holds that Wichita means “men of the north” or “fond of corn”. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington says Wichita has no known origin. The most plausible theory, however, is that the word Wichita evolved from two Choctaw words, wia and chitoh, together meaning “big arbor” and referring to the grass-thatched arbors which the Wichita tribe once used as wigwams. Whether these stories are historically accurate is not as important as what they suggests about our Native American heritage.
These were people doing what came naturally. They enjoyed each other, relied on one another and lived their lives according to natures clock and calendar.
Ten Bears, was a famous Comanche Leader. He spoke in 1897 at the signing of the Medicine LodgeTreaty. The following quote from that speech shows the love that the Comanche Nation has for the freedom of it’s people..

“I was born upon the prairie where the wind blew free, and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures, and where everything drew a free breath. I want to die there and not within walls.”
-Ten Bears-