Calendar history of the Kiowa Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 129-444))

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Title: Calendar history of the Kiowa Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 129-444))

Author: James Mooney

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Most recently updated: October 24, 2024

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CALENDAR HISTORY OF THE KIOWA INDIANS. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (PAGES 129-444)) ***

CALENDAR HISTORY OF THE KIOWA INDIANS

JAMES MOONEY

Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895--96, Government Printing
Office, Washington, 1898, pages 129--444

CONTENTS

Page
Introduction 141
Age of aboriginal American records 141
Aboriginal American calendars 141
The Walam Olum of the Delawares 142
The Dakota calendars 142
Other tribal records 142
The Kiowa calendars 143
Annual calendars of Dohásän, Poläñ´yi-katón, Set-t'an,
and Anko 143
The Anko monthly calendar 145
Comparative importance of events recorded 145
Method of fixing dates 146
Scope of the memoir 147
Acknowledgments 147

Sketch of the Kiowa tribe 148
Tribal synonymy 148
Tribal sign 150
Linguistic affinity 150
Tribal names 152
Genesis and migration 152
Early alliance with the Crows 155
The associated Kiowa Apache 156
The historical period 156
Possession of the Black Hills 156
The extinct K'úato 157
Intercourse with the Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa 158
Recollections of other northern tribes 160
Acquirement of horses 160
Intercourse and war with the Comanche 161
Peace with the Comanche 162
Confederation of the two tribes 164
Neutral attitude of New Mexicans 165
Relations with other southern tribes 165
First official American notices, 1805--1807 165
Explanation of "Aliatan" and "Tetau" 167
Unsuccessful overtures of the Dakota 167
Smallpox epidemic of 1816 168
The Kiowa in 1820 168
The Osage massacre and the dragoon expedition, 1833-34 168
The treaty of 1837 169
Catlin's observations in 1834 171
Traders among the Kiowa 171
First visit to Fort Gibson 172
Smallpox epidemic of 1839-40--Peace with Cheyenne and Arapaho 172
Texan Santa Fé expedition 172
Cholera epidemic of 1849 173
Fort Atkinson treaty in 1853 173
Depredations in Mexico--Mexican captives 173
Defeat of allied tribes by Sauk and Fox, 1854 174
Hostile drift of the Kiowa 175
Defiant speech of Dohásän 175
Smallpox epidemic of 1861-62 176
Indian war on the plains, 1864 176
Vaccination among the plains tribes--Set-t'aiñte 177
The little Arkansas treaty in 1865 178
Death of Dohásän 180
Kiowa raids continued 181
The treaty of Medicine Lodge, 1867, and its results 181
Renewed hostilities 186
Battle of the Washita--Removal to the reservation 187
Further insolence of the Kiowa--Raids into Texas 188
Intertribal peace council, 1872 190
Joint delegation to Washington, 1872 190
Thomas C. Battey, first teacher among the Kiowa, 1872 193
Report of Captain Alvord 193
Release of Set-t'aiñte and Big-tree, 1873 195
Haworth's administration, 1873-78 197
First school established by Battey 198
The outbreak of 1874-75 199
Causes of the dissension 199
The Comanche medicine-man 201
Apache and Arapaho friendliness 202
Further defiance 202
Battle of Adobe Walls 203
Friendlies collected at Fort Sill 203
Fight at Anadarko, the Wichita agency 204
Set-t'aiñte 206
Progress of the campaign 210
Surrender of the Cheyenne 212
Prisoners sent to Florida 213
The Germaine family 213
Surrender of the Comanche 214
Proposition to deport hostile tribes 214
Kicking-bird 216
Changed conditions 218
Epidemics of measles and fever in 1877--First houses built 218
Agency removed to Anadarko--The last of the buffalo 218
Threatened outbreak instigated by Dátekâñ 219
Epidemic of 1882--Beginning of church work 219
Leasing of grass lands 219
Pá-iñgya, the medicine man and prophet 220
Indian court established 220
Intertribal council of 1888 221
Death of Sun-boy--The last sun dance 221
Ghost dance inaugurated--Äpiatañ's journey in 1890 221
Enlistment of Indians as soldiers 223
Measles epidemic of 1892--Grass lands leased 223
Commission for allotment of lands--Protest against decision 224
Present condition--Agents in charge of confederate tribes 225
Summary of principal events 226
Sociology of the Kiowa 227
Absence of the clan system 227
Local divisions 227
Subtribes 227
The camp circle 228
Military organization--Yä`´pähe warriors 229
Heraldic system 230
Name system 231
Marriage 231
Tribal government 233
Character 233
Population 235
Religion of the Kiowa 237
Scope of their belief 237
The sun 237
Objects of religious veneration 238
Tribal medicines of other Indians 242
The sun dance 242
The Nadíisha-dena or Kiowa Apache 245
Tribal synonymy 245
Tribal sign 246
Origin and history 246
First official American notice 251
Treaties 251
Delegation to Washington, 1872--Friendly disposition 251
Progress toward civilization--Death of Pacer, 1875 252
Recent history and present condition 252
Population 253
The annual calendars, 1833--1892 254
1832-33. Money captured from American traders 254
1833. Massacre by the Osage and capture of the
_taíme_--Pedestrian war parties--Beheading 257
1833-34. Meteoric display 260
1834. Dragoon expedition--First official intercourse--Trade
established 261
1834-35. Bull-tail killed by Mexicans 269
1835. Cat-tail rush sun dance--Capture of Bóiñ-edal and
Cynthia Parker 270
1835-36. Big-face or Wolf-hair killed in Mexico 270
1836. Wolf creek sun dance--Kiñep visit Crows--Battle with
Cheyenne 271
1836-37. K`iñähíate killed in Mexico 271
1837. Cheyenne massacred on upper Red river 271
1837-38. Head-dragging winter 272
1838. Kiowa and allies defeat Cheyenne and Arapaho 273
1838-39. Battle with the Arapaho 273
1839. Peninsula sun dance 274
1839-40. Smallpox ravages the plains tribes 274
1840. Red-bluff sun dance--Peace with Cheyenne and Arapaho 275
1840-41. Hide-quiver war expedition--Expeditions against
Mexico 276
1841. Pawnee massacred on the South Canadian 276
1841-42. Encounter with Texan Santa Fé
expedition--Â´dalhabä´k`ia killed 277
1842. Repeated sun dance 279
1842-43. Crow-neck died 280
1843. Nest-building sun dance--Encounter with Texans 280
1843-44. Woman stabbed--Raid into Mexico--Trading post on
South Canadian 280
1844. Dakota sun dance--Dakota visit Kiowa 281
1844-45. Great expedition against Mexico--Ä´tahá-ik`i killed 282
1845. Stone necklace sun dance 283
1845-46. Bent establishes trading post on South
Canadian.--Allison's post on the Arkansas 283
1846. Págunhéñte initiated--The Ka´itséñk`ia 283
1846-47. Mustache-shooting winter--Fight with the Pawnee 285
1847. Fight with the Santa Fé traders; Red-sleeve killed 286
1847-48. Camp on upper South Canadian 287
1848. Kâ´itséñko initiated 287
1848-49. Antelope drive on the Arkansas; the ceremonies 287
1849. Cholera on the plains--Treaty negotiations postponed 289
1849-50. Fight with the Pawnee--The scalp dance 290
1850. Chinaberry sun dance on Beaver creek 292
1850-51. Tañgíapa killed in Mexico 292
1851. Dusty sun dance--Treachery of the Pawnee 293
1851-52. Woman elopes and is frozen--"Stealing" a woman 294
1852. Allied tribes defeated by Pawnee--Iron-shirt killed 294
1852-53. Race horse stolen by Pawnee boy 295
1853. Showery sun dance--_Taíme_ sacrilege 295
1853-54. Raid into Mexico, Päñgyägíate killed 296
1854. Medicine-lodge creek sun dance--Confederated tribes
defeated by Sauk and Fox 297
1854-55. Gyaí`koaóñte killed by the Älähó 299
1855. Sitting summer; horses worn out 300
1855-56. Big-head kills an Älähó--Raid into Mexico 300
1856. Prickly-pear sun dance 301
1856-57. Tipis seized by the Cheyenne 301
1857. Forked-stick-sprouting sun dance--Expeditions against
El Paso and the Sauk--Story of the _ä´poto_ 301
1857-58. Horses stolen by the Pawnee 305
1858. Timber-circle sun dance 305
1858-59. Gúi-k`áte killed by Mexicans--Expedition against
the Ute 306
1859. Cedar-bluff sun dance 306
1859-60. Gíaká-ite abandoned to die 307
1860. Attacked by troops with Indian allies--Increasing
hostility 308
1860-61. Crazy bluff winter--Revenge upon Caddo--Raid
into Texas--The _zótă´_ or driveway 309
1861. Horse sacrificed at sun dance--Sacrilege against
_taíme_--The lost war party 310
1861-62. Smallpox--Effect of gold discovery in Colorado 311
1862. Sun dance after the smallpox 311
1862-63. Expedition against Texas--The echo in the tree
tops--The Guadagya or travel song 312
1863. Sun dance on No-arm's river 313
1863-64. Death of Big-head and Kills-with-a-gun--Anko
calendar begins 313
1864. Ragweed sun dance--Kiowa stampede horses from Fort
Larned; general war upon the plains 313
1864-65. Muddy travel winter--Kiowa repel Kit Carson 314
1865. Peninsula sun dance 317
1865-66. Death of Dohásän and Tä´nkóñkya--Smith's trading
party 318
1866. German-silver sun dance--Whitacre the trader--Trade in
silver with Mexicans 318
1866-67. Attack on Texas emigrants; Ä´pämâdalte
killed--Andres Martinez captured 319
1867. Horses stolen by the Navaho--Kâitséñko initiated 319
1867-68. Medicine Lodge treaty--Expedition against the Navaho 320
1868. Sun dance on Medicine-lodge creek--Disastrous expedition
against the Ute--The _taíme_ captured 322
1868-69. Tängúădal killed; his medicine lance--Burial
expedition 325
1869. War-bonnet sun dance--Expedition against the Ute 326
1869-70. Bugle stampede--The Cheyenne on the warpath 326
1870. Plant-growing sun dance 327
1870-71. Set-äñ´gya brings home his son's bones--Drunken
fight--Negroes killed in Texas--Death of Ansó`te 328
1871. Koñpä´te killed--Arrest of Set-t'aiñte and other
chiefs--Tragic death of Setäñgya--The Kâitséñko death
song--Set-äñgya and Set-t'aiñte 328
1871-72 (1872-73). Peace with the Pawnee; removal to Indian
Territory 333
1872. Bíako shot by whites in Kansas 335
1872-73. Visit of the Pueblos--Dohásän's tipi
burned--Kiowa heraldic system 336
1873. Sun dance on Sweetwater creek--Gui-badái's wife stolen 336
1873-74. Set-t'aiñte released--Lone-wolf's son killed 337
1874. Sun dance on North fork--Set-t´aiñte gives his medicine
lance to Ä´`to-t'aiñ 338
1874-75. Fight at Anadarko--Gi-edal killed--Prisoners sent
to Florida 339
1875. Sun dance at Love-making spring--Escorted by troops 339
1875-76. Sheep and goats issued to Indians--Stock losses by
outbreak 339
1876. Sun dance on North fork--Sun-boy's horses
stolen--Dóhéñ´te dies 340
1876-77. A`gábaí killed by her husband--Enlistment of scouts 340
1877. Sun dance on Salt fork of Red river--Ravages of measles 341
1877-78. Buffalo hunt--Fever epidemic--Houses built for chiefs 342
1878. Repeated sun dance--Buffalo hunt under soldier escort 343
1878-79. Hunting party attacked by Texans; Ä´`to-t'aiñ killed 343
1879. Horse-eating sun dance--Last of the buffalo--Boy shot 344
1879-80. "Eye-triumph winter"--Expedition against the
Navaho--The talking owl 345
1880. No sun dance--Päbóte dies--Dead names tabooed 346
1880-81. Zoñtam's (?) house built--Last visit by the Pueblos 346
1881. Hot or hemorrhage sun dance--Instances of malformation 347
1881-82. The _dó-á_ contest--The _dó-á_ game--Dátekâñ's
medicine tipi 347
1882. No sun dance because no buffalo--Stumbling-bear's
daughter dies--Dátekâñ, the prophet 349
1882-83. Bót-édalte dies--Talk of grass leases 350
1883. Nez Percés visit Kiowa--The Nez Percé war--Taimete
succeeds to the _taíme_ 351
1883-84. House built by Gákiñăte--Children taken to
Chilocco--Visited by Sioux 352
1884. No sun dance--Kiowa haul freight 352
1884-85. House building--Woman stolen 353
1885. Little Peninsula sun dance--First grass money 353
1885-86. T'ébodal's camp burned 354
1886. No sun dance--Anko a policeman--Grass payment 354
1886-87. Suicide of Peyi 354
1887. Buffalo bought for sun dance--Grass
payment--Name changes 355
1887-88. Cattle received for grass leases 355
1888. Permission for sun dance refused--Excitement caused
by the prophet Pá-iñgya 356
1888-89. Sun-boy dies--Anko splits rails 357
1889. No sun dance--Grass payment 358
1889-90. Grass payment--The _Íâm_ dance 358
1890. Last attempt at sun dance; stopped by troops 358
1890-91. Ghost dance inaugurated; Ä´piatañ's
mission--Schoolboys frozen 359
1891. P´ódaläñte killed--The Cheyenne visit the Kiowa 361
1891-92. P´ódaläñte killed--Enlistment of Indian soldiers 362
1892. Terrible ravages of measles--Large grass
payment--Delegation to Washington--Appropriation for
house building 362
Kiowa chronology 365
Terms employed 365
The seasons 366
Kiowa moons or months 367
Moons or months of other tribes 369
The Anko monthly calendar: August, 1889--July, 1892 373
T´águñótal P´a Sän (August, 1889); no event 373
T´águñótal P´a; no event 373
Gákiñăt´o P´a; woman whipped 373
Ä`gâ´nti; no event 373
Tépgañ P´a; wagon stalled 373
Gañhíña P´a (January? 1890); annuity issue 374
Ka`gúăt P´a Sän; mares foal 374
Ka`guăt P´a; split rails 374
Aideñ P´a; horses lost 374
Pai Ä`gâ´nti; visit Cheyenne 374
Pai Tépgañ P´a; visit Cheyenne again--first ghost dance 374
Pai Gañhíña P´a (July, 1890); sun dance stopped--grass
payments 375
T´águñótal P´a Sän; no event 375
T´águñótal P´a; Äpiatañ goes to the messiah 375
Gákiñăt´o P´a; Sitting-bull comes 375
Ä`gâ´nti; no event 375
Tépgañ P´a; boys frozen 376
Gañhíña P´a (January? 1891); annuity issue 376
Ka`gúăt P´a Sän (February, 1891); Ä´piatañ returns 376
Ka`gúăt P´a; wire issue 376
Aídeñ P´a; no event 376
Pai Ägâ´nti (June, 1891); Caddo and Wichita agreement 376
Pai Tépgañ P´a (July, 1891); Fourth of July races 376
Pai Gañhíña P´a; Setk`opte's wife stolen 377
T´águñótal P´a Sän; the Pueblo dance 377
T´águñótal P´a; P´odalä´ñte killed 377
Gákiñat´o P´a; made medicine--cut wood 377
A`gâ´nti (November, 1892); lunar eclipse 377
Tépgañ P´a; no event 378
Gañhíña P´a (January? 1892); annuity issue 378
Ka`gúăt P´a Sän; wire issue 378
Ka`gúăt P´a: move camp--late frost 378
Aídeñ P´a (April, 1892); emigrant to Cheyenne country 378
Pai Ä`gâ´nti: Íatäkía dies--grass payment 378
Pai Tépgañ P´a; measles epidemic--grass payment 379
Pai Gañhíña P´a (July, 1892); Fourth of July races 379
T´águñótal P´a Sän (August, 1892); visit of Cheyenne and
Arapaho 379
Military and trading posts, missions, etc 381
The Kiowa language 389
Characteristics 389
Kiowa-English glossary 391
English-Kiowa glossary 430
Authorities cited 440

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

PLATE LVII. Range of the Kiowa and neighboring tribes (map) 141

LVIII. Gui-pägo or Lone-wolf, principal chief, 1866--1874 189

LIX. Tseñ-t'aiñte or White-horse 190

LX. Gui-k`áte or Sleeping-wolf (Wolf-lying-down) and wife 192

LXI. Quanah Parker, principal chief of the Comanche 202

LXII. Inside of Set-t'aiñte's shield 208

LXIII. Outside of Set-t'aiñte's shield 210

LXIV. Set-ĭmkía or Stumbling-bear (Pushing-bear) 219

LXV. Paí-tälyí or Sun-boy 221

LXVI. Andres Martinez ("Än´dali") 236

LXVII. The Porcupine in the tree, and flight of the Sun-woman 238

LXVIII. Peyote plant and button 241

LXIX. The _taíme_ 242

LXX. Arapaho sun-dance lodge, 1893 244

LXXI. Pacer (Peso), former head-chief of the Kiowa Apache 245

LXXII. Daha, a Kiowa Apache subchief 246

LXXIII. Kiowa migration route 249

LXXIV. Goñk`oñ or Apache John, a Kiowa Apache subchief 251

LXXV. The Sét-t'an annual calendar 254

LXXVI. Bóhon-kóñkya, "Quayhamkay," Gunpäñdâmä, and "Kotsatoah"
(after Catlin) 268

LXXVII. Sand mosaic of the Hopi Antelope priests 296

LXXVHI. Lawrie Tatum, with group of rescued captives 331

LXXIX. The Do-gíägyä-guat or tipi of battle pictures 337

LXXX. The Anko calendar 373

LXXXI. Anko 374

FIGURE 43. Zépko-eétte or Big-bow 151

44. Dohásän or Little-bluff, principal chief, 1833--1866 175

45. Set-t'aiñte (Satanta) or White-bear 178

46. Set-ängya (Satank) or Sitting-bear 189

47. Tseñ-t'aiñte or White-horse 191

48. Ä´do-eétte or Big-tree 192

49. "Ka-ati-wertz-ama-na--A brave man, not afraid of any Indian" 195

50. T'ené-angópte or Kicking-bird 196

51. Gui-pägo or Lone-wolf, present head-chief of the Kiowa 200

52. Ä´piatañ or Wooden-lance 222

53. H. L. Scott, Captain, Seventh, cavalry, U. S. A. 224

54. A group of Kiowa 225

55. The Kiowa camp circle 229

56. Mäñyí-tén or Woman-heart, a typical Kiowa 232

57. Gaápiatáñ (_alias_ Haitsĭki) or Feathered-lance, a typical
Kiowa 234

58. Gray-eagle, a Kiowa Apache subchief 247

59. Tsáyădítl-ti or White-man, present head-chief of the Kiowa
Apache 249

60. Dävéko, "The-same-one," a Kiowa Apache subchief and
medicine-man 250

61. Sét-t'án or Little-bear 254

62. Winter 1832-33--Money captured 255

63. Summer 1833--They cut off their heads 258

64. Winter 1833-34--The stars fell 261

65. The star shower of 1833 (from the Dakota calendars) 261

66. Summer 1834--Return of Gunpä´ñdamä´ 261

67. Meeting of the dragoons and the Comanche (after Catlin) 264

68. Kĭ´tskûkătû´k, the Wichita village on North fork in 1834 267

69. Winter 1834-35--Bull-tail killed 269

70. Summer 1835--Cat-tail rush sun dance 269

71. Winter 1835-36--Big-face killed 270

72. Summer 1836--Wolf-river sun dance 271

73. Winter 1836-37--Ki´ñähíate killed 271

74. Summer 1837--Cheyenne massacred 271

75. Battle pictures (from the Dakota calendars) 272

76. Winter 1837-38--Head dragged 273

77. Summer 1838--Attacked by Cheyenne 273

78. Winter 1838-39--Battle with Arapaho 274

79. Summer 1839--Peninsula sun dance 274

80. Winter 1839-40--Smallpox 274

81. Smallpox (from the Dakota calendars) 275

82. Summer 1840--Red-bluff sun dance 275

83. Winter 1840-41--Hide-quiver war expedition 276

84. Summer 1841--Pawnee fight 276

85. Winter 1841-42--Â´dalhabä´k`ía killed 277

86. Summer 1842--Repeated sun dance 279

87. Winter 1842-43--Crow-neck died 280

88. Summer 1843--Nest-building sun dance 280

89. Winter 1843-44--Woman stabbed 281

90. Summer 1844--Dakota sun dance 281

91. Winter 1844-45--Ä´tahá-ik`í killed 282

92. Giving the war pipe (from the Dakota calendars) 282

93. Summer 1845--Stone-necklace sun dance 283

94. Winter 1845-46--Wrinkled-neck's trading post 283

95. Summer 1846--Hornless-bull initiated 284

96. Dog-soldier initiated (?) (from the Dakota calendars) 285

97. Winter 1846-47--Mustache shooting 286

98. Summer 1847--Red-sleeve killed 286

99. Winter 1847-48--Winter camp 287

100. Summer 1848--Initiation sun dance 287

101. Winter 1848-49--Antelope drive 287

102. Antelope drives (from the Dakota calendars) 288

103. Summer 1849--Cholera sun dance 289

104. Cholera (from the Dakota calendars) 290

105. Winter 1849-50--Dance over slain Pawnee 292

106. Summer 1850--Chinaberry sun dance 292

107. Winter 1850-51--Buck-deer killed 293

108. Summer 1851--Dusty sun dance; flag stolen 293

109. Winter 1851-52--Woman frozen 294

110. Summer 1852--Iron-shirt killed 294

111. Winter 1852-53--Gúădaltséyu stolen 295

112. Summer 1853--Showery sun dance 295

113. Rain symbols (Chinese, Hopi, and Ojibwa) 296

114. Winter 1853-54--Pä´ñgyägíate killed 296

115. Summer 1854--Black-horse killed 297

116. Winter 1854-55--Gyai`koaóñte killed 299

117. Summer 1855--Sitting summer 300

118. Winter 1855-56--Big-head kills an Ä´lähó 300

119. Summer 1856---Prickly-pear sun dance 301

120. Winter 1856-57--Tipis left 301

121. Summer 1857--Forked-stick-sprouting sun dance 302

122. Winter 1857-58--Horses stolen 305

123. Summer 1858--Timber-circle sun dance 306

124. Winter 1858-59--Gúi-k`ate killed 306

125. Summer 1859--Cedar-bluff sun dance 306

126. Winter-1859-60--Gíaká-ite died 307

127. Summer 1860--Bird-appearing killed 308

128. Winter 1860-61--Crazy-bluff winter 309

129. Summer 1861--Pinto left tied 310

130. Winter 1861-62--Smallpox 311

131. Summer 1862--Sun dance after smallpox 311

132. Winter 1862-63--Tree-top winter 312

133. Summer 1863--No-arm's-river sun dance 313

134. Winter 1863-64--Big-head dies; Hâ´ñzephó`da dies 313

135. Summer 1864--Ragweed sun dance; soldier fight 314

136. Winter 1864-65--Ute fight 315

137. Summer 1865--Peninsula sun dance 317

138. Winter 1865-66--Tän-kóñkya died; Dohásän died 318

139. Summer 1866--German-silver sun dance 319

140. Winter 1866-67--Äpämâ´dalte killed 319

141. Summer 1867--Black-ear stolen; the Kâ´itséñko 320

142. Winter 1867-68--Medicine Lodge treaty; Navaho killed 320

143. Summer 1868--Ute fight 322

144. Winter 1868-69--Tängúadal killed 325

145. Summer 1869--War-bonnet sun dance 326

146. Winter 1869-70--Bugle scare 326

147. Summer 1870--Plant-growing sun dance; dusty sun dance 327

148. Winter 1870-71--Set-ängya's bones brought home; drunken
fight; negroes killed 327

149. Summer 1871--Set-t'aiñte arrested; Kóñpäte killed 328

150. Set-taíñte in prison 330

151. Winter 1871-72(1872-73)--Pawnee visit; camp on Long-tree
creek 333

152. Summer 1872--Viejo shot 335

153. Winter 1872-73--Pueblo visit; battle tipi burned 336

154. Summer 1873--Pa-kóñkya's horses killed 337

155. Winter 1873-74--Set-t'aiñte returns; Lone-wolf's son killed 337

156. Summer 1874--The medicine lance; Bluff-end sun dance 338

157. Winter 1874-75--Gi-edal killed; Kiowa imprisoned 339

158. Summer 1875--Love-making spring sun dance 339

159. Winter 1875-76--Sheep and goats issued 339

160. Summer 1876--Horse-stealing sun dance 340

161. Winter 1876-77--A'gábaí killed; scouts enlisted 341

162. Summer 1877--Measles sun dance 341

163. Winter 1877-78--Camp at Signal mountain; hunt on Pecan creek 342

164. Summer 1878--Repeated sun dance 343

165. Winter 1878-79--Ä'to-t´áiñ killed 343

166. Summer 1879--Horse-eating sun dance; boy shot 344

167. Winter 1879-80--Eye-triumph winter 345

168. Summer 1880--No dance; Päbóte died 346

169. Winter 1880-81--House built; Pueblo visit 347

170. Summer 1881--Hemorrhage or hot sun dance 347

171. Winter 1831-82--Dó-á game; medicine tipi 348

172. Summer 1882--Buffalo medicine; Pä´tso`gáte died 349

173. Winter, 1882-83--Bot-édalte dies; grass leases; camp on
Pecan creek 350

174. Summer 1883--Nez Percé sun dance 351

175. Winter 1883-84--House built; children taken; Sioux dances 352

176. Summer 1884--No sun dance; hauled freight 352

177. Winter 1884-85--Winter camp; Tónak`a's elopement 353

178. Summer 1885--Little Peninsula sun dance; grass payment 353

179. Winter 1885-86--Camp burned 354

180. Summer 1886--No sun dance; policemen; grass payment 354

181. Winter 1886-87--Peyi commits suicide 354

182. Summer 1887--No sun dance (?); grass payment 355

183. Winter 1887-88--Cattle payment 355

184. Summer 1888--Sun dance (?); Pá-iñgya's prophecy 356

185. Winter 1888-89--Winter camp; Sun-boy died; split rails 358

186. Summer 1889--No sun dance; grass payment 358

187. Winter 1889-90--Winter camp; grass payment; _Íâm_ dance 358

188. Summer 1890--Unfinished sun dance 359

189. Winter 1890-91--Sitting-bull comes; Ä´piatañ; boys frozen 359

190. Summer 1891--P'ódalä´ñte killed; visit Cheyenne 361

191. Winter 1891-92--Soldiers enlisted; P'ódalä´ñte killed 362

192. Summer 1892--Measles; grass payment 362

193. T'águñótal P'a Sän 373

194. T'águñótal P'a 373

195. Gakíñat'o P'a--Woman-whipped 373

196. Ä`gâ´nti 373

197. Tépgañ P'a--Wagon stalled 373

198. Gañhíña P'a--Annuity issue 374

199. Ka`gúăt P'a Sän--Mares foal 374

200. Ka`gúăt P'a--Split rails 374

201. Ai-deñ P'a--Horses lost 374

202. Pai Ä`gâ´nti--Visit Cheyenne 374

203. Pai Tépgañ P'a--Ghost dance 374

204. Pai Gañhíña P'a--Sun dance stopped; grass payment 375

205. T'aguñótal P'a Sän 375

206. T'aguñótal P'a--Ä´piatañ 375

207. Gákiñăt´o P'a--Sitting-bull 375

208. Ä`gâ´nti 375

209. Tépgañ P'a--School-boys frozen 376

210. Gañhíña P'a--Annuity issue 376

211. Ka`gúăt P'a Sän--Ä´piatañ returns 376

212. Ka`gúăt P'a--Wire issue 376

213. Ai-deñ P'a 376

214. Pai Ä`gâ´nti--Treaty sale 376

215. Pai Tépgañ P'a--Races 377

216. Pai Gañhíña P'a--Woman stolen 377

217. T'aguñótal P'a Sän--Pueblo dance 377

218. T'aguñótal P'a--P'odalä´ñte killed 377

219. Gákíñat'o P'a--Made medicine; cut wood 377

220. Ä`gâ´nti--Lunar eclipse 378

221. Tépgañ P'a 378

222. Gañhíña P'a--Annuity issue 378

223. Ka`gúăt P'a Sän--Wire issue 378

224. Ka`gúăt P'a--Move camp 378

225. Ái-deñ P'a--Immigrants arrive 378

226. Pai Ä`gâ´nti--Íatäkía dies; grass payment 378

227. Pai Tépgañ P'a--Measles; grass payment 379

228. Pai Gañhíña P'a--Fourth of July races 379

229. T'águñótal P'a Sän--Cheyenne dance 379

CALENDAR HISTORY OF THE KIOWA INDIANS

By JAMES MOONEY

INTRODUCTION

AGE OF ABORIGINAL AMERICAN RECORDS

The desire to preserve to future ages the memory of past achievements is
a universal human instinct, as witness the clay tablets of old Chaldea,
the hieroglyphs of the obelisks, our countless thousands of manuscripts
and printed volumes, and the gossiping old story-teller of the village
or the backwoods cabin. The reliability of the record depends chiefly on
the truthfulness of the recorder and the adequacy of the method
employed. In Asia, the cradle of civilization, authentic history goes
back thousands of years; in Europe the record begins much later, while
in America the aboriginal narrative, which may be considered as fairly
authentic, is all comprised within a thousand years.

ABORIGINAL AMERICAN CALENDARS

The peculiar and elaborate systems by means of which the more cultivated
ancient nations of the south recorded their histories are too well known
to students to need more than a passing notice here. It was known that
our own tribes had various ways of depicting their mythology, their
totems, or isolated facts in the life of the individual or nation, but
it is only within a few years that it was even suspected that they could
have anything like continuous historical records, even in embryo.

The fact is now established, however, that pictographic records
covering periods of from sixty to perhaps two hundred years or more do,
or did, exist among several tribes, and it is entirely probable that
every leading mother tribe had such a record of its origin and
wanderings, the pictured narrative being compiled by the priests and
preserved with sacred care through all the shifting vicissitudes of
savage life until lost or destroyed in the ruin that overwhelmed the
native governments at the coming of the white man. Several such
histories are now known, and as the aboriginal field is still but
partially explored, others may yet come to light.

THE WALAM OLUM OF THE DELAWARES

East of the Mississippi the most important and best known record is the
_Walam Olum_ or "red score" of the Delawares, originally discovered in
1820, and published by Dr D.G. Brinton in 1885. It consists of a series
of pictographs designed to fix in memory the verses of a genesis and
migration chant which begins with the mythic period and comes down to
the advent of the whites about the year 1610. It appears to be genuine
and ancient, although the written chant as we find it contains modern
forms, having of course been reduced to writing within a comparatively
recent period.

It is said that the Cherokee seventy years ago had a similar long tribal
tradition which was recited by the priests on ceremonial occasions. If
so, it was probably recorded in pictographs, but tradition and record
alike are now lost.

THE DAKOTA CALENDARS

West of the Mississippi the first extended Indian calendar history
discovered was the "Lone-dog winter count," found among the Dakota by
Colonel Garrick Mallery, and first published by him in 1877. This
history of the Dakota was painted on a buffalo robe by Lone-dog, of the
Yanktonai tribe of that confederacy, and extends over a period of
seventy-one years, beginning in 1800. Subsequent investigation by
Colonel Mallery brought to light several other calendars in the same
tribe, some being substantially a copy of the first, others going back,
respectively, to 1786, 1775, and the mythic period.

In all these Dakota calendars there is only a single picture for each
year, with nothing to mark the division of summer and winter. As they
call a year a "winter," and as our year begins in the middle of winter,
it is consequently impossible, without some tally date from our own
records, to know in which of two consecutive years any event occurred,
i.e., whether before or after New Year. In this respect the Kiowa
calendars here published are much superior to those of the Dakota.

OTHER TRIBAL RECORDS

Clark, in his book on Indian sign-language, mentions incidentally that
the Apache have similar picture histories, but gives no more definite
information as concerns that tribe. He goes on to say that the Santee
Sioux claim to have formerly kept a record of events by tying knots in a
string, after the manner of the Peruvian quipu. By the peculiar method
of tying and by means of certain marks they indicated battles and other
important events, and even less remarkable occurrences, such as births,
etc. He states that he saw among them a slender pole about 6 feet in
length, the surface of which was completely covered with small notches,
and the old Indian who had it assured him that it had been handed down
from father to son for many generations, and that these notches
represented the history of his tribe for more than a thousand years,
going back, indeed, to the time when they lived near the ocean (_Clark,
1_).[1] In this case the markings must have been suggestive rather than
definite in their interpretation, and were probably used in connection
with a migration chant similar to that of the Walam Olurn.

[Footnote 1: See the list of authorities cited at the end of the
memoir.]

THE KIOWA CALENDARS

THE ANNUAL CALENDARS OF DOHÁSÄN, POLÄÑ´YI-KATÓN, SETT'AN, AND ANKO

So far as known to the author, the Dakota calendars and the Kiowa
calendars here reproduced are the only ones yet discovered among the
prairie tribes. Dodge, writing in 1882, felt so confident that the
Dakota calendar of Mallery was the only one ever produced by our Indians
that he says, "I have therefore come to the conclusion that it is
unique, that there is no other such calendar among Indians.... I now
present it as a curiosity, the solitary effort to form a calendar ever
made by the plains Indians" (_Dodge, 1_). Those obtained by the author
among the Kiowa are three in number, viz: the Sett'an yearly calendar,
beginning with 1833 and covering a period of sixty years; the Anko
yearly calendar, beginning with 1864 and covering a period of
twenty-nine years; and the Anko monthly calendar, covering a period of
thirty-seven months. All these were obtained in 1892, and are brought up
to that date. The discovery of the Anko calendars was an indirect result
of having obtained the Sett'an calendar.

A fourth Kiowa calendar was obtained in the same year by Captain H. L.
Scott, Seventh cavalry, while stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on the
Kiowa reservation, and was by him generously placed at the disposal of
the author, together with all his notes bearing on the subject. This
calendar was procured from Dohásän, "Little-bluff," nephew of the
celebrated Dohásän who was head chief of the Kiowa tribe for more than
thirty years. The nephew, who died in 1893 at an advanced age, told
Captain Scott that the calendar had been kept in his family from his
youth up, having originally been painted on hides, which were renewed
from time to time as they wore out from age and handling. The calendar
delivered by him to Scott is drawn with colored pencils on heavy manila
paper, as is also the Sett'an calendar obtained by the author. In both,
the pictographs are arranged in a continuous spiral, beginning in the
lower right-hand corner and ending near the center, the rows of
pictographs being separated from each other by a continuous spiral. In
both, the winter is designated by means of an upright black bar, to
indicate that vegetation was then dead, while summer is represented by
means of the figure of the medicine lodge, the central object of the
annual summer religious ceremony. The leading event of the season is
indicated by means of a pictograph above or beside the winter mark or
medicine lodge. In a few instances, in the earlier years, when the
medicine dance was omitted, the event recorded for the summer is placed
between the consecutive winter marks, without anything to show the
season, but toward the end, when the medicine dance had been practically
discontinued, the summer is indicated by the figure of a tree in
foliage.

The general plan of the Anko calendar is the same, excepting that the
winter pictographs are below the winter marks, with which they are
connected by lines, the winter marks forming a single row across the
page, with the center pole of the medicine lodge, the summer pictographs
above and the winter pictographs below. This calendar was originally
drawn with a black pencil in a small notebook, and afterward, by
direction of the author, redrawn in colored inks on buckskin. A
comparison of the three justifies the assertion that the Kiowa have a
recognized system of calendar pictography. In artistic execution the
Sett'an calendar ranks first.

Still another calendar, thought to have dated farther back than any of
those now under consideration, was kept by an old man of the Kiowa
Apache named Polä´ñyi-katón, "Rabbit-shoulder," and is supposed to have
been buried with him at his death, a few years ago.

From the evidence it is probable that the first calendar within the
present knowledge of the Kiowa was kept by the old chief Doha´sän, whose
hereditary tipi occupied the first place in the camp circle of the
tribe, and in whose family certain priestly functions in connection with
the medicine dance descended in regular succession. After his death in
1866 it was continued and brought down to date by his nephew and
namesake, whose last revision is now in possession of Captain Scott.

The Sett'an calendar is an inspiration, but not a copy, from the Dohásän
calendar, of which it is almost an exact duplicate, but with the
addition of one or two pictographs, together with greater skill and
detail in execution. Sett'an stated that he had been fourteen years
drawing it; i. e., that he had begun work on it fourteen years before,
noting the events of the first six years from the statements of older
men, and the rest from his own recollection. He knew of the Dohásän
calendar, although he claimed never to have seen it, but from internal
evidence and from the man's general reputation for untruthfulness it is
probable that he had seen it sufficiently often to be able to reproduce
it from memory.

This will be understood when it is explained that it is customary for
the owners of such Indian heirlooms to bring them out at frequent
intervals during the long nights in the winter camp, to be exhibited and
discussed in the circle of warriors about the tipi fire. The signal for
such a gathering takes the form of an invitation to the others to "come
and smoke," shouted in a loud voice through the camp by the leader of
the assemblage while standing in front of his tipi, or even without
passing outside, his voice easily being heard through the thin walls and
the smoke-hole of the lodge. At these gatherings the pipe is filled and
passed around, and each man in turn recites some mythic or historic
tradition, or some noted deed on the warpath, which is then discussed by
the circle. Thus the history of the tribe is formulated and handed down.

Sett'an, "Little-bear," who is a cousin of the old war-chief, in whose
family the author makes his home when with the tribe, voluntarily
brought in and presented the calendar without demanding any payment in
return, saying that he had kept it for a long time, but that he was now
old and the young men were forgetting their history, and he wanted it
taken to Washington and preserved there with the other things collected
from the tribe, that the white people might always remember what the
Kiowa had done.

THE ANKO MONTHLY CALENDAR

The original monthly calendar of Anko (abbreviated from
_Ankopaá-iñgyadéte_, "In-the middle-of-many-tracks") was drawn in black
pencil in a continuous spiral, covering two pages of the notebook in
which his yearly calendar was recorded, and was redrawn by him in
colored inks, under the inspection of the author, on the same buckskin
on which the other was reproduced. It begins in the lower left-hand
corner. Each moon or month is represented by a crescent, above which is
a pictograph to indicate the event, or the name of the moon, and
sometimes also straight tally marks to show on what day of the month the
event occurred or the picture was drawn. So far this is the only monthly
calendar discovered among North American tribes, but since the original
was obtained, Anko has made another copy for his own use and continued
it up to date. His young wife being far advanced in consumption, he
spends most of his time at home with her, which accounts in a measure
for his studious habit. On the later calendar he has noted with anxious
care every hemorrhage or other serious incident in her illness and every
occasion when he has had ceremonial prayers made for her recovery.

COMPARATIVE IMPORTANCE OF EVENTS RECORDED

An examination of the calendars affords a good idea of the comparative
importance attached by the Indian and by the white man to the same
event. From the white man's point of view many of the things recorded in
these aboriginal histories would seem to be of the most trivial
consequence, while many events which we regard as marking eras in the
history of the plains tribes are entirely omitted. Thus there is nothing
recorded of the Custer campaign of 1868, which resulted in the battle of
the Washita and compelled the southern tribes for the first time to go
on a reservation, while the outbreak of 1874, which terminated in their
final subjugation, is barely noticed. On the other hand, we find noted
such incidents as the stealing of a horse or the elopement of a woman.
The records resemble rather the personal reminiscences of a garrulous
old man than the history of a nation. They are the history of a people
limited in their range of ideas and interests, such materials as make up
the chronicles of the highland clans of Scotland or the annals of a
medieval barony.

It must be remembered, however, that an Indian tribe is simply a large
family, all the members being interrelated; this is particularly true of
the Kiowa, who number only about 1,100. An event which concerns one
becomes a matter of gossip and general knowledge in all the camps and is
thus exalted into a subject of tribal importance. Moreover, an event, if
it be of common note in the tribe, may be recorded rather for its value
as a tally date than for its intrinsic importance.

On this point Mallery says, speaking of the Lone-dog calendar, that it
"was not intended to be a continuous history, or even to record the most
important event of each year, but to exhibit some one of special
peculiarity.... It would indeed have been impossible to have graphically
distinguished the many battles, treaties, horse stealings, big hunts,
etc, so most of them were omitted and other events of greater
individuality and better adapted for portrayal were taken for the year
count, the criterion being not that they were of historic moment, but
that they were of general notoriety, or perhaps of special interest to
the recorders" (_Mallery, 1_).

A brief interpretation of the calendars here described was obtained from
the original owners in 1892. To this was added, in the winter of
1894-95, all that could be procured from T'ébodal, Gaápiatañ,
Â´dalpepte, Set-ĭmkía, and other prominent old men of the tribe,
together with Captain Scott's notes and the statements of pioneer
frontiersmen, and all available printed sources of information,
including the annual reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for
more than sixty years. The Dohásän calendar is still in possession of
Captain Scott. The Sett'an and Anko calendars are now deposited in the
Bureau of American Ethnology.

METHOD OF FIXING DATES

A few examples will show how the Kiowa keep track of their tribal and
family affairs by means of these calendars. Sett'an was born in
"cut-throat summer" (1833), and his earliest recollection is of the
"head-dragging winter" (1837-38). Set-ĭmkía, better known as
Stumbling-bear, was about a year old in "cut-throat summer" (1833). He
was married in "dusty medicine dance" summer (1851). His daughter
Virginia was born in the summer of "No-arm's river medicine dance"
(1863), and her husband was born a little earlier, in "tree-top winter"
(1862-63). Gruñsádalte, commonly known as Cat, was born in the "winter
that Buffalo-tail was killed" (1835-36); his son Angópte was born in
"muddy traveling winter" (1864-65), and his younger son Másép was born
in "bugle scare winter" (1869-70). Paul Setk'opte first saw light among
the Cheyenne the winter after the "showery medicine dance" (1853), and
joined the Kiowa in the autumn after the "smallpox medicine dance"
(1862).

SCOPE OF THE MEMOIR

As the Kiowa and associated Apache are two typical and extremely
interesting plains tribes, about which little is known and almost
nothing has been printed, the introductory tribal sketch has been made
more extended than would otherwise have been the case. As they ranged
within the historic period from Canada to central Mexico and from
Arkansas to the borders of California, they came in contact with nearly
all the tribes on this side of the Columbia river region and were
visitors in peace or war at most of the military and trading posts
within the same limits. For this reason whatever seemed to have
important bearing on the Indian subject has been incorporated in the
maps with the purpose that the work might serve as a substantial basis
for any future historical study of the plains tribes.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledgments are due to Captain H. L. Scott, Seventh cavalry,
U. S. A., Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for much valuable material and friendly
assistance; to ex-agent Lawrie Tatum, Springdale, Iowa, for photographs
and manuscript information; to Thomas C. Battey, Mosk, Ohio,
former Kiowa teacher, and to Mrs Elizabeth Haworth, Olathe, Kansas,
widow of former agent J. M. Haworth, for photographs; to Caroline M.
Brooke, Washington Grove, Maryland, for assistance in correspondence;
to Philip Walker, esquire, Washington, D. C., for translations; to De
Lancey W. Gill and assistants of the division of illustrations in the
United States Geological Survey; to Andres Martinez and Father
Isidore Ricklin, of Anadarko, Oklahoma, for efficient aid in many
directions; to Timothy Peet, Anadarko, Oklahoma, to L. A. Whatley,
Huntsville, Texas, and to my Kiowa assistants, Setk'opte, Setĭmkía,
Â´dalpepte, Tébodal, Gaápiatañ, Sett'an, Anko, and others.

SKETCH OF THE KIOWA TRIBE

TRIBAL SYNONYMY

_Be´shĭltcha_--Na-isha Apache name.

_Datŭmpa´ta_--Hidatsa name, according to old T'ebodal. Perhaps
another form of _Witapähätu_ or _Witapätu_, q. v.

_Gâ´-i-gwŭ_--The proper name as used by the tribe, and also the name
of one of the tribal divisions. The name may indicate a people having
two halves or parts of the body or face painted in different colors (see
the glossary). From this come all the various forms of Caygua and Kiowa.

_Cahiaguas_--Escudero, Noticias Nuevo Mexico, 87, 1849.

_Cahiguas_--Ibid., 83.

_Caiawas_--H. R. Rept., 44th Cong., 1st sess., I, 299, 1876.

_Caigua_--Spanish document of 1735, title in Rept. Columbian Hist.
Exposition, Madrid, 323, 1895.

_Caihuas_--Document of 1828, in Soc. Geogr. Mex., 265, 1870. This form
occurs also in Mayer, Mexico, II, 123, 1853.

_Caiwas_--American Pioneer, I, 257, 1842.

_Cargua_--Spanish document of 1732, title in Rept. Columbian Hist. Exp.,
Madrid, 323, 1895 (for Caigua).

_Cayanwa_--Lewis, Travels, 15, 1809 (for Cayauwa).

_Caycuas_--Barreiro, Ojeada Sobre Nuevo Mexico, app., 10, 1832.

_Cayguas_--Villaseñor, Teatro Americano, pt. 2, 413, 1748. This is the
common Spanish form, written also Caygüa, and is nearly identical with
the proper tribal name.

_Cayugas_--Bent, 1846, in California Mess. and Corresp., 193, 1850 (for
Cayguas).

_Ciawis_--H. R. Rept., 44th Cong., 1st sess., I, 299, 1876.

_Gahe´wă_--Wichita name.

_Gai´wa_--Omaha and Ponka name, according to Francis La Flesche.

_Kaiawas_--Gallatin, in Trans. Am. Eth. Soc., II, 20, 1848.

_Kaí-ó-wás_--Whipple, Pacific Railroad Report, pt. I, 31, 1856.

_Kaiowan_--Hodge, MS. Pueblo notes, 1895, in Bur. Am. Eth. (Sandia
name).

_Kaiowe´_--Powell _fide_ Gatschet, Sixth Ann. Rept. Bur. Eth., XXXIV,
1888.

_Kaî-wa_--Comanche name, from the proper form _Gâ´-i-gŭa_. As the
Comanche is the trade language of the southern plains, this form, with
slight variations, has been adopted by most of the neighboring tribes
and by the whites. The same word in the Comanche language also signifies
"mouse." The form _Kai-wa_ is that used by the Pueblo Indians of
Cochiti, Isleta, San Felipe, and Santa Ana--Hodge, MS. Pueblo notes,
1895, in Bur. Am. Eth.

_Kai-wane´_--Hodge, MS. Pueblo notes, 1895, in Bur. Am. Eth. (Picuris
name).

_Kawas_--Senate Ex. Doc. 72, 20th Cong., 104, 1829. _Kawa_--La Flesche,
Omaha MS. in Bur. Am. Eth. (Omaha name).

_Kayaguas_--Bent, 1846, in House Doc. 76, 30th Cong., 1st sess., 11,
1848.

_Kayaways_--Pike, Expedition, app. III, 73, 1810.

_Kayowa_--Gatschet, Kaw MS., 1878, in Bur. Am. Eth. (K aw and Tonkawa
name).

_Ka´yowe´_--Gatschet, in American Antiquarian, IV, 281, 1881.

_Kayowû_--Grayson, Creek MS. in Bur. Am. Eth., 1886 (Creek name).

_Kayuguas_--Bent, 1846, in Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, I, 244, 1851.

_Ka´yuwa_--Dorsey, Kansas MS. Voc., 1882, in Bur. Am. Eth. (Kaw name).

_Keawas_--Porter, 1829, in Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes, III, 596, 1853.

_Keaways_--Farnham, Travels, 29, 1843.

_Ki´-â-wâ_--Lewis, Report, 1805, in Mess. from the President
Communicating Discoveries by Lewis and Clark, etc, 37, 1806.

_Kiaways_--Gallatin, in Trans. American Ethn. Soc., II, cvii, 1848.

_Kinawas_--Gallatin, in Trans. American Antiq. Soc., II, 133, 1836
(misprint).

_Kiniwas_--Wilkes, U. S. Exploring Exped., IV, 473, 1845 (misprint).

_Kiovas_--Möllhausen, Journey to the Pacific, I, 158, 1858 (misprint).

_Kiowas_--Rept. Comm'r Ind. Affairs, 240, 1834. This is the American
official and geographic form; pronounced _Kai´-o-wa_.

_Kiowahs_--Davis, El Gringo, 17, 1857.

_Kioways_--Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana, 80, 1814.

_Kiwaa_--Kendall, Santa Fé Ex., I, 198, 1844 (given as the pronunciation
of _Caygüa_).

_Kuyawas_--Sage, Scenes in the Rocky Mountains, 167, 1846.

_Kyaways_--Pike (1807), Expedition, app. II, 16, 1810.

_Riana_--Kennedy, Texas, I, 189, 1841 (double misprint).

_Ryawas_--Morse, Rept. on Ind. Aff., app., 367, 1822 (misprint).

_Ryuwas_--Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana, 85, 1814 (misprint).

_Ko´mpabi´ănta_--"Large tipi flaps," a name sometimes used by the Kiowa
to designate themselves.

_Kompa´go_--An abbreviated form of _Ko´mpabi´anta_.

_Kwu´'dă´_--"Coming out" or "going out;" the most ancient name by which
the Kiowa designated themselves. See _Te´pdă´_.

_Na'la´ni_--"Many aliens," or "many enemies;" the collective Navaho name
for the southern plains tribes, particularly the Comanche and Kiowa.

_Nĭ´chihinĕ´na_--"Rivermen," the Arapaho name, from _nĭ´chia_ river
and _hinĕ´na_ (singular _hinĕ´n_) men. The Kiowa are said to have
been so called from their long residence on the upper Arkansas.

_Ni-ci´-he-nen-a_--Hayden, Ethn. and Phil. Missouri Valley, 326, 1862.

_Nitchihi_--Gatschet in American Antiquarian, IV, 281, 1881.

_Shi´sh-i-nu´-wut-tsi´t-a-ni-o_--Hayden, Ethn. and Phil. Missouri
Val., 290, 1862. Improperly given as the Cheyenne name for the
Kiowa and rendered "rattlesnake people." The proper form is
_Shĭ´shĭnu´wut-tsĭtäni´u_, "snake [not rattlesnake] people," and is the
Cheyenne name for the Comanche, not the Kiowa, whom the Cheyenne call
_Witapä´tu_. The mistake arose from the fact that the Comanche and Kiowa
are confederated.

_Te´pdă´_--"Coming out," "going out," "issuing" (as water from a spring,
or ants from a hole); an ancient name used by the Kiowa to designate
themselves, but later than _Kwu´`da_, q. v. The two names, which have
the same meaning, may refer to their mythic origin or to their coming
into the plains region. The name _Te´pdă´_ may have been substituted for
Kwu´`da´, in accordance with a custom of the tribe, on account of the
death of some person bearing a name suggestive of the earlier form.

_Tepk`i´ñägo_--"People coming out," another form of _Te´pdă´_.

_Wi´tapähä´tu_--The Dakota name, which the Dakota commonly render as
people of the "island butte," from _wita_, island, and _pähä_, locative
_pähäta_, a butte. They are unable to assign any satisfactory reason for
such a name. See _Witapähät_.

_T'häpet'häpa´yit'he_--Arbuthnut letter in Bur. Am. Eth. (given as the
Cheyenne name for the Kiowa).

_Vi´täpä´tu´i_--Name used for the Kiowa by the Sutaya division of the
Cheyenne.

_Watakpahata_--Mallery in Fourth Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth., 109, 1886.

_Wate-pana-toes_--Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana, 85, 1814 (misprint).

_Watepaneto_--Drake, Book of Indians, xii, 1848 (misprint).

_Wetahato_--Lewis, Travels, 15, 1809 (misprint).

_Wetapahato_--Lewis and Clark, Expedition, Allen ed., I, 34, map, 1814.

_We-te-pâ-hâ´-to_--Lewis, Report, 1805, in Mess. from the President
Communicating Discoveries by Lewis and Clark, etc, 36, 1806.
(Incorrectly given as distinct from the Kiowa, but allied to them.)

_Wetopahata_--Mallery, in Fourth Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth., 109, 1886.

_Wettaphato_--Morse, Report on Indian Affairs, app., 366, 1882.

_Wi´tăpähät_, _Wităp´ätu_--Cheyenne forms, derived from the Dakota form
_Witapähätu_, or vice versa. The Dakota render the name "island butte."
Attempts have been made to translate it from the Cheyenne language as
people with "cheeks painted red" (_wi´tapa_, red paint; _tu_, cheek
bone), but there is no evidence that this habit was specially
characteristic of the Kiowa. It may possibly be derived from the ancient
name _Te´pdă´_, q.v.

_Wi´-ta-pa-ha_--Riggs-Dorsey, Dakota-English Dictionary, 579, 1890.

TRIBAL SIGN

To make the sign for "Kiowa" in the sign language of the plains tribes,
the right hand is held close to the right cheek, with back down, fingers
touching and slightly curved, and the hand moved in a rotary motion from
the wrist. According to the Kiowa this sign had its origin in an old
custom of their warriors, who formerly cut the hair from the right side
of the head, on a line with the base of the ear, in order better to
display the ear pendants, while allowing it to grow to full length on
the left side, so as to be braided and wrapped with otter skin after the
common fashion of the southern plains tribes. This was in addition to
the ordinary small scalp-lock hanging down behind. This style of wearing
the hair, although now nearly obsolete from long association with tribes
of different habit, is still occasionally seen. It is shown in the
picture of the chief Big-bow, taken in 1870 (figure 43).

Dodge thus correctly explains the sign: "KIOWA--The open palm, held
bowl-shaped, to right of and beside the face, is passed round and round
in a circle. Supposed to indicate the peculiarity of these Indians in
cutting the hair of the right side of the head" (_Dodge, 2_).

The sign has no connection with the idea of "rattle-brain," "crazy
head," "crazy knife," "drinking water," or "prairie people rising up,"
as has been variously stated; neither is the sign ever properly made on
the left side. Such misconceptions have arisen from the careless making
of the sign by persons ignorant of its true meaning. The Cheyenne claim
that it refers to a former Kiowa custom of painting a stripe across the
upper lip and cheeks. This is probably only an attempt to explain the
name _Witapätu_, q.v., without any basis in fact, for, had such a custom
existed, it would have been indicated by drawing the finger across the
face. Moreover, in a series of forty figures painted for the author by
Kiowa Indians to illustrate their ancient styles of war paint, not one
is thus depicted.

LINGUISTIC AFFINITY

[Illustration: Photo by Soule, about 1870

FIG. 43--Zépko-eétte or Big-bow]

The Gâ´igwŭ´ or Kiowa, although originating in the far north, have
been known for the last sixty years as one of the principal and most
predatory tribes of the southern plains. Their linguistic affinity is
still uncertain, the language apparently having no connection with that
of any other tribe. This uncertainty, however, is due largely to the
paucity of the linguistic material thus far collected from them, and to
the fact that philologists have made the comparison with the languages
of the southern tribes, with whom the Kiowa were found most closely
associated, rather than with that of tribes nearer the Canadian border,
whence they have drifted to the south. Another thing which serves to
render comparison difficult is the fact that the Kiowa have the custom
of dropping from the language any word which suggests the name of a
person recently deceased, and substituting for the tabooed word another
which will convey the same idea. The old word may be restored after a
term of years, but it frequently happens that the new one keeps its
place and the original word is entirely forgotten. The change is a new
combination of existing roots, or a new use of an existing word, rather
than the deliberate invention of a new word, although in some instances
words seem to be borrowed for this purpose from existing languages. The
same custom exists to a limited degree among the Comanche, who may have
adopted it in consequence of their association with the Kiowa, and
perhaps among other tribes. With the Kiowa it is carried to such an
extent that old men sometimes remember as many as three names which have
been used in chronologic succession for the same object. Further
linguistic investigation may result in establishing their affinity with
the Athapascan, northern Shoshonean, or Salishan tribes.

TRIBAL NAMES

_Kiowa_, the name by which the tribe is commonly known to the whites, is
from the softened Comanche form of the name by which they call
themselves, Gâ´igwŭ´ (see the glossary). It is claimed by one or two
old men that Gâ´igwŭ´ was not originally their proper name, but a
foreign name adopted by the tribe, and untranslatable in their own
language. However that may be, it is now, in its root form, _Gâi_,
synonymous with Kiowa, whether applied to the individual, language,
territory, or utensils of the tribe. It is also the name of one of their
recognized tribal divisions. Ancient names used to designate themselves
are _Kwú'dă´_ and afterward _Tépdă´_, both names signifying "coming
out," perhaps in allusion to their mystic origin. These two names are
known now only to their oldest men. They sometimes refer to themselves
as _Kómpabíăntă_, or people of the "large tipi flaps," although, so far
as observation goes, their tipis are not peculiar in this respect. Their
name for Indians in general is _Gíăguádaltágâ_, "people of the red
flesh." Among other tribes they are called by various names, the best
known being the Dakota or Cheyenne form _Witapähätu_, of doubtful
translation. The tribal sign, a quick motion of the hand past the right
cheek, they explain as referring to a former custom of cutting the hair
on that side on a level with the ear.

GENESIS AND MIGRATION

According to Kiowa mythology, which has close parallels among other
tribes, their first ancestors emerged from a hollow cottonwood log at
the bidding of a supernatural progenitor. They came out one at a time
as he tapped upon the log until it came to the turn of a pregnant woman,
who stuck fast in the hole and thus blocked the way for those behind her
so that they were unable to follow, which accounts for the small number
of the Kiowa tribe. The same being gave them the sun, made the division
of day and night, exterminated a number of malevolent monsters, and
rendered the most ferocious animals harmless; he also taught them their
simple hunting arts and finally left them to take his place among the
stars. Other wonderful things were done for them by a supernatural boy
hero, whose father was the son of the Sun and whose mother was an
earthly woman. This boy afterward transformed himself into two, and
finally gave himself to the Kiowa in eucharistic form as a tribal
"medicine," which they still retain. Unlike the neighboring Cheyenne and
Arapaho, who yet remember that they once lived east of the Missouri and
cultivated corn, the Kiowa have no tradition of ever having been an
agricultural people or anything but a tribe of hunters.

Leaving the mythic or genesis period, the earliest historic tradition of
the Kiowa locates them in or beyond the mountains at the extreme sources
of the Yellowstone and the Missouri, in what is now western Montana.
They describe it as a region of great cold and deep snows, and say that
they had the Flatheads (_Â´daltoñ-ká-igihä´go_, "compressed head
people") near them, and that on the other side of the mountains was a
large stream flowing westward, evidently an upper branch of the
Columbia. These mountains they still call _Gá´i K'op_, "Kiowa
mountains." Here, they say, while on a hunting expedition on one
occasion, a dispute occurred between two rival chiefs over the
possession of the udder of a female antelope, a delicacy particularly
prized by Indians. The dispute grew into an angry quarrel, with the
result that the chief who failed to secure the coveted portion left the
party and withdrew with his band toward the northwest, while the rest of
the tribe moved to the southeast, crossed the Yellowstone (_Tsósá P'a_,
"pipe (?) stone river"), and continued onward until they met the Crows
(_Gaă-k'íägo_, "crow people"), with whom they had hitherto been
unacquainted. By permission of the Crows they took up their residence
east of that tribe, with which they made their first alliance. Up to
this time they had no horses, but used only dogs and the travois. For a
while they continued to visit the mountains, but finally drifted out
into the plains, where they first procured horses and became acquainted
with the Arapaho and Cheyenne, and later with the Dakota.

Keim, writing in 1870, says that the Kiowa "claim that their primitive
country was in the far north," from which they were driven out by wars,
moving by the aid of dogs and dog sledges. "From the north they reached
a river, now the south fork of the Platte. Their residence upon this
river is within the recollection of the old men of the tribe. Not
satisfied with the Platte country, they moved on across the Republican
and Smoky Hill rivers until they reached the Arkansas. Thence they
moved upon the headwaters of the Cimarron. Here they permanently located
their council fire, and after much fighting secured control of all the
country south of Arkansas river and north of the Wichita mountains and
headwaters of Red river" (_Keim, 1_).

There can be no doubt as to the correctness of the main points of this
tradition, which is corroborated by the testimony of the northern
Arapaho and other tribes of that region. While to the ordinary reader
the result of the quarrel may seem out of all due proportion to the
cause, it will not appear so to anyone familiar with Indian life and
thought. The savage is intellectually a child, and from the point of
view of civilized man his history is shaped by trivial things, as will
be sufficiently apparent from a study of the calendars. It is said that
a war between the Delaware and Shawano originated in a dispute between
two children concerning a grasshopper. The Crows themselves, according
to their own story, separated from their kinsmen the Hidatsa or Minitari
on the Missouri for a reason precisely like that of the Kiowa
tradition--a quarrel between two chiefs over the proper division of a
buffalo (_Matthews, 1_; _Clark, 2_.) A similar story is related to
account for the origin of one of the bands of the Dakota. Among
wandering hunters disputes in regard to the possession or division of
game have always been the most potent causes of separations and tribal
wars.

In regard to the dissatisfied band that went to the north, the Kiowa
have a fixed belief that their lost kindred, whom they call _Azä´tañhop_
("those who went away dissatisfied on account of the udder"), are still
in existence beyond the mountains somewhere to the north or northwest of
their old home, where they still speak the old Kiowa language. They
assert as positively that they have no relatives in any other quarter,
east, west, or south. Several stories are current in the tribe in
support of this belief. One woman, now about 80 years of age, when a
child was taken by her father with others on a visit to their old
friends, the Crows, and says that while there they met a white trader
from the north, who addressed them in the Kiowa tongue, which he said he
learned from a tribe living farther north, which spoke the Kiowa
language. Again, they say that when the Nez Percés (_Â´dalkatóigo_,
"people with hair cut round across the forehead"), who had been brought
down as prisoners to Indian Territory, visited them in 1883, they told
the Kiowa that they knew a people who lived in the "white mountains"
west of the old home of the Nez Percés in Idaho, and who spoke a
language similar to Kiowa. Whatever weight we may attach to these
stories, they at least offer a suggestion concerning the direction in
which the linguistic affinity of the Kiowa is to be sought.

Bearing on the subject of the early habitat of the tribe, it may further
be stated that, while making a collection among the Kiowa a few years
ago, the author obtained from them a small cradle which is essentially
different from any now in use among the Kiowa or any other of the
well-known prairie tribes, in that the buckskin covering is attached
directly to a solid board back, which is elaborately carved and painted
in the style characteristic of the tribes of the Columbia and the
northwest coast. On asking the old woman who made it, where she had
obtained the idea, she replied that it was the kind the Kiowa used to
make a very long time ago. On showing it afterward to Dr Washington
Matthews, the distinguished ethnologist and anatomist, he expressed the
opinion that such a cradle would produce a flattened skull. It is now in
the National Museum at Washington.

EARLY ALLIANCE WITH THE CROWS

The leading facts in the traditional history of the Kiowa are those of
their early residence at the extreme head of the Missouri and their
subsequent removal to the east and alliance with the Crows. It is
impossible to assign any definite date to this early migration from the
mountain country, but it was probably about or before 1700. It was
subsequent to the separation of the Crows from the Hidatsa, an event
which probably took place before the end of the seventeenth century
(_Matthews, 2_; _Clark, 3_), and it must have been long before the
discovery of the Black Hills by the Dakota, which, according to a
calendar of that people, occurred in 1775 (_Mallery, 2_). The present
_tai-me_ or sun-dance "medicine" of the Kiowa was obtained from the
Crows while the two tribes were neighbors in the north, at a date
probably very near 1765. It is probable that scarcity of game or
severity of climate had much to do with their original removal from the
head of the Missouri, but it is worthy of note that in all their
wanderings the Kiowa have never, for any long period, entirely abandoned
the mountains. After making friends with the Crows, they established
themselves in the Black Hills until driven out by the invading Dakota
and Cheyenne, and now for seventy years or more they have had their main
headquarters in the Wichita mountains.

The northern Arapaho, now living on a reservation in Wyoming, have
distinct recollection of this former northern residence of the Kiowa,
with whom in the old times they were on terms of intimate friendship.
While visiting them in 1892 they informed the author that when they
first knew the Kiowa that tribe lived about the Three forks of the
Missouri, near where are now Gallatin and Virginia City, Montana. This
information, obtained from old men without the use of leading questions,
and with the aid of good maps, tallies exactly with the earliest
tradition of the Kiowa tribe. They say further that the Kiowa moved down
from the mountains and eastward along the Yellowstone in company with
the Crows, and then turned southeastward to about the present
neighborhood of Fort Robinson, Nebraska, where they parted with the
Crows and continued southward. "Plenty-poles," then nearly ninety years
of age, first met the Kiowa when he was a small boy on the head of the
North Platte, west of the present town of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The friendship between the Kiowa and the Crows was close and intimate,
in spite of occasional quarrels, and continued after the Kiowa had
entirely removed from the north and established themselves on the
Arkansas. They made common cause against the invading Dakota and
Cheyenne from the east, by whom they were finally dispossessed. As
already stated, the Kiowa obtained their present _tai-me_ or sundance
medicine from the Crows, and the sacred arrow lance of Tängúadal's
family came originally from the same source. For a long time after
removing from the north it was a frequent occurrence for Kiowa fathers
to make visits to the Crows and leave with that tribe their young
children for two or three years in order that they might learn the Crow
language and thus help to preserve the old friendship. There are still
several old people among the Kiowa who have a considerable Crow
vocabulary acquired in this way. Conversely, the northern Arapaho state
that the Crows refer to the Kiowa as their relatives, and that some of
them speak a little of the language acquired during similar visits to
the south.

THE ASSOCIATED KIOWA APACHE

Incorporated with the Kiowa, and forming a component part of their
tribal circle, is a small tribe of Athapascan stock, commonly known as
Apache or Kiowa Apache, but calling themselves _Nadiisha Dena_. They are
not a detached band of the Apache tribe proper of Arizona, as has
commonly been supposed, but came down with the Kiowa from the north, and
neither tribe has any tradition of a time when they were not associated.
They will be spoken of at length later on. This ancient Athapascan
alliance is another link in the chain connecting the Kiowa with the far
north.

THE HISTORICAL PERIOD

POSSESSION OF THE BLACK HILLS

We come now to more definite historic ground. Situated east of the
Crows, the Kiowa took possession of the Black Hills (_Sádalkáñi K`op_,
"stomach-rind, i. e., 'manifold,' mountains"), and having by this time
procured some horses, began to make raids on the Spanish frontiers to
the south, while they established a friendly trade and intercourse with
the Arikara and Mandan on the Missouri. They are mentioned under the
name of Cargua (for Caigua) in a Spanish document of 1732, and again as
Caigua in 1735. In 1748 the Spanish historian Villaseñor mentions the
"Cayguas," in connection with Comanche, Apache, Navaho, and Ute, as
among the hostile tribes of New Mexico (see the synonymy). It will be
remembered that the greater portion of what is now Colorado was
included with New Mexico under Spanish domination. If, as seems
possible, they are identical with the Manrhoat or Manrhout of La Salle,
allies of the Gattacka (Kiowa Apache), our knowledge of the tribe would
go back to 1682. They continued to occupy the Black Hills until about
the close of the last century, when they were driven out by the Dakota
advancing from the east, and by the Cheyenne who crossed the Missouri
from the northeast. The same pressure drove their old allies, the Crows,
farther westward.

The northern Cheyenne informed Grinnell that on first coming into their
present country they had found the region between the Yellowstone and
Cheyenne rivers, including the Black Hills, in possession of the Kiowa
and Comanche (?), whom they drove out and forced to the south. When the
author was among the Dakota some years ago, they informed him that they
had first known the Kiowa in the Black Hills, and had driven them out
from that region. This is admitted by the Kiowa, who continued at war
with the Dakota and Cheyenne until about 1840, when a permanent peace
was made. It does not appear that the Arapaho had anything to do with
this expulsion of the Kiowa, with whom they seem generally to have been
on friendly terms, although at a later period we find them at war with
the Kiowa, being probably drawn into hostilities through their
connection with the Cheyenne. As is well known to ethnologists, the
Dakota are comparatively recent immigrants from east of the Missouri.
They first reached the Black Hills in 1775, as already stated, so that
the final expulsion of the Kiowa must have occurred between that date
and 1805, when Lewis and Clark found the Cheyenne in possession of the
same region, the Cheyenne being then at war with the Dakota. Curiously
enough, there is no note of this war on any of the several Dakota
calendars covering this period, described and illustrated by Mallery,
although we find a reference to the killing of a Kiowa in the winter of
1814-15.

THE EXTINCT K'ÚATO

The Kiowa have a better memory, and one of their old hero stories
relates to the slaughter of an entire band of Kiowa by the Dakota. The
ill-fated band was called the _K'úato_, a name signifying "pulling up,
or pulling out" from the ground or from a hole, being indicated in the
sign language by the motion of "pulling up" with one or both hands.
According to the story the Kiowa, apparently nearly the whole tribe
together, were attacked by an overwhelming body of the Dakota. Finding
resistance hopeless, they fled, but the chief of the K'úato urged his
people not to run, "because if they did their relatives in the other
world would not receive them." Inspired to desperate courage by his
words, the K'úato faced the enemy and were all killed where they stood,
excepting one woman who had fled with the others. According to Te'bodal,
who was born about 1817 and is now the oldest man in the tribe, this
massacre took place when his grandfather was a young man, perhaps about
1770. Te'bodal himself remembered having seen the single woman survivor.
It is said that the K'úato spoke a peculiar dialect of the Kiowa
language, although recognized as a part of the tribe, and were noted for
doing foolish and ridiculous things, a statement borne out by the story
of their extermination.

INTERCOURSE WITH THE ARIKARA, MANDAN, AND HIDATSA.

Next to the Crows, the Kiowa have most to say of their friendship in
these old days with the Arikara (Ree), Mandan, and Hidatsa or Minitari
on Missouri river. For many years these three confederated tribes, now
reduced to about 1,100 souls in all, have occupied jointly a single
village on the northeastern bank of Missouri river, in the vicinity of
old Fort Berthold, about opposite Knife river, in North Dakota. In 1805
the three tribes, with a small subtribe, now extinct, occupied eight
villages, with a total population of nearly 6,000 souls. The Arikara
were then considerably farther down the river, while the others were
nearly in their present position. From the fact that Grand river, South
Dakota, is known to the Dakota as Arikara river it is probable that the
Arikara formerly had their residence there for a long period. In habits
and home life the three tribes are almost identical, being sedentary
agriculturists, living in substantial earth-covered log houses; but in
language they are quite distinct. The Arikara or Ree are a branch, of
the Pawnee and speak a dialect of that language; the Hidatsa,
Grosventres, or Minitari were formerly a part of the Crows and speak a
dialect of that language; while the language of the Mandan is distinct
from either of the others, although remotely cognate with the Hidatsa.
They are mentioned prominently by every traveler in that region during
the last century, the best description of them being given by Matthews
in his work on the Hidatsa.

The definite recollection which the Kiowa have of these tribes shows
that they must have been very intimate with them in former times,
especially with the Arikara, whom they call _K'át'á_, "biters,"
designating them in the sign language by a twisting motion of the closed
right band, with thumb extended, in front of the month, the allusion
being to gnawing corn from a cob. In the north the sign is sometimes
made with both hands, the right working against the left, the allusion
then being to shelling corn. The Arikara are preeminently distinguished
among the northern tribes as the corn-planting Indians, and are usually
designated in pictographs by the figure of a man with an ear of corn. It
is probable that they taught agriculture to the Mandan and Hidatsa. The
Kiowa further identify the K'at'a as being called _Paläni_ by the Dakota
and as speaking a language like that of the Pawnee. Stumbling-bear
claims to have met and talked with some of them on a former visit to
Washington. They have more to say of the Arikara than of the others,
probably because then, as now, they were the largest of the three
tribes, and also, as the Kiowa themselves say, because the Arikara
lived nearest, being probably located then, as at a later period, on Ree
or Grand river, in South Dakota, which is called by their name in the
various Indian languages. They describe the three tribes as living on
the Missouri (_Tsosâ P'a_) river, in earth-covered grass houses (really
log houses, filled in between the logs with grass and covered with
earth), and cultivating corn and tobacco, which they traded to the
Kiowa. One of the principal divisions of the Kiowa tribe, and the one to
which the great Dohásän and several other prominent chiefs belonged, is
the K`at'a or Arikara band, so called, the Kiowa state, on account of
their special intimacy with the Arikara in the old times, and not
because of Arikara descent. The name of the band must have originated,
of course, subsequently to the first acquaintance of the two tribes.

The Mandan they call _Dóhón_, "the last tipi," assigning as a reason for
the name that they lived farthest toward the east. The Mandan, unlike
the other tribes, did in fact have one of their villages on the farther
(eastern) bank of the Missouri. They also sometimes call them
_Dowákohón_, an older form of Dohon, and _Sabă´_, "stingy," perhaps from
some trade dispute. In the sign language the Kiowa designate them by
indicating tattoo marks, stating that the women, and sometimes the men,
tattooed the arms, breast, and around the lips. This agrees exactly with
Clark, who says that the proper sign for Mandan is intended to indicate
tattooing on the chin and lower part of the face. He states also, on the
authority of an old plainsman, that fifty years ago the Mandan women had
a small spot tattooed on the forehead, together with a line on the chin,
while of the men the chiefs alone were tattooed, this being done on one
side, or one-half of the breast, or on one arm and breast (_Clark, 4_).
It may be that the small tattooed circle on the foreheads of many Kiowa
women is an imitation from their Mandan sisters. Matthews says that he
has seen a few old men of the Hidatsa with parallel bands tattooed on
the chest, throat, and arms, but not on any other part of the body, or
on any young or middle-age persons in the tribe (_Matthews, 3_).

The Hidatsa or Minitari are known to the Kiowa as _Henóñko_, a name
which they can not translate. In this word the terminal _ko_ is the
tribal suffix, while _Henóñ_ is the root, possibly a derivative from
_Herantsa_, another form of Hidatsa, the Kiowa having no _r_ in their
language. To designate them in the sign language, they make a gesture as
if dipping up water with the hand, referring to their common name of
Minitari, "water crossers," or "water people." This sign is probably now
obsolete in the north, as it is not noted by either Clark or Mallery.
They say that the Henoñko called the Kiowa _Datûmpáta_. The Kiowa
describe the three tribes as about the same in regard to house-building
methods and the cultivation of corn and Indian tobacco. They have also a
distinct recollection of the peculiar "bull boats," tub-shaped and
covered with rawhide, used by the Mandan and their allies. They ascribe
these boats more particularly to the Mandan, from whom perhaps the
Arikara obtained them after moving up to the same neighborhood.

RECOLLECTIONS OF OTHER NORTHERN TRIBES

The old men who have most knowledge of this northern residence and
alliance with the Crows and Arikara say, after the Indian style of
chronology, that it was in the time when their grandfathers were young
men, and when they still had but few horses and commonly used dogs as
pack animals in traveling. One of the mythic legends of the tribe
accounts for the origin of the Black Hills (_Sádalkañi K`op_, "manifold
mountains"), and another deals with the noted Bear Lodge or Devil's
Tower (_Tsó-aí_, "tree rock," i. e., monument rock), near Sun Dance,
Wyoming, which they claim is within their old country. Beyond the
Yellowstone (_Tsósâ P'a_) they say lived the Blackfeet (_Tóñ-kóñko_,
"blackleg people") and the Arapaho Gros Ventres (_Bot-k`iägo_, "belly
people"). They knew also the Shoshoni (_Sondóta_, "grass houses"), who,
they say, formerly lived in houses of interwoven rushes or grass; the
Flatheads, the northern Arapaho, and of course the Dakota. It is
somewhat remarkable that they knew also the small tribe of Sarsi, living
on the Canadian side of the line at the source of the North
Saskatchewan, whom they describe accurately as a tribe living with the
Blackfeet and speaking a language resembling that of the Apache. They
call them _Pák`iägo_, which they render "stupid people," indicating the
tribe in the sign language by a sweeping motion of the right hand across
the thigh, perhaps from a confusion with _paki_, thigh. It is possible
that the name is not really of Kiowa origin, but is derived from _Päki_
or _Päkiani_, the Shoshoni name for the Blackfeet themselves. The Kiowa
call the Brulé Dakota _Pakí-gudălkantă_, "red-burnt thigh" people, with
the same gesture sign as for the Sarsi. Several prominent men of the
Kiowa tribe, among whom may be mentioned Gaápiatañ and Pátádal, are of
Sarsi descent. The maternal grandmother of the noted chief Setäñgya,
killed at Fort Sill in 1871, was a Sarsi woman who married a Kiowa man
during an interchange of friendly visits between the two tribes. By
reason of this Athapascan blood, those of Sarsi descent, including
Gaápiatañ, who is Setäñgya's nephew, consider themselves in a measure
related to the Kiowa Apache.

From the beginning the Kiowa say that they were usually on friendly
terms with the Crows, Arapaho, Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa, and, so far
as they can recollect, with the Shoshoni and Flatheads, the friendship
being interrupted, however, by occasional quarrels more or less serious.
They were frequently at war with the Cheyenne, and always, from their
first acquaintance, with the Dakota, Pawnee, and Ute. Their relations
with the southern tribes will be noted hereafter.

ACQUIREMENT OF HORSES

Although the Kiowa had no horses until they came down from the mountains
and settled near the Crows, it is probable that they obtained some very
soon afterward, probably from their friends the Crows. La Salle, in
1682, states that the Gattacka (Kiowa Apache) and Manrhoat (Kiowa?) had
then plenty of horses, which he says they had probably stolen from New
Mexico (_Margry, 1_).

The notice in Villaseñor would indicate that they were able to mount
some of their warriors as early as 1748, as it is hardly probable that
they would have been able to attract attention by their inroads so far
south as the Spanish settlements if their warriors had been obliged to
travel entirely on foot. With some tribes, however, notably the Pawnee,
it was a frequent practice for the warriors to go out on foot,
returning, if successful, mounted on the horses taken from their
enemies. Horses must also have been taken by the Kiowa from the
Comanche, who lived south of them in the territory adjoining the Spanish
possessions, and with whom the Kiowa were then at war. In the beginning
of the present century we find the Kiowa mentioned as possessing large
herds of horses, which they traded with the Arikara and Mandan for
European goods.

Horace Jones, interpreter at Fort Sill, states that at a council held at
Fort Cobb in 1868, Ten-bears, an old Comanche chief, scored the Kiowa
for their constant raids into Mexico and Texas in spite of their
promises to the government to cease such practices, saying to the
assembled Kiowa, "When we first knew you, you had nothing but dogs and
sleds. Now you have plenty of horses, and where did you get them if they
were not stolen from Mexico?" This must be interpreted, however, from a
point of comparison of the Comanche, who have long been noted for the
number of their ponies. It was certainly a case of the pot calling the
kettle black, as the principal business of both tribes for generations,
until confined to a reservation, was that of raiding their southern
neighbors in order to obtain horses and captives. It is unnecessary to
dilate on the revolution made in the life of the Indian by the
possession of the horse. Without it he was a half-starved skulker in the
timber, creeping up on foot toward the unwary deer or building a brush
corral with infinite labor to surround a herd of antelope, and seldom
venturing more than a few days' journey from home. With the horse he was
transformed into the daring buffalo hunter, able to procure in a single
day enough food to supply his family for a year, leaving him free then
to sweep the plains with his war parties along a range of a thousand
miles.

INTERCOURSE AND WAR WITH THE COMANCHE

While the Kiowa still occupied the Black Hills their nearest neighbors
toward the south were the Comanche, whose language and traditions show
them to be a comparatively recent offshoot from the Shoshoni of Wyoming,
and whose war parties formerly ranged from Platte river to central
Mexico. In 1724 Bourgmont describes them, under the name of Padouca, as
located between the headwaters of Platte and Kansas rivers. Like the
other prairie tribes, they drifted steadily southward, and about the
middle of last century were established chiefly about the upper Arkansas
and its principal tributaries. Long before this time, however, the
_Pénätĕka_ division had separated from the main body and gone down
into Texas. Pádouca, the name used by Bourgmont, is one form of the name
by which the Comanche are known to the Osage, Dakota, and related
tribes, and is probably derived from _Pénätĕka_.

As the Kiowa pressed southward before the advancing Dakota and Cheyenne,
they encountered the Comanche, resulting in a warfare continuing many
years, in the course of which the Comanche were gradually driven south
of the Arkansas. The war was finally terminated and a lasting peace and
alliance effected between the two tribes through the good offices of the
Spaniards of New Mexico.

PEACE WITH THE COMANCHE

Now the Kiowa tradition becomes clear and detailed. According to the
story which the old men had from their fathers, who were contemporary
with the events, the Kiowa advanced along the base of the mountains and
pushed the Comanche from the northern head streams of the Arkansas. When
both sides were about worn out with fighting, it happened that a small
party of Kiowa on a friendly visit to a Spanish settlement southwestward
from that river--perhaps Las Vegas or possibly Santa Fé--stopped to rest
at a house, which they particularly state was not a fort or trading
post. The house was a large one with several rooms, and by a curious
coincidence a party of Comanche had arrived shortly before and were then
talking in the next room, all unaware of the near presence of their
enemies. Hearing the voices and recognizing the language, the Kiowa at
once prepared for battle, and another bloody encounter was about to be
added to the long list, when their Mexican host, friendly to both sides,
interposed and represented to the Kiowa that now was their opportunity
to establish a lasting peace with their foes, offering his own services
as mediator. After some debate the Kiowa accepted his proposition, and
the kindly Mexican, going into the next room, informed the astonished
Comanche that a party of their hated enemies was outside waiting to talk
of peace. Being assured that no treachery was intended, they came out
and the leaders of the two parties saluted each other. The Kiowa leader,
whose name was Guik`áte, "Wolf-lying-down," and who was next in
authority to the principal chief of the tribe, assuming to speak for his
people, then expressed their desire for peace. To this the Comanche
leader, Päréiyä, "Afraid-of-water" (_Toñpeto_ in the Kiowa language),
replied that as this was a matter of grave importance, it would have to
be considered by the whole tribe, and invited the Kiowa to go back with
them to the Comanche country in order that the business might there be
fully discussed. The Kiowa hesitated, not yet being quite willing to
trust themselves in the lion's den, when Guik`áte, anxious to spare
further bloodshed, said, "I am a chief. I am not afraid to die. I will
go." A Comanche captive among the Kiowa volunteered to go with him.
Turning then to his followers, he said to them, "Go home and tell our
tribe that I am gone to make peace with the Comanche. Return for me to
this place when the leaves are yellow. If you do not find me here, know
that I am dead and avenge my death." He then dismissed them, and the
Kiowa started homeward, while he, with the captive and one or two
Mexicans accompanied the Comanche to their camps on _Gañta P'a_, the
Double-mountain fork of the Brazos, in Texas.

On arriving there with his escort, the Comanche were at first disposed
to regard him as an enemy and made a show of preparing to revenge upon
him the losses they had suffered at the hands of his people, but finding
that he was a brave man not to be easily frightened, they changed their
purpose and gave him a friendly welcome. He remained with them all
summer, being well entertained by them on the hunt and at their social
gatherings, and when at last the leaves began to turn, the tipis were
taken down, and the whole band, having long ago decided on peace, moved
off to meet the Kiowa at the appointed rendezvous. They had not long to
wait, for Indians observe the season changes closely, before the whole
warrior body of the Kiowa tribe appeared in sight, prepared either to
make a treaty of perpetual friendship or to avenge the death of their
chief, as the case might be. As they approached, the Comanche chief and
Guik`áte rode out to meet them, somewhat to the surprise of the Kiowa,
who had hardly hoped ever again to see their kinsman alive. He told the
story of his kind treatment at the hands of the Comanche and their
earnest desire for peace, and the result was a treaty of friendship and
alliance which endures to this day, the two tribes, with the
Kiowa-Apache, having ever since occupied a common territory and acted
together on all important occasions, notwithstanding radical differences
in language, ceremonies, and temperament. The former condition of
hostility is clearly shown by the fact that the common name of the Kiowa
for their present allies, the Comanche, is _Gyái'ko_, "Enemies."

This treaty with the Comanche must have been made toward the close of
the last century, probably about 1790. As there is no tally date in
Kiowa history until we come to "the year when the stars fell," i. e.,
1833, a description of the manner in which we arrive at this conclusion
may be of interest as a specimen of the ordinary methods of Indian
chronology.

Among the oldest men of the tribe are T'ébodal, "One who carries a
buffalo's lower leg," Gaápiatañ, "Feathered lance," (commonly known as
Heidsick, from his Comanche name of Haí-tsiki), and Â´dalpepte,
"Bushy-hair" (Frizzle-head), all being prominent men and noted warriors
when in their prime. T'ébodal is the oldest man in the tribe, and as he
was "a well grown boy when the stars fell," is consequently now just
about 80 years of age, as the Indians consider a boy a young warrior at
17 or 18. Gaápiatañ is a few years younger, and Â´dalpepte was "old
enough, to ride a horse when the stars fell," so that we may assume him
to be now (1896) about 70 years of age. It will be noted that, contrary
to general opinion, Indians are not remarkably long-lived.

Graápiatañ's estimate seems to place the event farthest back in point of
time. He fixes it by "a very old woman," who died eleven winters ago
(1885), and whose father had told her that the treaty with the Comanche
was made thirty-three years before she was born. Âdalpepte states that
it was made "when his father was a young man." T'ébodal says that it was
before he was born, but that his father knew both leaders who negotiated
the peace, and that he himself knew the Comanche leader, Päréiyä, as a
very old man, who was afterward killed by the Cheyenne at a time when
T'ébodal was grown to manhood and had already been to war. According to
the Kiowa calendar, the allied tribes made peace with the Cheyenne about
1840, so that the chief who negotiated the treaty for the Comanche must
have been killed shortly before that time, the Kiowa leader, Guik`áte,
being already dead. Balancing all the statements, we get 1790 as the
most probable approximate date. The principal chief of the tribe at the
time of the treaty was Políakyă, "Hare-lip," alias Kágiätsé,
"Thick-blanket." He was succeeded by Tsóñbohón, "Feather-cap," who was
succeeded by A'dáte, "Island-man," who was deposed in 1833 in favor of
Dohásän, who thenceforth ruled the tribe until his death in 1866.

CONFEDERATION OF THE TWO TRIBES

The peace thus made between the two tribes has never been broken, in
which fact there may be a sermon for those who regard the Indian as
faithless, when we consider how few European alliances have endured as
long. The Pénätĕka Comanche, who lived far down in Texas, were not
included in this compact and had very little connection even with the
northern bands of their own people until brought together under the
reservation system. Immediately after the treaty the Kiowa began to move
down and make their camps along and south of the Arkansas, which, until
that time, had been considered the northern boundary of the Comanche
country and the southern limit of the Kiowa range. In the territory
which they thenceforth held in common the Kiowa usually made their home
camps more to the northwest, about the Arkansas, while the Comanche kept
near to the Staked plains and the Texas frontier. Strengthened by their
alliance for war and defense, the confederated tribes were now able to
make a successful stand behind the Arkansas against further invasion
from the north. The raids of the Kiowa on the Mexican settlements,
hitherto desultory and ineffective, now became constant and destructive
and continued until both tribes were finally subjugated and confined to
their reservation after the outbreak of 1874. In these raiding
expeditions they frequently made headquarters in the Sierra Madre,
whence they descended upon the lower country on each side. Old men are
still living in the tribe who have raided as far south as the city of
Durango (which they know by this name) and southwest through Sonora and
Sinaloa to the Gulf of California. These war parties would sometimes be
absent two years. To the west they reached the great Colorado river and
tell of killing some Havasupai in their canyon home. In the east they
made captives on Matagorda bay, Texas.

NEUTRAL ATTITUDE OF NEW MEXICANS

According to the Kiowa and Comanche, whose statements are confirmed by
abundant testimony from other sources, the inhabitants of New Mexico,
from mercenary motives, usually held themselves neutral in this war on
their brethren to the south. New Mexican _Comancheros_ and domesticated
Pueblo Indians carried on a lucrative trade among these tribes at the
same time that Kiowa or Comanche war parties were ravaging the southern
provinces or selling horses and mules, taken in these raids, to the
inhabitants of Las Vegas and neighboring towns. The lances and tomahawks
used by their warriors were of Mexican manufacture, more slender and
graceful in design than those supplied to the northern tribes by English
and American traders. It was only by such tacit connivance or active aid
from the people of New Mexico that these tribes were able to carry on an
unceasing warfare of extermination as far south as Tamaulipas and
Durango in Mexico.

RELATIONS WITH OTHER SOUTHERN TRIBES

Subsequent to the treaty with the Comanche, and as a consequence of it,
the Kiowa made peace with the Mescalero Apache (_Ĕ´sikwita_), with whom
they had formerly been at enmity, having driven them from the Staked
plains into the mountains west of the Pecos. The friendship, however,
was somewhat precarious. They were also on friendly terms with the
Wichita and their associated tribes, the Waco, Tawákoni, and Kichai.
With the Caddo and the cannibal Tonkawa to the east, and with the Navaho
and Ute and presumably also the Jicarilla Apache on the west, they were
always at war. They usually carried on a friendly trade with the
neighboring Pueblos. Their relations with the Apache of Arizona were too
casual to be of a definite nature. They were at war with the Osage until
1834. To all these tribes the confederated Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache
held but one and the same relation after the alliance of about 1790.

FIRST OFFICIAL AMERICAN NOTICES, 1805--1807

The earliest official account of the Kiowa is given by the explorers
Lewis and Clark, who ascended the Missouri in 1804 and wintered among
the Mandan, before proceeding onward across the mountains and down to
the mouth of the Columbia. They do not appear to have met any of the
Kiowa, but heard of them from the tribes living on the river. By that
time the Kiowa, whom the explorers erroneously supposed were distinct
from the "Wetepahatoes," had been driven out of the Black Hills, which
were then in possession of the Cheyenne, while the Dakota held the
country to the eastward. The Kiowa were then on the Padouca or North
Platte. This agrees with the statements of old men of the Dakota
confederacy, who informed the writer that within their early
recollection that tribe had lived between the North Platte and the
Niobrara, having been expelled from the Black Hills by the Dakota of the
preceding generation.

The official report of Captain Lewis describes the Kiowa ("Kiawas" and
"Wetepahatoes") as living in 1805 on the North fork of the Platte, and
numbering 70 tipis, 200 warriors, and 700 souls, while the Kiowa Apache
("Cataka") lived somewhat farther north, on the headwaters of the two
forks of Cheyenne river, and are estimated at 25 tipis, 75 warriors, and
300 souls. While the figures thus given for the Apache are probably
nearly correct, those for the Kiowa are much too low, unless we assume
that they had been so greatly reduced by the war with the Dakota. The
alliances and wars of the two tribes, Kiowa and Apache, were the same,
they carrying on a defensive war with the Dakota and being at peace with
all the other tribes of the region, particularly with the Arikara,
Mandan, and Hidatsa. The account continues:

They are a wandering nation, inhabit an open country, and raise a
great number of horses, which they barter to the Ricaras, Mandans,
etc, for articles of European manufactory. They are a well-disposed
people, and might be readily induced to visit the trading
establishments on the Missouri. From the animals their country
produces, their trade would no doubt become valuable. These people
again barter a considerable proportion of the articles they obtain
from the Menetares, Ahwahhaways, Mandans, and Ricaras to the
Dotames and Castapanas.... Neither these people ("Kiawas"), the
Wetepahatoes, nor the Chyennes have any idea of exclusive right to
the soil (_Lewis and Clark, 1_).

The Dotames and Castapanas (for Castahanas) here mentioned are described
as living back of the Kiowa, between the head streams of the North
Platte and the Yellowstone, and were probably bands of the Shoshoni.
From this it appears that besides being well supplied with horses, with
which they carried on a profitable trade at this period with the tribes
on the Missouri, the Kiowa also acted as the trading medium between
these tribes and others living in the mountains beyond the Kiowa. The
officer suggests the mouth of Cheyenne river as the most suitable place
to establish a trading post for them. The Crows are described as having
then the same wars and friendships as the Kiowa, excepting that they
were at war with the Arikara as well as with the Dakota (_Lewis and
Clark, 2_).

The Comanche are described at this period (1805) under the name of the
"La Playes" division of "Aliatans" or "Snake Indians," as inhabiting the
plains from the headwaters of the Arkansas, and including the sources
of Red river, and extending from the mountains eastward indefinitely.
They were a wandering people, claiming no particular boundaries, and,
although possessing no guns, were brave and warlike. Their country
abounded in wild horses, besides great numbers which they raised
themselves (_Lewis and Clark, 3_).

In his volume published a few years later the explorer, Zebulon M. Pike,
states that the Kiowa, estimated by him to number 1,000 men, had in 1803
been driven by the Dakota into the mountains on the heads of the Platte
and Arkansas and north of the Comanche, where they were then wandering.
They owned immense herds of horses, were armed with bows, arrows, and
lances, hunted the buffalo, and were at war with the Dakota, Pawnee, and
"Tetau" (here meaning the Ute). In another place he mentions both Ute
and Kiowa as living in the mountains of northern Mexico--the present
Colorado and New Mexico--the former being more civilized from contact
with the Spaniards. He speaks also of meeting, in 1807, a party of Kiowa
and Comanche returning from a trading expedition to the Mandan (_Pike,
1_).

EXPLANATION OF "ALIATAN" AND "TETAU"

As the names Aliatan and Tetau here quoted from Lewis and Clark, with
their variants, have been the cause of much confusion in our western
tribal nomenclature, some explanation will not be out of place. Although
so unlike in appearance, these appellations are really but different
forms of the same word. The Ute of the mountain, region at the
headwaters of the Platte and the Arkansas, being a powerful and
aggressive tribe, were well known to all the Indians of the plains, who
usually called them by some form of their proper name, _Yútawáts_, or,
in its root form, _Yuta_, whence we get Eutaw, Utah, and Ute. Among the
Kiowa the name becomes _Íătä_(_-go_), while the Siouan tribes seem to
have nasalized it so that the early French traders wrote it as Ayutan,
Iatan, or Ietan. By prefixing the French article it became L'Iatan, and
afterward Aliatan, while by misreading of the manuscript word we get
Jatan, Jetan, and finally Tetau. Moreover, as the early traders and
explorers knew but little of the mountain tribes, they frequently
confounded those of the same generic stock, so that almost any of these
forms may mean Shoshoni, Ute, or Comanche, according to the general
context of the description.

UNSUCCESSFUL OVERTURES OF THE DAKOTA

As an incident of the war in progress during this period between the
Kiowa and the Dakota, we find it recorded on a calendar of the latter
tribe, under date of 1814-15, that a party of their people visited the
Kiowa camp on Horse creek for the purpose of making peace, but their
benevolent purpose was defeated by the occurrence of a sudden quarrel
between one of their own men and a Kiowa, which ended by the Dakota
sinking his tomahawk into the Kiowa's head, thus bringing the peace
negotiations to an abrupt close (_Mallery, 3_). The story, which well
illustrates the uncertainty of Indian temper, has a striking parallel in
Grinnell's story of "The Peace with the Snakes" (_Grinnell, Blackfoot,
1_). The Kiowa camp was at the junction of Kiowa creek with Horse creek,
which enters the North Platte from the south in Nebraska, just east of
the Wyoming line.

SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC OF 1816

In 1816 the smallpox made terrible ravages among all the tribes in the
region of the Red and Rio Grande, being probably communicated from the
Spanish settlements. The Comanche especially lost heavily (_Morse, 1_).
The Kiowa suffered in proportion, and their old men speak of this as the
first epidemic of smallpox within the memory of their tribe. It is
probable, however, that they had suffered in the same way some years
before, for we know that in 1801 a Pawnee war party, returning from New
Mexico, brought the smallpox home with them, with the result that it
spread among the tribes from the Missouri to the coast of Texas. The
prairie tribes are said to have lost more than half their population at
this time, while the Wichita, Caddo, and others in the south suffered
almost as severely (_Morse, 2_; _Lewis and Clark, 4_).

THE KIOWA IN 1820

In the account of his expedition up the Arkansas in 1820, Long speaks of
the Kiowa as wandering with the Arapaho and others over the prairies of
Arkansas and Red rivers, and having great numbers of horses, which they
traded to the Cheyenne and other northern Indians, who were not able to
rear them so easily in their colder and more barren country. He
describes a great gathering of tribes in 1815 on the South Platte,
apparently about the junction of Kiowa creek in Colorado, a region which
he mentions as frequented by the Kiowa, when the Cheyenne came down with
goods from the traders on the Missouri to meet and trade for horses with
the Kiowa, Arapaho, and "Kaskaia or Bad Hearts," and a party of traders
from St Louis (_James, Long's Ex., 1_). This appears to be the first
notice of the Kiowa as living on Red river--which, however, may here
mean the Canadian--and is evidence that they were at this time on
friendly terms with the Arapaho and Cheyenne, with both of which tribes
they were soon after at war. We learn also from this notice that the St
Louis traders had already begun to come out to trade with them on the
Arkansas, although none were regularly established in their territory
until some years later. The "Kaskaias" are probably the Kiowa Apache, or
possibly the Wichita.

THE OSAGE MASSACRE AND THE DRAGOON EXPEDITION--1833-34

We come now to the period covered by the Kiowa calendars, the first
important event of which is the massacre of a large number of the tribe
by a war party of Osage in the early spring of 1833. This led
indirectly to the expedition of the First dragoons in 1834, by which the
Kiowa, Comanche, Wichita, and associated tribes were first brought into
official relations with the United States. The massacre and the
expedition will be found treated at length in the proper place. When the
troops returned to Fort Gibson, in the eastern part of Indian Territory,
in August, they were accompanied by a party of one Waco, one Comanche,
three Wichita, and fifteen Kiowa chiefs or headmen, of whom the artist
Catlin says they were undoubtedly one of the most interesting groups
that had ever visited the frontier. Invitations were sent out to the
chiefs of all the neighboring tribes to come in to Fort Gibson and meet
their visitors from the west. A number responded, and a council lasting
several days was held under the auspices of Colonel Dodge of the
Dragoons, Indian Agent Major Armstrong, and Indian Commissioner General
Stokes, which paved the way for a friendly understanding between the
eastern and western tribes, and for both with regard to the United
States (_Catlin, 1_).

A year later, in August, 1835, as a result of the friendly relations
thus established, the chiefs of the Comanche and Wichita met the United
States commissioners at Camp Holmes, about 5 miles northeast of the
present site of Purcell, Indian Territory, and made their first treaty
with the government. The principal stipulation was that there should be
peace and friendship between the Comanche and Wichita on the one hand,
and the United States, Creek, Cherokee, and other immigrant tribes, and
the Osage on the other (_Treaties_).

THE TREATY OF 1837

Owing to a delay in the negotiations, the Kiowa who had attended the
meeting became impatient and returned home and consequently were not
parties to this treaty, but two years later a full delegation of Kiowa,
Apache, and Tawakoni went down to Fort Gibson, where the first treaty
between the United States and these tribes was made on May 26, 1837, and
was formally ratified the following year. In the document the three
tribes are called "the Kioway, Ka-ta-ka, and Ta-wa-karo nations of
Indians." The general terms of the treaty are the same as in that
previously made with the Comanche and Wichita, namely, peace and
friendship, with forgiveness of past injuries, and satisfactory
settlement of future disputes that might arise between these western
tribes and the Osage, Muscogee (Creek), and citizens of the United
States. All the tribes concerned were to have equal hunting rights on
the southern prairies as far west as the jurisdiction of the government
extended, and citizens of the United States were to have free right of
travel to and from Mexico and Texas through the Indian hunting grounds.

There was also a stipulation that if "any of the red people belonging to
the nations or tribes of Indians residing south of the Missouri river
and west of the states of Missouri and Arkansas, not parties to this
treaty," should be found in the country of the Kiowa, they should be
kindly treated by them. This was probably intended to refer only to the
immigrant tribes removed from the east, as it was hardly to be expected
that the Kiowa would act very hospitably toward any stray Dakota or
Pawnee who might occasionally visit the Arkansas in search of Kiowa
scalps or ponies. There was also a distinct understanding that it was
the desire of the government that perfect peace should exist between the
Kiowa and their allies and the republics of Mexico and Texas. The usual
presents were then distributed and everybody was happy (_Treaties_).

The peace thus made with the Osage and Creeks was never broken, although
in after years relations with the Osage were somewhat strained in
consequence of their serving as scouts against the allied southern
plains tribes. The promised friendship was also kept with regard to the
citizens of the United States until after the annexation of Texas, which
the Kiowa and Comanche never ceased to regard as a distinct and hostile
government, making a clear distinction between "Americans," i. e.,
settlers and emigrants from the north or Kansas side, and "Texans," whom
they regarded as a different nation and their enemies, in having driven
them from their best hunting grounds in violation of treaties and
without compensation.

The treaty commissioners on behalf of the government were General
Montfort Stokes and A. P. Chouteau, the latter being a member of the
noted pioneer trading company. Clermont and Roly McIntosh, head chiefs
of the Osage and Creeks, signed, with others, for their respective
tribes. Among the witnesses were a number of officers, stationed at Fort
Gibson, including, among others, the commanding officer, Colonel
Whistler, the noted Captain Bonneville, and Colonel R. L. Dodge, who had
led the dragoon expedition. The treaty was signed by ten Kiowa chiefs
and principal men, three Apache (whose Kiowa names only are given), and
four Tawakoni. Below are given the names of the Kiowa and Apache, as the
earliest on record from these tribes, excepting those given by Catlin,
together with the proper forms and translations of those which can be
identified.

_Kiowa_

Ta-ka-ta-couche, "Black Bird" (_Couche-kóñigya_, "black"?).
Cha-hon-de-ton, "Flying Squirrel."
Ta-ne-congais, "Sea Gull" (?) (_T'ené-kóñigyă_, "Black Bird").
Bon-congais, "Black Cap" (_Bohón-kóñigya_, "Black Cap").
To-ho-sa, "Top of the Mountain" (_Dohá-sän_, "Little Bluff").
Sen-son-da-cat, "White Bird."
Con-a-hen-ka, "Horned Frog" (_Séhänk`ia_, "Horned Toad Man"?).
He-pan-ni-gais, "Night."
Ka-him-hi, "Prairie Dog" (_Tséñhi_ ? "Dog").
Pa-con-ta, "My Young Brother."

_Apache_

Hen-ton-te, "Iron Shoe" (_Hâñ-doti_, "Iron Shoe, or Moccasin").
A-ei-kenda, "One who is Surrendered."
Cet-ma-ni-ta, "Walking Bear" (_Set-mänte_, "Bear Above? or Walking
Bear"?).

At this time the Kiowa were located on the upper waters of Arkansas,
Canadian, and Red rivers, in friendship with the Comanche and Wichita,
who occupied much of the same territory, but usually ranged more to the
east and south. They continued to occupy the same general region until
confined to their present reservation. Their war parties extended their
raids far beyond these limits, particularly toward the south.

CATLIN'S OBSERVATIONS IN 1834

Catlin, who saw them in 1834, describes them as a much finer race of men
than either the Comanche or Wichita, being tall and erect, with an easy
graceful gait, long hair reaching often nearly to the ground, with a
fine Roman outline of head, of a type common among the northern tribes,
but entirely distinct from that usually found in the south (_Catlin,
2_).

TRADERS AMONG THE KIOWA

From the statement of Lewis and Clark already noted, it appears that in
1805, while still located on the North Platte, the Kiowa had as yet no
communication with traders, but obtained supplies indirectly through the
tribes living farther east. From Pike's narrative, however, we learn
that James Pursley, "the first American who ever penetrated the immense
wilds of Louisiana," spent a trading season with the Kiowa and Comanche
in 1802 or 1803, under engagement with a French trader operating from
the Mandan country, and remained with them until the next spring, when
the Dakota drove them from the plains into the mountains at the heads of
the Platte and Arkansas (_Pike, 2_). From Long's statement, also
previously quoted, we learn that in 1815, the Kiowa having drifted
farther south in the meantime, traders from St Louis had begun to ascend
Arkansas river to trade with the Kiowa, Cheyenne, and other tribes near
its headwaters. From other sources it is apparent that before this time
they had had dealings also with the Spaniards of New Mexico. The first
regular American trading expedition to the Kiowa country was made in
1834 when, on the return of the visiting chiefs from Fort Gibson, a
company of eighty trappers and traders went back with them to their
homes on the upper Washita and Red rivers (_Catlin, 3_). In 1835,
shortly after the treaty with the Comanche at Camp Holmes, Colonel
Auguste Chouteau built on the same site a small stockade fort, where a
considerable trade was carried on with the Comanche, Kiowa, Wichita, and
associated tribes until his death three years later, when the place was
abandoned (_Gregg, 1_). The exact location of Camp Holmes and Chouteau's
fort was at a spring on a small creek, both still bearing the name of
Chouteau, on the east or north side of South (main) Canadian river,
about 5 miles northeast of where now is the town of Purcell, Indian
Territory. It was a favorite Indian camping ground and was the site of a
Kichai village about 1850.

Auguste Chouteau, the descendant of one of the early French founders of
St Louis, was the pioneer organizer of the Indian trade in the upper
Red river country, as were the Bents, also of French origin, on the
upper Arkansas. Under the name of _Soto_, Chouteau is still held in
affectionate remembrance by the Kiowa.

Chouteau's fort on the Canadian was considered to be in Comanche
territory. Shortly after the treaty with the Kiowa in 1837, he
established what they regard as the first trading post within their own
country, on the west bank of Cache creek, about 3 miles below the
present Fort Sill, Oklahoma. _Tomé-te_ (Thomas?) is the name by which
the Kiowa remember the trader in charge, who, however, did not remain
long. Another store was established nearly on the same ground by William
Madison (_Sénpo-zédalbe_, "Terrible-beard") in 1869, after the tribes
had been assigned to a reservation. In 1844, William Bent began building
trading posts on the South Canadian, in the Texas panhandle, near the
principal Kiowa trails. They also traded extensively at various points
on the Arkansas until their final removal to Indian Territory.

FIRST VISIT TO FORT GIBSON

With the treaty of 1837 and the building of the first trading post in
their country, the modern history of the Kiowa may be said to have
fairly begun. Their first introduction to American civilization was in
1834, when Dohásän and the other chiefs accompanied the troops back to
Fort Gibson, and again in 1837 when they went to the same place for the
purpose of making the treaty. Soon afterward arrangements were made by
Colonel Chouteau to have a delegation of Kiowa, Comanche, and their
associated tribes visit Washington and other eastern cities. A party of
chiefs visited Fort Gibson for this purpose in the summer of 1839, but
Colonel Chouteau having died during the previous winter, and the season
being then far advanced, it was deemed best to abandon the trip, and
accordingly they were given some presents and returned to their homes
(_Report, 1_).

SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC OF 1839-40--PEACE WITH THE CHEYENNE AND ARAPAHO

In the winter of 1839-40 the Kiowa again suffered from the smallpox,
which had broken out in the north in the summer of 1837, nearly
exterminating the Mandan, and then swept the whole plains to the gulf.
In 1840 they made peace with the Arapaho and Cheyenne, with whom they
have ever since been on terms of intimate friendship (see the calendar).
They had already made peace with the Dakota, so that they were now on
good terms with all the tribes of the plains excepting the Pawnee and
Tonkawa, who seem always to have been outlawed tribes, without friends
or allies.

TEXAN SANTA FÉ EXPEDITION

In 1841 the Texan Santa Fé expedition passed through the country of the
Kiowa. Kendall, the historian of that ill-fated undertaking, describes
the tribe as occupying the prairies near the headwaters of Colorado,
Brazos, Wichita, and Red rivers, and incorrectly supposes that their
hunting grounds had never before been visited by white men. He says that
they seemed to be a powerful people, hitherto but little known, owing to
the fact that their range was south of the line of the Missouri traders
and north of that portion of the Comanche country with which the Texans
were acquainted. He speaks of their extraordinary horsemanship, and
credits them with the feat, ascribed also to other plains tribes, of
throwing themselves to one side of their horses while riding parallel
with their enemies in such a way as to conceal and protect their bodies
while discharging their arrows directly under their horses' necks. They
had then but few guns, and these were ineffective in their hands, but
were surprisingly expert in the use of shields, bows, and lances
(_Kendall, 1_). The disastrous encounter of the Texans with the tribe is
narrated in the proper place.

CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1849

The next notable event in Kiowa history is the cholera epidemic of 1849.
It was brought from the east by California emigrants, and ravaged all
the tribes of the plains. The Kiowa remember it as the most terrible
experience in their history, far exceeding in fatality the smallpox of
nine years before. Hundreds died and many committed suicide in their
despair (see the calendar).

FORT ATKINSON TREATY IN 1853

For years the Kiowa and their confederates had been carrying on a
chronic warfare against Mexico and Texas, although generally friendly
toward Americans on the north. For the protection of the advancing
settlements and the traffic over the Santa Fé trail, now amounting to
over $2,000,000 annually (_Report, 2_), it was deemed necessary to end
this anomalous condition of affairs. Accordingly, on July 27, 1853, a
treaty was negotiated by agent Thomas Fitzpatrick, at Fort Atkinson, on
the Arkansas, in Kansas, with the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, by which
these tribes agreed to remain at peace with both the United States and
Mexico, and conceded the right of the government to establish roads and
military posts within their territory. In return for these concessions,
they were to receive an annuity of $18,000 for a term of ten years,
subject to a further extension of five years (_Treaties_). It is
somewhat remarkable that this treaty is not noted on the calendar,
neither does it seem to form a subject of conversation among the older
men.

DEPREDATIONS IN MEXICO--MEXICAN CAPTIVES

Although for obvious reasons the Indians were opposed to the
establishment of roads and military posts in their country, the chief
difficulty in the way of a treaty was their unwillingness to cease war
on Mexico. The proposition to restore their Mexican captives met a
prompt and decided refusal. As the Mexican captive element forms so
large a proportion of the blood of these three tribes, the remarks of
agent Fitzpatrick in this connection are of interest:

The chief difficulty which occurred in negotiating the present
treaty was not, however, presented in the article embracing the
foregoing points, but in that which contemplates a cessation of
hostilities against the neighboring provinces of Mexico and the
restoration of prisoners hereafter captured. For a long time these
tribes have been in the habit of replenishing their caballadas of
horses from the rich valleys and pasture lands which border upon
the Rio Grande. Yearly incursions have been made by them far into
the interior of Chihuahua and Durango, and they but seldom return
without having acquired much plunder, as well as many captives,
from the defenseless inhabitants of that country. The name of the
Comanche and Apache has become a byword of terror even in the
villages and beneath the city walls of those fertile provinces. The
consequences of those expeditions are twofold, for while they serve
to sharpen the appetite for pillage and rapine, they also tend to
keep up the numbers of the tribe. The large herds driven off
produce the former result, and the prisoners captured contribute to
the latter. The males thus taken are most commonly adopted into the
tribe, and soon become the most expert leaders of war parties and
the most accomplished of marauders. The females are chosen as wives
and share the duties and pleasures of the lodge. In fact, so
intermingled amongst these tribes have the most of the Mexican
captives become that it is somewhat difficult to distinguish them.
They sit in council with them, hunt with them, go to war with them,
and partake of their perils and profits, and but few have any
desire to leave them. Upon this account the chiefs of the nations
refused positively and distinctly to entertain any proposals or
make any treaties having in view giving up those captives now
dwelling amongst them. They stated very briefly that they had
become a part of the tribe; that they were identified with them in
all their modes of life; that they were the husbands of their
daughters and the mothers of their children, and they would never
consent to a separation, nor could any persuasion or inducement
move them to abate this position. All that could be accomplished
was to make a provision for the future (_Report, 3_).

Even this much, seems to have amounted to but little, for in the next
year we find the same agent-reporting that "so far as I can learn, they
have faithfully complied with the treaty stipulations, save one. It is a
difficult matter to make them understand that New Mexico now belongs to
the United States. They deny ever having consented not to war on
Mexicans. They say that they have no other place to get their horses and
mules from" (_Report, 4_).

DEFEAT OF ALLIED TRIBES BY SAUK AND FOX, 1854

In the summer of 1854 the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Cheyenne, and others
of the plains tribes, organized a great expedition for the purpose of
exterminating the immigrant tribes in eastern Kansas, whose presence was
beginning to be felt in an ominous decrease of the buffalo. Although
this was perhaps the largest war party ever raised by the plains Indians
south of the Sioux country, being estimated to number 1,500 warriors,
they were ingloriously defeated with heavy loss by a party of Sauk and
Fox numbering hardly a hundred, the result being due to the fact that
the latter were armed with long-range rifles, while their enemies had
only bows and arrows. Almost every old man of the Kiowa now alive was
in this battle, which is famous among all the tribes of the southern
plains (see the calendar).

In the same year, according to Clark, a party of 113 Pawnee was cut off
and slaughtered almost to a man by an overwhelming force of Cheyenne and
Kiowa (_Clark, 19_). There is no record of this engagement on the
calendars, although several minor encounters with the Pawnee are noted
about this time.

HOSTILE DRIFT OF THE KIOWA

In the next few years we find little of importance recorded of the Kiowa
beyond concurrent statements of both military and civil officials that
they were growing constantly more insolent and unmanageable. In 1856 a
war party of nearly one hundred arrived at Albuquerque, New Mexico,
having passed through the center of the settlements of that territory,
on their way to attack the Navaho. They were turned back by the military
commander, committing several depredations as they retired (_Report,
5_). Two years later another large war party, together with some
Cheyenne, passed Fort Garland, Colorado, almost on the great divide, in
pursuit of the Ute (_Report, 6_).

[Illustration: FIG. 44--Dohásän or Little-bluff, principal chief,
1833--1866 (after Catlin, 1834)]

DEFIANT SPEECH OF DOHÁSÄN

On one occasion, during the distribution of the annuity goods on the
Arkansas, when fifteen hundred lodges of Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche,
Kiowa, and Apache were encamped along the river, the agent took the
opportunity to tell the Kiowa as plainly as possible that if they did
not cease their depredations the government would not only withhold
their presents but would send troops to punish them. The great chief
Dohásän, after listening in respectful silence to the end, sprang to his
feet, and, calling the attention of the agent to the hundreds of tipis
in the valley below, replied in a characteristic speech:

The white chief is a fool. He is a coward. His heart is small--not
larger than a pebble stone. His men are not strong--too few to
contend against my warriors. They are women. There are three
chiefs--the white chief, the Spanish chief, and myself. The Spanish
chief and myself are men. We do bad toward each other sometimes,
stealing horses and taking scalps, but we do not get mad and act
the fool. The white chief is a child, and like a child gets mad
quick. When my young men, to keep their women and children from
starving, take from the white man passing through our country,
killing and driving away our buffalo, a cup of sugar or coffee, the
white chief is angry and threatens to send his soldiers. I have
looked for them a long time, but they have not come. He is a
coward. His heart is a woman's. I have spoken. Tell the great chief
what I have said (_Report, 7_).

SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC OF 1861-62

In the winter of 1861-62 the smallpox, brought back from New Mexico by a
party of Kiowa returning from a trading trip, again ravaged the Kiowa,
Comanche, and other tribes of the plains (see the calendar). To prevent
a recurrence of the disease, the government soon afterward took measures
for vaccinating the western Indians. In the summer of 1863 a delegation
of Kiowa visited Washington and gave permission for the establishment of
mail stations along the roads through their country in southeastern
Colorado (_Report, 8_).

INDIAN WAR ON THE PLAINS, 1864

The chronic raiding still continued. In 1860 the troops had been ordered
to chastise the Kiowa and Comanche, but apparently with little effect.
Then came the rebellion, involving all the civilized and partly
civilized tribes of the south and reacting on the wild tribes of the
plains. At the same time the fugitive hostiles from the Sioux war in
Minnesota in 1862, who had taken refuge with their western brethren of
the same tribe, helped to increase the ferment. There is evidence also
that agents of the Confederacy had something to do with this result. In
the fall of 1863 it was learned that a combination had been formed by
the Dakota, Cheyenne, part of the Arapaho, the Kiowa, Comanche, and
Apache--all the principal fighting tribes--to inaugurate a general war
along the plains in the spring. To meet the emergency, messages were
sent out to the different tribes in June, 1864, directing all friendly
Indians to repair at once to certain designated military posts, with a
warning that all found away from these posts after a certain date would
be considered hostile. As it was difficult for troops to distinguish one
tribe from another, an order was issued at the same time prohibiting the
friendly Indians in eastern Kansas from going out on their usual buffalo
hunt upon the plains.

Only a part of the Arapaho, and later some of the Cheyenne, responded
and came in. After waiting a sufficient time, Governor Evans of Colorado
issued a proclamation in the summer of 1864 designating all Indians
remaining out as hostiles, whom all persons were authorized to kill and
destroy as enemies of the country, wherever they might be found
(_Report, 9_). In August the agent at Fort Lyon, Colorado, for the
Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Cheyenne, and Arapaho, wrote that "the orders
are to kill every Indian found in the country, and I am inclined to
assist in carrying the orders into effect" (_Report, 10_).

The official reports covering the summer of 1864 are full of notices of
murders and depredations on the plains. The agent of the Overland Mail
stated in August that as a consequence the company had been compelled to
abandon all its stations for a distance of 400 miles, while every ranch
within the same section had been deserted. He reported that the Indians
"arrogantly declare that the land belongs exclusively to them; they
intend to regain and hold it if they have to destroy every white man,
woman, and child to accomplish their purpose. It would seem that the
recent enormous emigration across the plains has alarmed many of the
tribes and infused into their rude minds the belief that the whites were
about to take possession of their country" (_Report, 11_). The great
emigration referred to was in consequence of the rush to the gold mines
of Pike's Peak, discovered in 1858.

VACCINATION AMONG THE PLAINS TRIBES--SET-T'AIÑTE

As usual, the Indians had deferred hostilities until the grass was
high enough in the spring to enable their ponies to travel. In April a
government physician, who had been sent among these tribes to vaccinate
them as a protection from the smallpox which had recently decimated
them, as already noted, found them all apparently friendly.
From him we have an interesting description of the appearance and
home life of the famous chief Set-t'aiñte. He writes from Fort Larned:

I have been two weeks among the Kiowas, about 40 miles up the
Arkansas river. I was four days in Satana's [_Set-t'aiñte_] or
White Bear's village, who is, I believe, their principal chief. He
is a fine-looking Indian, very energetic, and as sharp as a brier.
He and all his people treated, me with much friendship. I ate my
meals regularly three times a day with him in his lodge. He puts on
a good deal of style, spreads a carpet for his guests to sit on,
and has painted fireboards 20 inches wide and 3 feet long,
ornamented with bright brass tacks driven all around the edges,
which they use for tables. He has a brass French horn, which he
blew vigorously when the meals were ready. I slept with Yellow
Buffalo, who was one of the chiefs that visited Washington with
Major Colley. They have quite a number of cows and calves and a
good many oxen and some mules and American horses that they say
they stole from Texas. A body of Kiowas and Comanches and some
Cheyennes intend to make another raid into Texas in about five or
six weeks.

It will be remembered that Texas was at this time in armed rebellion
against the general government, a fact which confirmed the Indians in
their belief that Texans and Americans were two distinct and hostile
nations. With correct prophecy the doctor surmises that a successful
result in the contemplated raid will encourage them to try their hand
farther north. By this time he had vaccinated nearly all the Indians of
the upper Arkansas (_Report, 12_). Fort Larned, in western Kansas, was
then the distributing point for the goods furnished by the government to
the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache.

[Illustration: Photo by Soule, about 1870

FIG. 45--Set-t'aiñte (Satanta) or White-bear]

THE LITTLE ARKANSAS TREATY IN 1865

In a few months the grass was up and a change came o'er the spirit of
the dream. Hostilities had begun on the plains, and in order that the
innocent might not be punished with the guilty, the friendly tribes
along the eastern border had been forbidden to go out into the buffalo
country. This deprivation of accustomed privileges naturally caused
great dissatisfaction among the friendly Indians, who had come to depend
on their annual buffalo hunt to eke out their scanty food supply, and
they complained bitterly that the government had been feeding and
clothing the hostiles, while they themselves had been left to starve.
In a strong letter their agent writes that, while he has a desire to
shield all Indians from wrong and severe treatment, yet "lead, and
plenty of it, is what the Kiowas want and must have before they will
behave." He denounces them as murderous thieves, and says that he has
had personal experience of their insolence and outrages (_Report, 13_).
The incidents of this war noted on the calendar are the encounter at
Fort Larned, in which the Kiowa ran off the horses of the soldiers, and
the attack on a Kiowa camp by a detachment of troops and Ute Indians
under command of Kit Carson (see the calendar).

From the agent's report it appears that the Indians had begun
hostilities in the summer simultaneously on the Platte and the Arkansas,
and up to September had killed a number of people and run off several
thousand head of horses, mules, and cattle. Communication between the
Colorado settlements and the Missouri had been almost entirely cut off,
the overland coaches had to be supplied with large escorts, and emigrant
trains were compelled to combine for safety. It was thought that all the
tribes of the plains were on the warpath together. The Indians were well
mounted, knew the whole country perfectly, and so far, in every contest
on anything like equal terms, had proven themselves a match for the
white soldiers. As nearly the whole available force of the government
was then employed in suppressing the rebellion, no additional troops
could be sent to the frontier, and Governor Evans of Colorado asked and
received permission to raise a force of volunteers against the hostiles.
It was the opinion of many persons, including army officers stationed in
the country, that the whole trouble might have been averted had the
Indians been properly treated by the whites (_Report, 14_).

In spite of the serious condition of affairs it was evident that the
chiefs did not want war. Early in September peace overtures were
received from the Cheyenne and Arapaho, who soon after came in and
camped as directed near Fort Lyon, Colorado. A month later the agent
reported that the Kiowa and Comanche had committed no depredations for a
long time and were supposed then to be south of the Arkansas, near the
Texas border (_Report, 15_). Before the trouble began they had been
encamped on the Arkansas, near Fort Larned. As the tribes had now
expressed their desire for peace, a commission was sent out early in
1865 to meet them for that purpose. The commissioners met the Kiowa,
Comanche, and Apache on August 15 at the mouth of the Little Arkansas,
where now is the town of Wichita, Kansas, and received their promise to
cease hostilities and to meet the same commission in October to make a
regular treaty of peace. Three days later the Cheyenne and Arapaho
entered into a similar agreement at the same place. The Kiowa chiefs
signing the agreement were Dohásän as head chief, Gúi-pä´go
("Lone-wolf"), Sét-dayâ´-ite ("Many-bears"), Set-t'aiñte ("White-bear"),
Te'né-angópte ("Kicking-bird"), and Set-ĭmkía ("Pushing-bear," commonly
known as Stumbling-bear), with Sét-tádal ("Lean-bear") for the Apache,
and eight of the Comanche. Credit for this result is due largely to the
efforts of agent Leavenworth, who secured a suspension of military
operations while he went out to bring in the Indians, a matter of
peculiar difficulty in view of their fresh recollection of the massacre
of friendly Cheyenne by Colonel Chivington in the autumn of the
preceding year (_Report, 16_).

Pursuant to agreement, commissioners met the five tribes in October,
1865, at the mouth of the Little Arkansas, where treaties were made with
the Cheyenne and Arapaho on the 14th, with the Apache on the 17th, and
with the Kiowa and Comanche on the 18th. By the treaty with the Apache
they were officially detached from the Kiowa and Comanche and attached
to the Cheyenne and Arapaho, who agreed to relinquish their reservation
in southeastern Colorado for one farther south, in Kansas and Indian
Territory. The Kiowa and Comanche agreed to remove south of the
Arkansas, the reservation proposed for their future home being a tract
in western Texas and Oklahoma, as follows: Commencing on the Canadian
river where the eastern line of New Mexico crosses the same; thence
running south along said line to the southern boundary of New Mexico;
thence in a northeastwardly direction to the headwaters of Big Wichita
river; thence down said river to its mouth or its junction with Red
river; thence due north to Canadian river; thence up the Canadian to the
place of beginning. By this treaty, which was intended, to be only
temporary, they gave up all claims in Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico,
and were restricted to southwestern Oklahoma and the region of the
Staked plain in Texas. Five white captives were surrendered by the Kiowa
and Comanche at the same time (_Treaty_).

DEATH OF DOHÁSÄN

In the course of the talk Dohásän, on behalf of his people, made a
vigorous protest against being confined to a reservation, claiming that
the Kiowa owned from Fort Laramie and the North Platte to Texas and had
always owned it, and that he did not want his country cut up and divided
with other tribes or given to the white man; his people wanted a large
country to roam over; they did not want to stay long in one place, but
wanted to move about; the Santa Fé road was open and would not be
disturbed, but the rest of their country he wanted let alone.
Notwithstanding this protest the treaty was signed. Among others
officially present were Kit Carson, William Bent, and Agent Leavenworth,
with William Shirley and Jesse Chisholm as interpreters (_Report, 17_).
Dohásän died shortly afterward, early in 1866, and with his death began
the rapid decline of the Kiowa tribe. He was succeeded by Gúi-pä´go,
"Lone-wolf," adopted father of the present chief of the same name. But
the Indian day was drawing to a close. Within a few years the Kiowa were
practically prisoners on a reservation, and their chiefs were the
creatures of petty factions and mere figureheads in the hands of the
government.

KIOWA RAIDS CONTINUED

As a result of these peaceful efforts, there were but few reports of
disturbances during the next year, excepting from the incorrigible
Kiowa. Notwithstanding all their promises, Set-t'aiñte led a war party
into Texas and returned with five captives, a woman and four children,
whom he brought into Fort Larned for ransom. The agent sharply reminded
him of his promise to cease such acts, and demanded the surrender of the
prisoners without compensation, whereon, under pretense of consulting
the other chiefs, Set-t'aiñte took them to Fort Dodge, where the
commander, compassionating their condition, rescued them for a large
sum. In reporting the circumstance, their agent urges that it is high
time the Kiowa were made to feel the strong arm of the government as the
only means of bringing them to a sense of their duty, as they even went
so far as to boast that stealing white women was a more lucrative
business than stealing horses (_Report, 18_).

Other complaints came in during the next year, but full investigation by
the military authorities satisfied them that with the exception of this
raid by Set-t'aiñte the Kiowa and Comanche were innocent (_Report, 19_).
Accordingly measures were taken to arrange a meeting with these tribes
to establish more definite treaty relations, as contemplated in the
provisional treaty of 1865. Preliminary to this meeting Agent Labadi,
with a small party, went from Santa Fé across to the Texas border, where
he met a large portion of the confederated tribes and urged on them the
necessity of keeping peace with the government, at the same time
demanding the free surrender of all white captives of the United States
held by them, concluding by telling them that all of their tribes
hereafter found north of the Arkansas would be treated as hostiles.
After a conference among themselves, the chiefs agreed to deliver up the
captives and end all difficulties, and arranged for a full meeting
later, when some absent chiefs should have returned. In regard to the
raids into Texas, they distinctly stated that they had been told by the
military officers of the government to do all the damage they could to
Texas, because Texas was at war with the United States (referring to the
recent rebellion), and that until now they were ignorant that peace had
been established. Although it is pretty certain that some of them at
least had already been told that the rebellion was at an end, yet there
can be no doubt that the peculiar relations which from the very
beginning had existed between Texas and the general government furnished
them a plausible excuse for the depredations (_Report, 20_).

THE TREATY OF MEDICINE LODGE, 1867, AND ITS RESULTS

The result of these negotiations was the treaty of Medicine Lodge on
October 21, 1867, by which the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache were
officially confederated and agreed to come upon their present
reservation (see the calendar). This treaty merits extended notice,
inasmuch as it changed the whole status of the Kiowa and their allies
from that of independent tribes with free and unrestricted range over
the whole plains to that of pensioners dependent on the government,
confined to the narrow limits of a reservation and subject to constant
military and civilian supervision. For them it marks the beginning of
the end. Moreover, on the provisions and promises of this treaty are
based all the arguments for and against the late unratified agreement of
1892. It will be necessary first to review the situation.

For a number of years the Indian problem on the plains had been
constantly growing more serious. The treatment accorded by Texas to her
native and border tribes had resulted in driving them northward to the
country of upper Red river and the vicinity of the Santa Fé trail, where
they were a constant menace both to the trading caravans and to the
frontier settlers of Kansas and Colorado. In addition to the old Santa
Fé trail the thousands of emigrants to California and Oregon had
established regular roads across the plains, in the north along the
North Platte and in the south along the base of the Staked plain, while
the discovery of gold in Colorado in 1858 brought a flood of white
settlement into the very heart of the Indian country, driving away the
buffalo and narrowing the range of the tribes. Encroachments and
reprisals were becoming chronic, and it was evident that some
arrangement must be made by which the wild tribes could be assigned a
territory remote from the line of settlement and travel, where they
might roam and hunt undisturbed, without danger of coming into collision
with the whites.

The conditions a few years previous are well summed up by the veteran
trader William Bent, at that time agent for the Cheyenne and Arapaho, in
an official report dated October 5, 1859. In it he says:

The Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes scrupulously maintain peaceful
relations with the whites and with other Indian tribes,
notwithstanding the many causes of irritation growing out of the
occupation of the gold region, and the emigration to it through
their hunting grounds, which are no longer reliable as a certain
source of food to them. These causes precipitate the necessity of
immediate and sufficient negotiations for the safety of the whites,
the emigrant roads, and the Indians....

The Kiowa and Comanche Indians have for two years appeared in full
numbers and for long periods upon the Arkansas, and now permanently
occupy the country between the Canadian and Arkansas rivers. This
is in consequence of the hostile front opposed to them in Texas, by
which they are forced toward the north, and is likely to continue
perpetual.... A smothered passion for revenge agitates these
Indians, perpetually fomented by the failure of food, the
encircling encroachments of the white population, and the
exasperating sense of decay and impending extinction with which
they are surrounded....

I estimate the number of whites traversing the plains across the
center belt to have exceeded sixty thousand during the present
season. The trains of vehicles and cattle are frequent and valuable
in proportion. Post lines and private expresses are in constant
motion. The explorations of this season have established the
existence of the precious metals in absolutely infinite abundance
and convenience of position. The concourse of whites is therefore
constantly swelling and incapable of control or restraint by the
government. This suggests the policy of promptly rescuing the
Indians and withdrawing them from contact with the whites, as the
element capable of such immediate management as may anticipate and
prevent difficulties and massacre. I repeat, then, as the
suggestion of my best judgment, that immediate and sufficient steps
be taken to assemble and finally dispose of these particular tribes
of Indians, viz, the Kiowa and Comanches, the Cheyennes, and the
Arapahoes, by reducing them, under treaties and arrangements, to
become agricultural and pastoral people, located within specific
districts, judiciously selected and liberally endowed, to which
they shall be restricted and the white men excluded from among
them. These numerous and warlike Indians, pressed upon all around
by the Texans, by the settlers of the gold region, by the advancing
people of Kansas and from the Platte, are already compressed into a
small circle of territory, destitute of food, and itself bisected
athwart by a constantly marching line of emigrants. A desperate war
of starvation and extinction is therefore imminent and inevitable
unless prompt measures shall prevent it (_Report, 21_).

Despite this warning no steps were taken toward a remedy, and in April,
1864, the irritation resulted in a war with the Cheyenne, speedily
involving also the Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, with several
bands of the Dakota. The most memorable incident of this war was the
massacre of 120 friendly Cheyenne, encamped under the protection of the
United States flag, near Fort Lyon, on Sand creek, Colorado, by Colorado
militia under Colonel Chivington, on November 29, 1864. Hostilities
ended with treaties made with the five tribes chiefly concerned at the
mouth of the Little Arkansas (now Wichita, Kansas), in October, 1865, as
already noted. Short as the war had been, it had cost the government
over $30,000,000 and an unknown number of lives (_Report, 22_).

From this time the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, as tribes, remained
quiet, according to the terms of the treaty, but it was otherwise with
the more northern Indians, who found themselves subjected to constant
aggressions in spite of all agreements. In July, 1866, a war broke out
with the Sioux, and in April, 1867, it spread to the Cheyenne and
Arapaho. Leading incidents of these campaigns were the massacre of
Lieutenant-Colonel Fetterman's whole command at Fort Phil. Kearney,
December 21, 1866, and the burning of a large Cheyenne village on the
Pawnee fork, by General Hancock, in April, 1867 (_Report, 23_).

At this stage of affairs Congress appointed a commission to establish
peace with the hostile tribes, by first ascertaining their grievances
and then making such treaties as would remove the causes of
dissatisfaction and afford protection to the frontier settlements,
emigrant roads, and railroads by assigning to the tribes reservations
where they could remain undisturbed in the future. This commission
consisted of N. G. Taylor, president, John B. Sanborn, Samuel F. Tappan,
J. B. Henderson, and Generals William S. Harney, Alfred H. Terry, and C.
C. Augur. Notwithstanding open war was in progress, they found no
difficulty in effecting friendly meetings with the various tribes. In
September and October, 1867, the commission held councils with the Sioux
and Crows and made treaties with the Cheyenne and Arapaho, and with the
Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, these being the treaties under which the
latter tribes hold their present or recent reservations and draw their
annuities.

In regard to the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, the commissioners state
that from the testimony they were satisfied that these tribes had
substantially complied with the terms of their treaty made two years
before on the Little Arkansas, the only serious violation being the
killing of James Box and the capture of his family in western Texas in
August, 1866. This is the Set-t'aiñte raid already noted. As excuse for
this, the commissioners state, the Indians urged that they supposed an
attack on Texas people would be no violation of a treaty with the United
States--that as we ourselves had been at war with the people of Texas,
an act of hostility on their part would not be disagreeable to us. In
regard to numerous other misdeeds credited to these tribes, they state
that the evidence pretty clearly demonstrates that the charges were
almost entirely without foundation (_Report, 24_).

After visiting some of the northern bands, the commissioners went to
Fort Larned, Kansas, whence they sent messengers to the Cheyenne and
Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, notifying them of their arrival
and purpose. They then proceeded to the general tribal rendezvous on
Medicine-lodge creek, about the present site of Medicine Lodge, Barber
county, Kansas, where they met the Indians, and the treaties were made
(see the calendar).

A treaty was first made with the Kiowa and Comanche on October 21, 1867,
and by a supplementary treaty made immediately afterward on the same
day, the Apache, at their own request, were formally confederated and
incorporated with them instead of with the Cheyenne and Arapaho, with
whom they had been united by the treaty of the Little Arkansas two years
before. The Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache together signed the treaty of
confederation, which was proclaimed August 25, 1868. At the same council
meeting was made the similar treaty with the Cheyenne and Arapaho, by
which those tribes held their late reservation and became entitled to
their current annuities. These treaties superseded all previous
agreements (_Treaties_).

The Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache treaty provides for peace and mutual
good will, and stipulates that the Indians shall refrain from further
attacks on the whites, and withdraw all opposition to the construction
of railroads and other roads and the building of military posts in the
western country, then or afterward to be authorized by the government.
The usual provision is made for an agency, schools, farmers, doctor,
blacksmith, etc. Article 6 provides for the selection of farming tracts
within the proposed reservation, to be recorded and held as the
individual property of such Indians as may desire to become farmers.

Article 2 sets apart for the use of the three confederated tribes their
present reservation, bounded on the east by the ninety-eighth meridian,
on the south and west by Red river and its North-fork, and on the north
by the Washita from the ninety-eighth meridian up to a point 30 miles by
river from Fort Cobb, and thence by a line due west to the North fork.
All within these bounds is solemnly "set apart for the undisturbed use
and occupation of the tribes herein named, and for such other friendly
tribes or individual Indians as from time to time they may be willing,
with the consent of the United States, to admit among them; and the
United States now solemnly agrees that no persons except those herein
authorized so to do, and except such officers, agents, and employés of
the government as may be authorized to enter upon [the] Indian
reservation in discharge of duties enjoined by law, shall ever be
permitted to pass over, settle upon, or reside in the territory
described in this article, or in such territory as may be added to this
reservation, for the use of said Indians."

By article 10 all obligations incurred by the United States under
previous treaties are canceled, and instead the government agrees to
deliver at the agency, "on the 15th day of October of each year, for
thirty years," the equivalent of a full suit of clothing for each Indian
man, woman, and child, for which purpose the agent is to make an annual
census of the tribes; "and in addition to the clothing herein named, the
sum of twenty-five thousand dollars shall be annually appropriated for a
period of thirty years" for the judicious purchase of such articles as
may seem proper to the condition and necessities of the Indians.
Provision is made for the expenditure of a portion of the clothing fund
in other ways for the benefit of the Indians, whenever, within the
period of thirty years, it might seem advisable, "but in no event shall
the amount of this appropriation be withdrawn or discontinued for the
period named." All annuity issues were to be made in the presence of an
army officer detailed for the purpose, who should inspect and report on
the quantity and quality of the goods and the manner of their delivery.

Provision is also made for establishing a sufficient number of schools
to continue for a period of not less than twenty years. The Indians
agree to surrender all claims to lands outside the reservation as
established in article 2, retaining, however, some temporary hunting
privileges south of the Arkansas. Several minor details are specified,
and by article 12 it is stipulated that no treaty for the sale of any
portion of the reservation thus agreed upon shall have force or validity
"unless executed and signed by at least three-fourths of all the adult
male Indians occupying the same."

The Kiowa signers were ten in number, of whom only Set-ĭmkía was still
alive in 1896. Their names were:

_Set-ä´ngya_, "Sitting-bear" (Satank).
_Set-t'aiñte_, "White-bear" (Sa-tan-ta).
_Gúato-kóñgya_, "Black-bird" (Wa-toh-konk, or Black Eagle).
_T'ene´-angópte_, "Kicking-bird" (Ton-a-en-ko, or Kicking Eagle).
_Taká-i-bodal_, "Spoiled-saddle-blanket" (Fish-e-more, or
Stinking Saddle).
_Mäñyí-tén_, "Woman-heart" (Ma-ye-tin).
_Set-ĭmkía_, "Pushing-bear" (Sa-tim-gear, or Stumbling Bear).
_Set-pä´go_, "Lone-bear" (Sit-par-ga, or Sa-pa-ga, or One Bear).
_Gaá-bohón_, "Crow-bonnet" (Corbeau, or The Crow).
_Set-emâ´-i_, "Bear-lying-down" (Sa-ta-more).

The Apache signers were:

_Babípa_ (Mah-vip-pah, Wolf's Sleeve).
_Gúañtekána_ (Kon-zhon-ta-co, Poor Bear).
_Chónshitá_ (Cho-se-ta, or Bad Back).
-------- (Nah-tan, or Brave Man).
-------- (Ba-zhe-ech, Iron Shirt).
_Tĭ´l-'lakaí_ (Til-la-ka, or White Horn).

The Comanche signers, of whom only Howia was alive in 1896, were:

_Päriăséaman_, "Ten-elks" (Parry-wah-say-men, or Ten Bears).
_Tĭ´pinävón_ (Tep-pe-navon, or Painted Lips).
_Tä´sawi_ (To-sa-in, To-she-wi, or Silver Brooch).
_Síacĭ´nika_, "Standing-head-feather" (Cear-chi-neka).
_Howía_, (Ho-we-are, or Gap in the Woods).
_Täyăkwoip_, "Sore-backed-horse" (Tir-ha-yah-guahip, or Horse's
Back).
_Ĭsanä´naka_, "Wolf-noise" (Es-a-nanaca, or Wolf's Name).
_Ätéstisti_, "Little-horn" (Ah-te-es-ta).
_Púiwi-tóyäbi_ "Iron-mountain" (Pooh-yah-to-yeh-be).
_Sä´riyo_, "Dog-fat" (Sad-dy-yo).

In addition to the signatures of the commissioners the treaty bears the
names of a number of witnesses, some of them noted in the pioneer
history of the southwest, including Thomas Murphy, superintendent of
Indian affairs, J. H. Leavenworth, agent for the three tribes, and
Philip McCusker, the interpreter, well known in connection with these
tribes until his death in 1885.

RENEWED HOSTILITIES

As no arrangements had yet been made for the removal of the Indians to
the south, most of them remained encamped on the Arkansas until June,
1868, when the Cheyenne became involved in difficulty with the military,
resulting in their flight southward to the Canadian and Washita. On the
return of the unsuccessful war party against the Ute, in which
Setdayâ´ite had been killed, as narrated in the calendar for that year
(see the calendar), the Kiowa also left the Arkansas and removed to the
south, thus anticipating measures by General Sherman to drive all these
tribes by military force upon the new reservations assigned them by the
late treaty, notwithstanding the fact that neither agency buildings nor
agents were yet established on either reservation. In pursuance of this
policy, General Sherman, in September, asked to have all issues
whatever to any of these tribes withheld until they had concentrated
near Fort Cobb on the Washita, and announced that after waiting a
sufficient time for them to reach that point he would solicit an order
declaring all Indians outside these reservations to be outlaws, "and
recommending all people, soldiers, and citizens to proceed against them
as such." He also proposed to declare forfeited the hunting privileges
outside these boundaries, guaranteed under the treaty. Despite the
agent's protest that the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache had done nothing to
deserve such treatment, and the statement of the acting commissioner
that Fort Cobb was not on the Cheyenne and Arapaho reservation at all,
military operations were begun in September, with this purpose in view,
with the result that all five tribes were again involved in war
(_Report, 25_).

However peaceable the Kiowa and Comanche may have been on the Kansas
frontier at this time, they were insolent enough in the south, for, in
addition to raids into Texas, the agent for the Wichita and associated
tribes, which had recently been removed to the vicinity of Fort Cobb,
reports that they had plundered the Wichita of nearly everything, burned
the agency, and forced the employees to leave to save their lives
(_Report, 26_).

BATTLE OF THE WASHITA--REMOVAL TO THE RESERVATION

The command of operations in Indian Territory was given to General
George A. Custer, who left Fort Dodge, Kansas, with eleven troops of the
Seventh cavalry and twelve troops of Kansas volunteers, and after
establishing Camp Supply, started on a winter campaign, intending to
strike the Indians when they would be least prepared for defense or
flight. The result was the "Battle of the Washita," on November 27,
1868, in which the Cheyenne village under Black-kettle was surprised and
totally destroyed, one hundred and three warriors, including
Black-kettle himself, being killed, a number of prisoners taken, and
nearly a thousand ponies captured and shot, thus practically rendering
the survivors helpless. The engagement occurred on the south bank of the
Washita, in Oklahoma, just above Sergeant-major creek. Most of the
Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache were camped below along the river
for a distance of several miles; the whole forming the winter camp of
the allied tribes. The Kiowa, who were nearest, prepared to attack, but,
being taken at a disadvantage, agreed to go with the troops to Fort
Cobb, the proposed agency. Instead of doing this, however, the warriors
sent their families with their movables in a contrary direction and
attempted to slip away themselves in small parties until Custer seized
Lone-wolf, the head chief, and Set-t'aiñte, next in authority, and
threatened to hang them both unless the absentees delivered themselves
at Fort Cobb within two days. This brought matters to a head, and the
whole tribe, excepting a band which fled under Woman-heart (_Mäñyí-tén_)
toward the Staked plain, came in and surrendered at Fort Cobb within
the time specified, about the end of December, 1868. The two chiefs were
thereupon set at liberty. Most of the Comanche and Apache had already
come in immediately after the Washita fight. The Cheyenne and Arapaho
fled to the head of Red river, where they were followed by Custer, and
were brought in later to their own reservation (_Custer, 1_; _Record,
1_). As an effective means of holding these tribes in check for the
future, Fort Sill was established in the spring of 1869, nearly in the
center of the reservation, with the agency for the Kiowa, Comanche, and
Apache adjoining.

FURTHER INSOLENCE OF THE KIOWA--RAIDS INTO TEXAS

Although they had been compelled to settle on a reservation, the Kiowa
continued their raids into Texas, destroying property, killing white
people, and carrying away captives. On one occasion they even attacked
the agency at Fort Sill, killed and wounded several men, stampeded the
agency cattle and the quartermaster's mules, and defiantly challenged
the soldiers to come out and fight. Civil and military officials alike
agree that there was not the slightest excuse for these outrages, to
which they were encouraged by the Kwáhadi Comanche, who had never yet
come in from the Staked plain and who never ceased to ridicule those
Indians who had submitted. To put an end to this state of affairs, the
Commissioner in 1870 recommended the establishment of a line of posts
along the southern boundary of the reservation, and that the Kiowa and
Comanche should all be placed under military control until they had
learned to behave properly (_Report, 27_).

Affairs went on from bad to worse. In 1871 a large raiding party killed
seven men in Texas, torturing one over a fire, and capturing a number of
mules. The leaders had the hardihood to boast of their deed in the
presence of the agent and General Sherman, who promptly arrested the
three most prominent, Set-t'aiñte, Setängya, and Ä´do-eétte or
"Big-tree." Setängya (Satank) resisted and was killed. The other two
were sent to Texas for trial and punishment (see the calendar).

In 1872 another Commissioner declared that the point had been reached
where forbearance had ceased to be a virtue, and again recommended that
the three tribes be turned over to the military for punishment. He
states that a wholesome example is absolutely necessary to command
obedience, asserting that "so long as four-fifths of these tribes take
turns at raiding into Texas, openly and boastfully bringing back scalps
and spoils to their reservation, efforts to inspire very high ideas of
social and industrial life among the communities of which the raiders
form so large a part will presumably result in failure." At the same
time their agent reports that, although they had come regularly for
their rations during the preceding winter and spring, giving repeated
assurance of amity and peace, yet so soon as their horses were in
condition in summer the Kiowa had gone on the warpath, taking with them
a large number of the Comanche and Apache, and within a few months
had stolen hundreds of horses and mules, carried off several captive
women and children, and killed over twenty persons in Texas, besides
others in New Mexico and elsewhere. By withholding rations for three
months, he had compelled them to bring in two captives without ransom,
and states that he would continue to withhold supplies from them until
the other was surrendered. He declared, finally, that the Kiowa and some
bands of the Comanche were beyond control by him (_Report, 28_). The
calendar for this year (q. v.) also takes note of these raids.

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LVIII

PHOTOS BY JACKSON, 1872

GUI-PÄGO OR LONE-WOLF, PRINCIPAL CHIEF, 1866--1874]

[Illustration: Photo by Soule, about 1870

FIG. 46--Set-ängya(Satank) or Sitting-bear]

INTERTRIBAL PEACE COUNCIL, 1872

In the summer of 1872 the general council of the civilized tribes of
Indian Territory sent a commission to the wild tribes in the western
part of the territory to urge them to a permanent peace among themselves
and with the United States. This Indian commission met the chiefs and
headmen of the Caddo, Wichita, and affiliated tribes, the Cheyenne and
Arapaho, and the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, together with their
agents, near Fort Cobb, in July and August, and had several talks with
them, resulting in a general friendly feeling among the tribes, but
without any very substantial outcome in regard to the Kiowa, who
demanded the release of Set-t'aiñte and Big-tree as a preliminary to
negotiations. They did surrender two white captives, as already stated,
but this appears to have been due to the stoppage of rations by the
agent rather than to the efforts of the peacemakers. Notwithstanding the
rose-colored report of the commission, we learn from the agent that
while Kicking-bird, as always, was on the side of peace, White-horse
(_Tseñ-t'aiñte_), the notorious raider, declared that the old chiefs
might make peace, but he and the young men would raid when they chose,
while Lone-wolf, the head chief, declared that they would not make peace
or return their captives until Set-t'aiñte and Big-tree were released
and the Kiowa reservation extended from the Rio Grande to the Missouri.
He modified his terms, however, when he found that all rations and
annuities were to be cut off until the captives were unconditionally
released (_Report, 29_). About the same time the Kiowa invited the
Cheyenne to join them in forming a combination of the southwestern
tribes to make war on the whites and effect the release of the
imprisoned chiefs, but the Cheyenne refused the proposition (_Report,
30_).

Soon after, in the same year, another commission was sent out from
Washington to the same tribes to discuss with them the subject of their
own and the government's treaty obligations, and to warn them in plain
terms that unless they ceased their raids outside their reservations the
military would be directed to begin active operations against them, and
that all parties hereafter leaving the reservation to go into Texas
would be considered as hostiles to be attacked without inquiry and to be
followed into their camps, if necessary, for punishment.

JOINT DELEGATION TO WASHINGTON, 1872

An important object of the commission was to obtain a good
representative delegation of the several tribes to visit Washington,
with the view of impressing them on the way with the strength of the
whites, in order to obtain a better understanding on their arrival.
Although the other tribes generally responded promptly and
satisfactorily, the Kiowa, as usual, were disposed to be perverse. At
last, however, a party, including Lone-wolf, Woman-heart, Red-otter
(_Ápeñ-gúadal_), Dohásän (son of the former great chief), Sun-boy
(_Paí-tälyí_), Stumbling-bear, and others, met the commission on the
Washita and consented to send delegates to Washington on the promise
that their imprisoned chiefs, Set-t'aiñte and Big-tree, should be
allowed to meet them at some point on the way, or that if five delegates
were sent, the prisoners should be allowed to accompany them. A
delegation had been selected to start for the east in September, when a
rumor came of a movement of troops in the vicinity of their remoter
camps, with the result that a number of the assembled Indians stampeded,
including several of the promised delegates. The Kiowa delegation, as it
finally left, consisted of four men--Lone-wolf, the head chief, Sun-boy,
_Gui-k`ate_ ("Wolf-lying down," improperly rendered "Sleeping-wolf") and
one other. The Apache delegates were Pacer, Daho, and Gray-eagle.

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LIX

PHOTO BY LANNEY, 1892

TSEÑ-T'AIÑTE OR WHITE-HORSE]

[Illustration: Photo by Soule, about 1870

FIG. 47--Tseñ-t'aiñte or White-horse]

[Illustration: Photo by Soule, about 1870

FIG. 48--Ä´do-eétte or Big-tree]

In accordance with the promise, the two imprisoned chiefs were sent on
under guard to St Louis, where they were allowed to see and talk with
their friends, after which they were returned to the custody of the
governor of Texas. The whole delegation, which was the largest and most
important that had ever visited Washington, included representatives
of all the southern plains tribes, excepting the Cheyenne and the
Kwáhadi Comanche of the Staked plain. The latter had never entered into
a treaty and refused to be settled on a reservation, although protesting
their desire to be at peace. Whatever hopes may have been built on these
negotiations, the events of the next two years would seem to prove to
have been futile.

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LX

PHOTO BY JACKSON, 1872

GUI-K`ÁTE OR SLEEPING-WOLF (WOLF-LYING-DOWN) AND WIFE]

THOMAS C. BATTEY, FIRST TEACHER AMONG THE KIOWA, 1872

In December, 1872, Thomas C. Battey, a Quaker, the first teacher who
made any impression on the Kiowa, came among them after a short sojourn
with the Caddo, and remained about eight months. Although he
accomplished little in the way of education, owing to the restless
nomadic habits of the tribe, his influence with Kicking-bird
(_T'enéangópte_) probably kept that chief and his band from the warpath
in the outbreak of 1874. He has left a most interesting and valuable
narrative of his experiences among the Kiowa, who still hold him in
friendly remembrance as _Támĭsi_ (see _Battey_).

REPORT OF CAPTAIN ALVORD

The report of Captain Alvord, chairman of the commission, in regard to
the Kiowa, is a good summary of the situation as concerns them up to
date. He says:

The Kiowas, from their present attitude and their conduct during
the last two or three years, demand especial consideration. The
tribe numbers about 1,200. In 1868 they barely avoided a serious
conflict with the United States troops, and, although the larger
part of them were brought to within a reasonable distance of their
agency, and suitably located in the spring of 1869, they soon
returned to their favorite range between the Wichita mountains and
the eastern slope of the Staked Plains, whence unrestrained they
have most of the time since made frequent and successful
expeditions in different directions, chiefly into Texas. To a
certain extent they are subdivided into bands, and the chiefs of
these have evinced different degrees of friendship, but it would be
impossible to deal with them otherwise than as a tribe.

As already stated, their hostilities of the past year were pursuant
to their deliberate decision, and it is safe to state that at least
one-half of the terrible scenes of blood, fire, and pillage which
they have caused have never yet been reported to the Department.
The cold-blooded murders of inoffensive persons known to have been
committed by them within two years approach a hundred, and they
have now in their herds not less than a thousand stolen horses and
mules, including over two hundred taken within a few months from
the troops and agencies in their vicinity.

Lately they have yielded to a demand made upon them and given up
the only white captives known to be among them, and there is no
doubt that the present delegation, with the man at its head
acknowledged as the principal chief of the tribe, will make every
profession of friendship in the future and be anxious to cry quits
and begin anew on peace terms. Nevertheless, while I desire to give
this people all the credit they deserve, the opinion is very
positively expressed that these apparently friendly acts on their
part are no guarantees for the future, but simply repetitions of
their conduct every autumn, when it is highly important to them to
place themselves in position to receive during the winter months
the material aid in subsistence and clothing afforded by the
government. Gladly will they offer this fall certain terms of
peace, but these will be found wholly in their favor--entire
forgiveness for all past offenses, the possession of the greater
portion of their stolen property, and full restoration to the
rights and privileges of the plains Indians in general. But the
promises of future good conduct will be utterly worthless, and,
these terms granted, there will be every prospect of a renewal of
their depredations as soon as the early grass recuperates their
stock and they find themselves able to subsist on the prairies.

The present position of the Kiowas may not be exactly one of open
hostility, but it is certainly nothing less than the most offensive
insubordination. Their agent for the past three years, a sincere
member of the Society of Friends, a man who has proved himself
eminently fitted for the place, declares this tribe uncontrollable,
and states his belief that nothing less than military authority,
with perhaps some punishment by troops, will bring them into such
subjection as to again render the services of a civil agent of
benefit to them.

The Kiowas have no shadow of excuse for their conduct. For three
years they have received their annuity goods, of proper quantity
and quality; have drawn their rations regularly until their action
last spring compelled their agent to refuse them; and in no way
have they received any injury from the government troops or agents.
The arrest of two of their chiefs under due process of law, with
their subsequent trial and conviction in the state of Texas, must
not be forgotten; but the government at once interceded and secured
a commutation of their sentence, and the Kiowas were informed that
the fate of their chiefs depended on the future action of the
tribe. This can in no way be considered an excuse for them,
uncivilized as they are, and as a pretext it but makes their
conduct worse.

It is not only recommended, but strongly urged, that the United
States government no longer receive their proffer, but dictate to
this tribe its own terms of settlement, making sure guarantees of
safety to the lives and property of its citizens in the future.

I recommend that the representatives of the Kiowas now in
Washington be told, in the presence of the entire delegation, that
the government proposes to dictate its own terms to that tribe, and
that they be the following: The entire tribe to encamp before
November 30 at some suitable point near Fort Sill (for instance,
Crawford's creek), where every movement can be watched by troops.
All horses or mules found in their herds, undoubtedly taken from
the government and from private parties during the past two years,
to be given up within the same time, and the tribe to make good
from their other stock any such animals found with other tribes, by
them obtained from the Kiowas--and the tribe to surrender to the
proper authorities, for trial by United States courts, the three
most prominent men of those engaged in the greatest atrocities
during the past year. Also, that they be told that the recent
conduct of the tribe prevents all present hope of the release of
their two prisoner chiefs, and that the liberty of those and the
others to be given up will depend entirely upon future good
behavior. Also, that no annuity goods whatever be issued to them
for the present year, and that hunting parties be allowed to leave
camp only when accompanied by a proper detachment of troops.

It is recommended that the necessary arrangements be made at once
to have a sufficient body of troops in readiness to enforce
compliance with these terms. If such a force is known by the
Indians to be prepared to move by the 20th of November, it is
believed that the terms will be complied with on time. Otherwise
the movement should take place promptly on the 1st day of December,
and under a judicious officer the tribe can be reached and
compelled to yield with very little probability of an actual
conflict. As elsewhere suggested, it would be desirable to have a
proper representative of the Indian office accompany the troops.

Should these recommendations be approved, it would be well also to
notify them that, having come or been forced into camp as proposed,
they will be closely watched, and any movement, great or small, not
fully authorized by whoever has them in charge, will subject the
movers to immediate attack.

It is deemed especially important that the decision of the
department as to the course it will pursue toward the Kiowas be
fully explained to them, and to the Apaches and Comanches, before
the present delegation returns to the territory, and that all the
other tribes be warned that, in case of any resistance on the part
of the Kiowas, any Indians found aiding or communicating with them
will be summarily dealt with (_Report, 31_).

[Illustration: Photo by Soule, about 1870

FIG. 49--"Ka-ati-wertz-ama-na--A brave man, not afraid of any Indian"[2]]

[Footnote 2: The name given is a Comanche corruption.]

RELEASE OF SET-T'AIÑTE AND BIG-TREE, 1873

[Illustration: Photo by Soule, about 1870

FIG. 50--T'ené-angópte or Kicking-bird]

The principal event of 1873 was the release and return to their people
of the chiefs Set-t'aiñte and Big-tree, who had been imprisoned in Texas
under jurisdiction of the state authorities (see the calendar). On the
assurance given to the delegates in Washington that their chiefs would
be restored to them in the spring, provided the tribe remained peaceably
on the reservation in the meantime, the Kiowa had conducted themselves
properly through the winter. With spring, however, came the Modok war,
with the killing of General Canby, which created such a distrust of
Indians in general that the people of Texas were unwilling to surrender
the prisoners, whom they regarded as hostages for the safety of the
frontier. Notwithstanding their disappointment, the Kiowa remained
quietly at home, patiently waiting until the government should bring
influence to bear on the governor of Texas to redeem its promise. The
prisoners, accompanied by Governor Davis of Texas and the Indian
Commissioner, were at last brought to Fort Sill, where a council was
held with the Kiowa in October. At the opening of the council the
governor of Texas made a number of hard demands as preliminary to the
surrender of the chiefs, although the government had already promised
their unconditional release in consideration of the good conduct of the
tribe during the last year. Some of these conditions were practically
impossible, and for a time it seemed as if the whole purpose of the
negotiations would be defeated, Kicking-bird, the leader of the friendly
element, declaring that the government had lied and that the white man
was no longer his friend, while Lone-wolf threatened war even though it
should mean the destruction of their people. It became evident that
there would be a desperate encounter if the chiefs were not now set free
as promised, and on the earnest representations of the Indian
Commissioner the governor finally yielded in his demands, and
Set-t'aiñte and Big-tree were released from custody on October 8, 1873,
subject, however, to rearrest by the state of Texas whenever it should
appear that any of the Kiowa had again been raiding there. Although this
condition was in violation of the promises made by the government, the
Indians were compelled to be satisfied. An unsuccessful attempt was made
by the governor to force the Comanche, by the delivery of hostages, to
similar conditions. To show their good will, however, a party of
Comanche volunteered to assist a detachment of troops in bringing in any
of their young men who might then be raiding in Texas. During their
absence on this errand a party of Texans visited the reservation and ran
off two hundred horses and mules _(Report, 32_; _Battey, 1_).

The Quaker teacher, Battey, who was present during the council, thus
describes the release of the chiefs:

Satanta and Big Tree, after embracing the governor, proceeded to
embrace the chiefs present, and immediately returned with them to
the agent's office, from whence they went to their rude home in
their camps. The reunion of these chiefs with their tribe and
families was impressive and affecting in the extreme. Joy beamed
upon every countenance, and their happiness was exhibited, as might
be expected, in the most wild and natural manner.

Reports continued to fill the newspapers of renewed raids into Texas by
Set-t'aiñte and Big-tree, when Battey asserts--

To my certain knowledge the latter was at home, sick in his lodge,
and the former enjoying, after two years' confinement in prison,
the pleasures of the buffalo chase, on territory assigned for the
purpose (_Battey, 2_).

HAWORTH'S ADMINISTRATION--1873-78

At this time the various agencies were in charge of agents nominated by
different religious bodies in accordance with the "peace policy"
inaugurated by President Grant. The agent for the Kiowa, Comanche, and
Apache was J. M. Haworth, nominated by the Society of Friends, of which
body his acts show him to have been a consistent member, who held charge
for five years, from April, 1873, to April, 1878, including the
troublous period of the outbreak and subsequent readjustment. In spite
of the many difficulties at the time, he soon gained the confidence of
these wild and warlike people, and conceived and successfully
inaugurated the first substantial work of civilization among them in the
way of schools, farming and stock raising, and the building up of
friendly relations with the whites. He is held in grateful memory among
the Kiowa, who know him as _Sénpo gúadal_, "Red-beard." An extract from
his first report shows the spirit in which he met them and their quick
response:

When I took charge, I told the Indians in council that I had come
among them as their friend and desired us to live together as
friends. As a proof of my confidence in them, I had the soldiers
whom I found on duty removed, and relied upon them to conduct
themselves in a peaceable and friendly manner; told them with their
help we could make this a peaceable country to live in. I desired
them to refrain from raiding or stealing. The chiefs promised me
assistance; said if their young men would not listen, but ran off
and stole horses, they would bring in to me all they brought back,
and I could restore them to their owners. A short time ago I
reminded the Comanches of their promise--told them I had heard some
of their young men had been in Texas and brought back a number of
horses. Within two weeks from the time I spoke to them fifty-two
head of horses and mules were delivered to me as having been stolen
from Texas since I came in charge as agent. I did not make any
threats of stopping rations, or anything of the kind; simply
reminded them of their promises and appealed to their better
natures, with the very satisfactory result referred to (_Report,
33_).

FIRST SCHOOL ESTABLISHED BY BATTEY

Early in 1873 also, another Quaker, Thomas C. Battey, attempted the
first school work among the Kiowa, as already noted. Although a
conscientious worker, the force of their wandering habits and Indian
beliefs was still too strong, and the effort in its direct purpose was a
failure. He remained with them some months, however, and the good
impression he made had much to do with keeping the larger portion of the
tribe from the warpath in the subsequent outbreak. He thus sums up his
school experiment:

Having erected a tent and fitted it up, I commenced a school with
twenty-two children in attendance, which continued for something
over a week, during which time the children manifested their
aptitude to learn by the progress they made. The elder people also
manifested much interest in it by their frequent visits, their
attention to the exercises, and their encouraging words to the
children. About this time, much sickness prevailing among the
children in the camp, some superstitious Caddoes who happened there
attributed the sickness among them to me, telling them I was a bad
medicine man and had made some of their children sick when I was
with them, two of whom d

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