CALENDAR HISTORY OF THE KIOWA INDIANS
BY
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

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY—SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LVII

THE KIOWA RANGE SHOWING THE LOCATION OF THE PLAINS TRIBES IN 1832.

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.

THE KIOWA CALENDARS

THE ANNUAL CALENDARS OF DOHÁSÄN, POLÄÑ´YI-KATÓN, SET-T'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, ´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, ´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 scalplock 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

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 (´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 (´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 sun-dance 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'át'á 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 (Tóñkóñko, "blackleg people") and the Arapaho Gros Ventres (Botk`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 Pá-tádal, 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, scorned 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 ´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 ´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, "Harelip," 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" (Dohásän, "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

Fig. 44—Dohásän or Little-bluff, principal chief, 1833—1866 (after Catlin, 1834).

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).

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.

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 Northfork, 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).
• Síachĭ´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.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY—SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LVIII

PHOTOS BY JACKSON, 1872.

GUI-PÄGO OR LONE-WOLF, PRINCIPAL CHIEF, 1866—1874.

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.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY—SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LIX

PHOTO BY LANNEY, 1892.

TSEÑ-T'AIÑTE OR WHITE-HORSE.

Photo by Soule, about 1870.

Fig. 47—Tseñ-t'aiñte or White-horse.

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.

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'ené-angópte) 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).

Photo by Soule, about 1870.

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

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

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 died. This had the effect to entirely break up the school, though I continued my efforts to renew it for nearly two months. Sometimes when I would get a few children collected, they would be driven out by their old men. Sometimes young men would come in, laugh at them, and abuse them until they would leave. After about two months they became more unsettled, moving from place to place almost continually, searching for better grass for their stock, better water, more wood, to get buffalo, etc. As we were seldom but a day or two in a place, I gave up all effort to sustain a school (Battey, 3).

THE OUTBREAK OF 1874—75

CAUSES OF THE DISSENSION

But events were steadily drifting toward war again and the truce was of brief duration, the unrest culminating in the general revolt commonly known as the outbreak of 1874. As this was the last, and will forever remain the last, combination of the southern plains tribes against the power of the white man, resulting in their complete and final subjection, it merits somewhat detailed attention.

In late raids into Texas several of the Comanche had been killed by the hated Tonkawa, a small cannibal tribe, in their capacity of government scouts (see the [calendar, 1873—74]). The wailing laments of the Comanche women for their dead, and their appeals for vengeance, urged the warriors to go down once more into Texas and exterminate the remnants of the man-eaters who had escaped the massacre of twelve years before. To add to their discontent, a lawless band of hunters organized in Dodge City, Kansas, had, in the spring of 1873, established an adobe fort, known as the "Adobe Walls," on the South Canadian, in the panhandle of Texas, from which headquarters they were making inroads on the guaranteed hunting grounds of the Indians and were slaughtering the buffalo by thousands, in defiance of the government promises that such intrusion would be prevented. It was also charged that they directly incited disorder by selling whisky, arms, and ammunition to the Indians in return for stolen stock. In his official report on the outbreak, General Pope states emphatically that the unlawful intrusion and criminal conduct of the white hunters were the principal cause of the war (War, 1). This is confirmed by the testimony of white men employed at the Cheyenne agency at the time, who stated to the author that just before going out the Cheyenne chiefs rode down and assured them that they need have no fear, as the Indians considered them as friends and would not molest them, but were compelled to fight the buffalo hunters, who were destroying their means of subsistence. "Then they shook hands with us and rode off and began killing people."

Shortly before this the son and nephew of Lone-wolf, the principal chief of the Kiowa, had been killed in Mexico. He went down with a party in the summer of 1874 and buried their bodies, making a solemn vow at the same time to kill a white man in retaliation, and thus communicating to his people the bitterness which he felt himself (see the [calendar, 1873—74]). Lone-wolf is described by Battey about this time as being several years older than Kicking-bird, not so far seeing, more hasty and rash in his conclusions, as well as more treacherous and cunning, but with less depth of mind. He was the acknowledged leader of the war element in the tribe.

While lawless white men were thus destroying the buffalo, the Indians themselves were suffering for food. The agent for the Cheyenne reports that for nearly four months preceding the outbreak the rations had fallen short, and expresses the opinion that if there had been a full supply he could have held the tribe from the warpath. At the same time they were being systematically robbed of their stock by organized bands of horse thieves. The immediate cause of the outbreak by the Cheyenne in May, 1874, was the stealing by these men of forty-three valuable ponies belonging to the chief, Little-robe. In attempting to recover them Little-robe's son was dangerously wounded, in revenge for which the Cheyenne soon after killed a member of a surveying party in the Kiowa country and at once began open hostilities (Report, 34; Battey, 4).

Photo by Bell, 1888.

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

Agent Miles thus tersely sums up the provocation:

The lack of power to administer the law—to remove improper characters from this reservation, to break up the various bands of dissolute white men, horse and cattle thieves, known to be operating in our vicinity—is the prime cause that may be assigned for the serious outbreak among the Cheyennes on this reservation. As elsewhere stated, the Cheyennes and Arapahoes were assured by the President, on their recent visit to Washington, that improper white men and buffalo hunters should be kept from their country at all hazards, and they very naturally expected that some effort would be made to keep that promise; but they have looked in vain, and the Cheyennes, being the most restless of the two tribes, grew tired and endeavored to avenge their own wrongs. The result of such a proceeding could have but one ending, and that was to bring them into conflict with the general government (Report, 35).

THE COMANCHE MEDICINE-MAN

At this critical juncture a young medicine-man named Ĭ´sätaí arose among the Kwáhadi Comanche—the wildest and most intractable portion of the tribe—with claims of supernatural powers. He asserted his ability to cure all diseases and to restore the dead to life, and said that he had been taken up repeatedly into the home of the Father of the Indians, above the sun and far above the abode of the white man's God, and that there he had been given control of the elements, with power to send rain, wind, thunder, lightning, or drought upon the earth as he pleased. What was most to the purpose, he promised to protect all who should believe in him, as he could produce cartridges in unlimited quantities from his stomach for his friends, and could so influence the guns of the whites, and particularly of the soldiers, that they would not shoot Indians, even though the latter stood in front of the muzzles. It was the old story of the Indian medicine-man that has been familiar from the time of the Shawano prophet to the messiah of the ghost dance.

His words created great excitement among the Comanche, nearly all of whom believed him. Some of his deluded followers asserted that they had themselves seen him ascend into the sky and again descend to earth, and at another time had seen him produce from his stomach nearly a wagon load of cartridges. Finally he commanded the tribe to assemble in May, 1874, at the junction of Elk creek (Donä´i P'a, "Pecan river") with the North fork of Red river, to see the proofs of his mission and to hear his message to the people. So great an impression had his fame produced by this time that even the friendly chiefs attended, as well as the main body of the Cheyenne and a part of the Kiowa. This was a new departure for the Comanche, who, according to all authorities, had never before "made medicine" as a tribe (Report, 36; Battey, 5).

On assembling at the designated spot the Indians were harangued by the medicine-man, who told them that their god commanded them to avenge their murdered kindred. Accordingly a party was made up to go to Texas and kill the Tonkawa, who, as has been stated, were cannibals, for which reason, and for the additional one that they constantly served as scouts against the other Indians, they were regarded with common hatred by all the tribes. Learning of the proposed expedition, Agent Haworth warned the commander of Fort Griffin, near which post the Tonkawa were located, who had them removed to the post for safety. This being reported to the confederate tribes by their spies, they changed their program and decided to go out on the plains and kill the buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls.

Finding that the whole purpose of the gathering was warlike, those who desired to avoid trouble determined to return to the agency, but found that such a move had been anticipated by the hostiles, who declared that they would prevent any return, even if they had to kill the ponies of the friendlies to do it. Notwithstanding, a number of the Comanche, chiefly of the Penätĕka band, made the attempt and succeeded in getting away to the agency. The main body of the tribe, the warlike Kwáhadi, and all the Cheyenne, decided for war (Report, 37). A few of the Kiowa were also among them, but as yet only one chief, Woman-heart, had smoked the war-pipe with the Comanche and Cheyenne, the rest of the tribe being still near the agency (Battey, 6). During all the subsequent troubles the Apache remained quiet and peaceable in the friendly camp at Fort Sill.

APACHE AND ARAPAHO FRIENDLINESS

During the whole period of the outbreak the Arapaho also remained loyal and friendly, in accordance with their treaty pledges and their general character, although the Cheyenne, with whom they were confederated, were the most determined of the hostiles. As soon as it became manifest that trouble was at hand, the Arapaho came in to the agency of the two tribes at Darlington to warn the agent and his employés, and, as a proof of their friendship, furnished an Indian police force, who stood guard over the agency every night until all danger was past. The sole exception to their uniform friendly conduct was the assassination of an employé named Frank Hollowell (or Holloway), in July, 1874, by two young Arapaho, the principal of whom was afterward convicted of the crime and died in prison. This was the only hostile act committed at the Cheyenne and Arapaho agency during the outbreak (Report, 38).

FURTHER DEFIANCE

The hostile Comanche and Kiowa now began to steal stock from around the agency at Fort Sill, and in response to a message sent to their camp by the agent, defiantly replied that they would not return the stock now, but would keep it to make peace with when they came back in the fall. They added that they would not molest the agency further if not interfered with by the soldiers, but if the soldiers came upon them they intended to come in and kill anyone they met (Battey, 7).

One or two trifling encounters occurred in May between the troops and Indians, presumably Comanche and Kiowa, in western Texas, and others more serious in June farther north, in Indian Territory and the adjoining part of Kansas, the Indians concerned being probably chiefly Cheyenne.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY— SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LXI

PHOTO BY LANNEY 1892. PHOTO ENG CO. N.Y.

QUANAH PARKER, PRINCIPAL CHIEF OF THE COMANCHE.

BATTLE OF ADOBE WALLS

In the latter part of June, 1874, the confederated Comanche, Cheyenne, and Kiowa made a combined attack upon the buffalo hunters intrenched in the fort of the Adobe Walls, on South Canadian river, in the Texas panhandle. The engagement began about the 27th, and continued several days, the Indians attacking with desperate courage, urged on by their medicine-man, who had assured them that the bullets of the whites could not hurt them. The hunters, however, had a small field cannon, and with this, protected as they were by the solid walls of adobe, they finally compelled the Indians to withdraw with considerable loss. The medicine-man excused the result on the ground that his medicine was for guns and not for cannon. The combined force was led by Quanah, the present noted head chief of the Comanche, who informed the author that he had seven hundred warriors in the fight, but added sententiously, "No use Indians fight adobe." The result convinced him of the falsity of the claims of medicine-men, against whom he has ever since used his powerful influence in his tribe. Finding their position untenable without military protection, which was refused by the general commanding the department, the buffalo hunters soon afterward abandoned the fort. The location is known among the Kiowa as "The place where Quanah led his confederates" (see Report, 39; War, 2; Record, 2).

On July 3 a small wagon train in charge of Patrick Hennessey and three other men, loaded with supplies from Wichita, Kansas, for the Wichita agency at Anadarko, was attacked by Cheyenne on the trail where now stands the town of Hennessey, Oklahoma. The four white men were killed and scalped, the stores and mules taken, and the wagons burned. Hennessey was tortured by being tied to a wagon wheel and burned upon a pile of grain taken from his own wagon. This last deed was the work of some Osage who came up while the Cheyenne were still there, and who secured the larger share of the plunder. These same Osage were ostensibly friends of the whites, and had completely deceived their agent and missionary into the belief that they were doing all in their power to quiet the hostile tribes. The bodies of three of the men killed were buried by a neighboring ranchman, who had warned them of their danger only a few hours before, and unsuccessfully endeavored to persuade them to turn back. Hennessey's remains were buried two days later by a party under agent Miles (Battey, 8; Report, 40).

FRIENDLIES COLLECTED AT FORT SILL

By this time the Cheyenne agency at Darlington was closely surrounded by bands of hostiles. Arming a small force of employés, the agent proceeded north to Wichita, Kansas, for assistance, after sending a courier through by night to Colonel Davidson at Fort Sill for temporary aid. That officer promptly sent a troop of cavalry, which, however, was intercepted at the Wichita agency (Anadarko), then threatened by the Kiowa and Comanche. In response to the appeals of Agent Miles, a sufficient force of cavalry and infantry was sent from Fort Leavenworth to protect the Darlington agency. As soon as it had appeared that war was inevitable, Whirlwind, head chief of the tribe, with his band of Cheyenne, had moved into the agency, where he remained steadfastly peaceable. White-shield also ranged himself on the side of peace, and consented to carry a message to the hostile camp, as a result of which Little-robe and a number of others broke away at night and came into the agency, being compelled to abandon their tipis and most of their household goods to effect their escape (Report, 41).

The Kiowa medicine dance, which was held usually in June, had been postponed on account of the absence of Lone-wolf, who had gone to Texas after the bodies of his son and nephew. On his return it was held at a point on the North fork of Red river (see the [calendar, 1874]), being attended in force by the Comanche and Cheyenne, who made a strong effort to engage the Kiowa in the war. The dance closed on the 3d of July, when a small minority, led by Lone-wolf and Swan, decided for war and joined the hostiles, but the majority, under Kicking-bird, declared for peace and came in to the agency at Fort Sill. Here the friendly Indians of the different tribes belonging to the agency—Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache—were directed to encamp together on Cache creek, where they were enrolled by order of Colonel Davidson, after which none were to be allowed to come in and join the camp of the friendlies without surrendering their arms and obtaining a guarantee from the agent that they were guiltless of hostile acts. Similar orders were carried out in regard to the Indians of the Wichita agency at Anadarko. The enrollment showed four-fifths of the Kiowa among the friendlies, although, as the agent remarks, doubtless some of them did not deserve the name. With some inconsistency, Lone-wolf sent a message declaring his desire for peace and asking permission to come in to the friendly camp; but, as he was considered the leader and one of the most guilty of the hostiles, his request was refused. In the meantime orders had been issued from the War Department, on July 21, authorizing the military to punish the hostiles wherever found, even to pursuing them upon their reservations. General Pope, commanding the department, at once set the troops in motion, and a vigorous campaign began from the north and south of the exposed territory.