Kiowa people

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Set-t'aiñte, whose name among the Kiowa is still one to conjure by, first acquired his title of "Orator of the Plains" in connection with the events which led to the treaty of Medicine Lodge, in 1867. He was already sufficiently distinguished among his own people as a leader on the warpath. ”

“ The white people are preparing to build a railroad through our country, which will not be permitted. Some years ago they took us by the hair and pulled us here close to Texas, where we have to fight them. When General Custer was here some years ago he arrested me and kept me in confinement several days, but that is played out now. There are never to be any more Kiowa Indians arrested. ”

“ 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, 173 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. ”

“ While on a march the remains were always put upon the saddle of a led horse, as when first brought home, the tipi and the horse thus burdened being a matter of personal knowledge to all the middle-age people of the tribe now living. He continued to care for his son's bones in this manner until he himself was killed at Fort Sill about a year later, when the Kiowa buried them. Although a young man, Set-ängya's son held the office of Toñhyópdă ́, the pipe-bearer or leader who went in front of the young warriors on a war expedition. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They have several names among the Kiowa, but are commonly known by them as Semät, “thieves.” Other Kiowa names for them are Tagu′i, of unknown meaning, and Sa′dălso′mte-k̔iñago, “weasel people.” The tribal sign for them, as for the Apache, Lipan, and Navaho, conveys the idea of “knife whetters.” In 1891 they numbered 325. In 1893 they had been reduced, chiefly by an epidemic of measles, to 224.
More extended information in regard to the Kiowa and Kiowa Apache will be given in the author’s memoir, “Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians,” now in preparation for the Bureau of Ethnology. ”

“ The Apache chiefs worked in their own fields as an example to their people, and at the request of Pacer a school was established among them by A. J. Standing, who, like Battey and Haworth, was a Quaker. All went well until summer, when the Cheyenne, Comanche, and a part of the Kiowa took up arms in defense of their hunting grounds, as already narrated, more or less involving the other tribes, and putting a complete stop to the work of civilization. ”

“ Gyai ́`ko—Comanche; "enemies;" singular, Gyaik`i, Gyai ́mä, from nyägyai ́to. This name "Enemies," is the common Kiowa name for the Comanche, now their close allies (see page 162 et passim) . Other Kiowa names for them are (1) Sänko, now obsolete, probably signifying "snakes," from sä ́ne, snake; (2) P'o ́dalk`i ́ägo, or P'o ́dalgyä ́ko, "reptile people," from p'odal and k`i ́ägo. This last name is probably a substitute for the previous term Sänko, on the occasion of the death of some person of somewhat similar name. ”

“ Mexicans," those in the vicinity of the Santa Rosa mountains, Coahuila (see the preceding) . Do ́-ko ́nsenä ́go—Chiricahua Apache; "People of the turned-up moccasins," from do ́ti, ko ́nsenä ́, and go; the "Hooked or Curved Toe Apache" of Clark (page 33) . They are now prisoners of war at Fort Sill on the reservation, and were known to the Kiowa under this name before their removal from Arizona. dom, dâm— (1) earth; (2) under, in composition. Doma ́ñk`i ́ägo—see Gu ́igyä ́ko. do ́mba ́—bugle, flute, flageolet. Nearly every tribe of the plains and eastward has its native flute. ”

“ I am sick, äho ́dalda. hop—emigrants; people moving off with their household goods, etc; tsähop, immigrants; people moving in this direction with their household goods. Cf. ho; kotä ́dalhop. Ho ́tgyäsĭ ́m p'a—Saline river (?) , Kansas. how—the universal Indian "yes," or expression of assent, as commonly written by English authors. The Kiowa "yes" is ho or hâ. Ho-we-ar—see Howi ́a. Howi ́a (Comanche) —a Comanche signer of the treaty of 1867, whose name appears on the treaty as "Ho-we-ar, or Gap in the woods." ”

“ 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. ”

“ After the last sun dance, while the Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho were still camped near Bent's fort, a Kiowa war party under Big-bow and Stumbling-bear went against the Navaho, while the rest, men and women, under old Lone-wolf, went after buffalo, leaving their tipis rolled up in care of Bent. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 154 they moved upon the headwaters of the Cimarron. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The story of the origin of the ä ́poto staff is romantic, and throws light upon several interesting points of Indian belief and custom. Eighteen years before this sun dance (i. e., in 1839) a small party of about twenty Kiowa warriors led by Gúădalóñte, "Painted-red," started against the Pä ́sûñko, already mentioned. The old chief Dohasän accompanied the party, but not as leader. It should be noted that usually every war party had a substitute leader or lieutenant, who took command in case of the death of the leader. ”

“ They call Americans Hâñpóko, "Trappers," for the reason that the first Americans known to the tribe were trappers. Texans are considered as of a different nation, and are distinguished as Tehä ́neko from the Spanish Tejano. In this instance the Americans were traveling eastward, and as the place was remote from any regular trail the Indians were at a loss to know why the whites were there. The Kiowa attacked the train, killed several of the party, and captured the money, with the loss to themselves of but one man, Gúi-kóñgya. ”

“ Parry-wah-say-men (Comanche) —see Pä ́riăse ́amăn. Päsä ́ngyä—The Staked plain, of Texas and New Mexico; literally, "prairie edge," or "prairie bluff," from pä ́gyä, and sä ́ngya. The name properly refers only to the bluff edge or escarpment of the Staked plain, which itself is commonly referred to simply as Pägyä or Päya. "The prairie." pa ́sot—thunder. According to the belief of the Kiowa and the plains tribes generally, thunder is produced by a large bird resembling the eagle. Pa ́sot-kyä`to ́—General W. S. Hancock, present at the treaty of 1867 ”

“ When he finished, the Apache leader signaled, and three young Kiowa bucks were dragged from behind the boulders into plain sight of the Comanche party.
“These,” said Maskan, “are the three who stole your horses and ours. Their blood has run hot with the desire for adventure. So all alone, they set out last evening to invade your land and ours to steal horses. We have waited for them here among the rocks. We have watched you from the time they were taken by our warriors. You who seem to lead here have spoken wisely. The Kiowas will be punished as all Kiowa are in the Apache nation. ”

“ At a great Cheyenne camp upon a stream, apparently in Kansas or Nebraska, known to the Kiowa as Hâ ́ñtso P'a, "Cannonball (literally, metal rock) River," the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and some Dakota had made medicine for a combined expedition against the Pawnee, to which they invited the Kiowa and Apache, who were 295 camped at the time on Koñyä ́daldä P'a, "Black-hill river," in Kansas, north of the Arkansas. About half the warriors of the two latter tribes accepted the invitation, and the united force, moving with all their women, children, and tipi outfits, started against the Pawnee. ”

“ Ä ́yä ́daldä Sai, "Timber-hill winter," so-called on account of the famous treaty made this winter with the confederated tribes on Medicine-lodge creek, Kansas, known to the Kiowa as "Ä ́yä ́daldä P'a, Timber-hill river." The picture on the Set-t'an calendar is highly suggestive. It represents a white man, who appears to be a soldier, grasping the hand of an Indian, the locality being shown by the figure of a tree-covered hill above the winter-mark. ”

“ 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. ”

“ So sudden was this movement that the settlers did not comprehend its meaning until the Kiowas had gained full two-score yards the start. But then they dashed on in hot pursuit.
No man living understands better how to extract every ounce of service from a mustang than does a Kiowa, and though riding by far the most jaded horses, they slowly increased their vantage-ground, aided by the fact that the settlers devoted much of their care to pistol practice; at best but an uncertain art while riding a galloping horse. ”