Part 15

But they would not then converse on the subject. In fact, the interpreter inquired, "Are we not at war? How, then, can we go to see the _Capitan Grande_?" We knew they believed themselves at war with Mexico and Texas, and probably had mistaken us for Texans.... Upon this we explained to them that the United States was a distinct government and at peace with the Comanche. On this explanation the chiefs said they were glad to see Americans in their country and hoped more of them would come (_Gregg, 3_).

SUMMER 1833

_Ĭmk`ódaltä-dé Pai_, "Summer that they cut off their heads." This picture commemorates one of the most vivid memories of the older men of the tribe--a wholesale massacre by the Osage, who cut off the heads of their victims and deposited them in buckets upon the scene of the slaughter. Set-t'an, the author of the calendar, was born in this summer. The picture of a severed head with bloody neck and a bloody knife underneath is sufficiently suggestive. The absence of the usual figure of the sun-dance lodge shows that no dance was held this summer, owing to the fact that the Osage captured the _taime_ medicine at the same time. The massacre occurred just west of a mountain called by the Kiowa _K`ódaltä K`op_, "Beheading mountain," on the headwaters of Otter creek, not 2 miles northwest from Saddle mountain and about 25 miles northwest from Fort Sill.

It was in early spring and the Kiowa were camped at the mouth of Rainy-mountain creek, a southern tributary of the Washita, within the present limits of the reservation; nearly all the warriors had gone against the Ute, so that few, excepting women, children, and old men, were at home. One morning some young men going out to look for horses discovered signs of Osage and immediately gave the alarm. According to one story, they found a buffalo with an Osage arrow sticking in it; according to T'ébodal and other old men, they came upon the Osage themselves and exchanged shots, wounding an Osage, but with the loss of one of their own men killed. On the alarm being given, the Kiowa at once broke camp in a panic and fled in four parties in different directions--one party toward the west, another toward the east, and two other bands, among whom was T'ébodal, then a boy, went directly south toward the Comanche. Three of these escaped, but the fourth, under A`dáte, "Island-man," thinking the pursuit was over, stopped on a small tributary of Otter creek, just west of the mountain.

[Illustration: FIG. 63--Summer 1833--They cut off their heads]

Early in the morning, almost before it was yet light, a young man (whose grandson was present during T'ébodal's narration) went to look for his ponies, when he saw the Osage creeping up on foot. He hastily ran back with the news, but all the camp was still sleeping, except the wife A`dáte, who was outside preparing to scrape a hide. Entering the tipi, he roused the chief, who ran out shouting to his people, "_Tsó bätsó! Tsó bätsó!_"--To the rocks! To the rocks! Thus rudely awakened, the Kiowa sprang up and fled to the mountain, the mothers seizing their children and the old men hurrying as best they could, with their bloodthirsty enemies close behind. The chief himself was pursued and slightly wounded, but got away; his wife, Sémätmä, "Apache-woman," was taken, but soon afterward made her escape. One woman fled with a baby girl on her back and dragging a larger girl by the hand; an Osage pursuing caught the older girl and was drawing his knife across her throat when the mother rushed to her aid and succeeded in beating him off and rescued the child with only a slight gash upon her head. A boy named Äyä, "Sitting-on-a-tree" (?), was saved by his father in about the same way, and is still alive, an old man, to tell it. His father, it is said, seized and held him in his teeth, putting him down while shooting arrows to keep off the pursuers, and taking him up again to run. A party of women was saved by a brave Pawnee living in the camp, who succeeded in fighting off the pursuers long enough to enable the women to reach a place of safety.

The warriors-being absent, the Kiowa made no attempt at a stand; it was simply a surprise and flight of panic-stricken, women, children, and old men, in which everyone caught was butchered on the spot. Two children were taken prisoners, a brother and sister--about 10 and 12 years of age, respectively--of whom more hereafter. The Kiowa lost five men killed and a large number of women and children; none of the Osage were killed, as no fight was made. When the massacre was ended, the enemy cut the heads from all the dead bodies, without scalping them, and placed them in brass buckets, one head in each bucket, all over the camp ground, after which they set fire to the tipis and left the place. When the scattered Kiowa returned to look for their friends, they found the camp destroyed, the decapitated bodies lying where they had fallen, and the heads in the buckets as the Osage had left them. The buckets had been obtained by the Kiowa from the Pawnee, who procured them on the Missouri and traded them to the southern tribes. For allowing the camp to be thus surprised the chief, A`dáte, was deposed, and was superseded by Dohá, or Doháte, "Bluff," better known as Dohásän, who thenceforth ruled the tribe until his death, thirty-three years later.

Among the victims of the massacre was a Kiowa chief who had been present the previous winter at the attack on the American traders. His friends buried with him a quantity of silver dollars which had formed his share of the spoil on that occasion. An old woman, the last remaining person who knew the place of sepulture, died a few years ago.

In this affair the Osage also captured the _taíme_ medicine, already described, killing the wife of the _taíme_ keeper as she was trying to unfasten it from the tipi pole to which it was tied; her husband, Ansó te, escaped. In consequence of this loss, there was no sun dance for two years, when, peace having been made between the two tribes, as will be related farther on, the Kiowa visited the Osage camp, somewhere on the Cimarron or the Salt fork of the Arkansas, and recovered it, afterward giving a horse in return for it. Dohásän, who conducted the negotiations, asked the Osage about it and offered a pinto pony and several other ponies for it. The Osage said that they had it, and went home and brought it, but in token of their friendship refused to accept more than a single pony in return. On this occasion both _taíme_ images were captured, together with the case in which they were kept.

Two points in connection with this massacre deserve attention. First, the Osage war party was on foot; this, as the Kiowa state, was the general custom of the Osage and Pawnee, more especially the latter, who are sometimes called _Domáñk`íägo_, "Walkers," by the Kiowa, and was occasionally followed by other tribes, including also the Kiowa. Grinnell states that the Blackfeet always went to war on foot (_Grinnell, Blackfeet, 2_). There was an obvious advantage in the practice, as a foot party could more easily travel and approach a hostile camp without attracting observation, relying on themselves to procure horses to enable them to return mounted. T'ébodal, when a young man, was twice a member of a large Kiowa war party which went out on foot. The Kiowa say that the Pawnee in particular went afoot on war expeditions, and more recently when they visited other tribes for the purpose of a social dance, in the latter case always returning with large numbers of ponies given them by their entertainers (see summer 1851 and winter 1871-72). Gregg says that small war parties of the Pawnee were accustomed to rove on foot through every part of the plains, even to the Mexican frontier, but generally returning mounted on captured horses. When, on one occasion, his train was attacked upon the upper Canadian, he says:

It was evidently a foot party, which we looked upon as another proof of their being Pawnees, for these famous marauders are well known to go forth upon their expeditious of plunder without horses, although they seldom fail to return well mounted (_Gregg, 4_).

Dunbar says that Pawnee runners have been known repeatedly to travel over 100 miles in twenty-four hours or less, going at a swinging trot, without stopping on the way for sleep or food (_Clark, 11_).

Secondly, it is to be noted that the Osage beheaded the Kiowa without scalping them. This, the Kiowa say, was a general Osage practice; in fact, according to the Kiowa, the Osage never scalped their enemies, but cut off the heads and left them unscalped upon the field. They kept tally of the number killed, however, and when an Osage warrior had killed four he painted a blue half circle, curving downward, upon his breast. So far as Kiowa knowledge goes, no other tribe of the plains practiced the custom of beheading, but all of them scalped their enemies. It seems certain, however, that the Dakota at an early period had the same custom, as they are called "Beheaders" in several Indian languages, while their name is indicated in the sign language by drawing the hand across the throat to signify the same thing. Clark says:

In former times the Sioux Indians, if they had time, cut off the heads of their slain enemies and took them to their first camp after the fight, where the entire scalp was taken off. To make it

## particularly fine, they kept on the ears with the rings and

ornaments. In case a woman had lost some of her kin by death, and her heart was, as they say, _bad_, she was at times allowed to go with the war party, remaining in the camp established near the point of attack. The head of a slain foe would be given to her, and after removing the scalp she would make her heart _good_ by smashing the skull with a war club (_Clark, 12_).

Among other tribes, as well as the Osage, especially in the north, the number of enemies slain or other brave deeds performed was sometimes indicated by the style of body paint or dress adornment. Among the Kiowa the number of transverse stripes upon a woman's legging indicates the scalps or _coups_ won by some warrior kinsman.

WINTER 1833-34

_D'ä´-p'é'gyä-de Sai_, "Winter that the stars fell." This winter takes its name from the memorable meteoric display which occurred shortly before daylight on the morning of November 13, 1833. It was observed throughout North America, and created great excitement among the plains tribes, as well as among a large part of our own population; the event is still used as a chronologic starting point by the old people of the various tribes. It is pictorially represented on most of the Dakota calendars discussed by Mallery in his valuable work on the Picture Writing of the American Indians. Set-t'an was born in the preceding summer, and the small figure of a child over the winter bar indicates that this is his first winter or year; the stars above his head represent the meteors.

[Illustration: FIG. 64--Winter 1833-34--The stars fell]

The Kiowa say it occurred in the winter season, when they were camped on a small tributary of Elm fork of Red river, within the present Greer county, Oklahoma. The whole camp was asleep, when they were wakened by a sudden light; running out from the tipis, they found the night as bright as day, with myriads of meteors darting about in the sky. The parents aroused the children, saying, "Get up, get up, there is something awful (_zédălbe_) going on!" They had never before known such an occurrence, and regarded it as something ominous or dangerous, and sat watching it with dread and apprehension until daylight. Such phenomena are always looked upon as omens or warnings by the ignorant; in Mexico, according to Gregg, it was believed to be a sign of divine displeasure at a sacrilegious congress which had recently curtailed the privileges of the church, while in Missouri it was regarded by some as a protest from heaven against the persecution of the Mormons then gathered near Independence (_Gregg, 5_).

[Illustration: FIG. 65--The star shower of 1833 (from the Dakota calendars)]

SUMMER 1834

The figure is intended to commemorate the return of the girl captured by the Osage in the massacre of the preceding summer. The tipi above the female figure, with which it is connected by a line, indicates her name, Gunpä´ñdamä, Medicine-tied-to-tipi-pole(-woman) (see the glossary, _Gunpä´ñdamä_). She was restored to her friends by a detachment of the First dragoons from Fort Gibson. Although this occurred in the summer, the season is not indicated by the usual figure of the medicine lodge, for the reason that, the _taíme_ being still in possession of the Osage, there was no sun dance held that year. It is omitted also in the picture for the preceding summer, the _taíme_ having been captured early in the spring.

[Illustration: FIG. 66--Summer 1833-34--Return of Gunpä´ñdamä]

As the return of this girl was the object of the first American expedition up Red river, and the beginning of our official and trading relations with the Comanche, Kiowa, Wichita, and affiliated tribes, it merits somewhat extended notice. The expedition and subsequent council are noted in the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1834 (page 240), and are described at length in the journal of Lieutenant Wheelock (_Greer, 1_), and in the letters of the artist Catlin, who accompanied the party and painted the first pictures ever made of any of these tribes. The resulting treaties of 1835 and 1837 are noted in the Commissioner's reports for these years (_Report, 74_). The first Indian story of the occurrence is here given:

After the massacre at _K`ódaltä K`op_, already described, the Osage returned to their own country, where there was a soldier camp (i. e., Fort Gibson), bringing with them the Kiowa girl Gunpä´ñdamä (Medicine-tied-to-tipi-pole) and her brother, taken at the time of the massacre. The woman captured at the same time had escaped and made her way back to her people. At Fort Gibson the soldiers told the Osage that as they and other Kiowa were all alike Indians they should be friends. They then bought the two captive children from the Osage and proposed that some of the Osage should return with them (the soldiers) to the Kiowa country, there to give back the children to their friends and invite the Kiowa to come down to the fort and make a permanent treaty of peace and friendship between the two tribes. The Osage agreed, and accordingly a large party of soldiers, accompanied by a number of Osage, with the girl Gunpä´ñdamä, set out for the Kiowa country. The little boy had been killed by a sheep before starting. With them went also the famous trader, Colonel Auguste Chouteau, called "Soto" by the Kiowa, the first American trader known to the Kiowa, Wichita, and associated tribes. Up to this time the Kiowa had been at war with the Osage and had no knowledge of our government, and these dragoons were the first United States troops they had ever seen. The soldiers first met the Comanche, who told them that the Kiowa were near the Wichita village at the farther end of the mountains. When the troops arrived at the village, the Kiowa were afraid and kept at a distance until they saw the girl, which convinced them that the soldiers were their friends. The girl was given back to her people, and at the request of the soldiers a number of Kiowa, including the head chief, Doháte, returned with them and the Osage to the camp at Fort Gibson. They do not remember whether any of the Apache went. There the soldiers entertained the Kiowa with food, coffee, and sugar, and gave them blankets and other presents. A treaty of peace was made between the Kiowa and soldiers (i. e., Americans), and the Osage and other Kiowa were invited to trade with Chouteau, who promised to bring goods to their country. Since that time the two tribes have been friends. Hitherto the Kiowa had never had any traders in their country, but after this peace a regular trade was established. The first trader, whom they call Tóme or Tóme-te (Thomas?) came soon afterward and built a trading post on the west side of Cache creek, about 3 miles below the present Fort Sill; but he did not stay long.

Dohá, Doháte, or Dohásän (Bluff or Little-bluff), the head of the tribe at the time of this expedition, had superseded A`dáte, who had been deposed as a punishment for having allowed his people to be surprised and massacred by the Osage. In his youth Dóha had been, known, as Äanóñte. He was the fourth head chief of the tribe from the time of the treaty with the Comanche, the order of succession being Políăkya (Harelip), alias Kágiätsé (Thick-blanket); Tsóñbohón (Feather-cap), A`dáte, and Dohásän. He continued to be recognized as head chief until his death in 1866. The name is hereditary in the family, which is one of the most prominent in the tribe, and has been borne by this chief--distinguished as Old Dohásän--by his nephew, who died at an advanced age at Anadarko in the winter of 1893-94, and by his son. The older men state that the father of the great Dohásän was also called Dohá, and that his son, after assuming the same name, was known as Dohásän, (Little-bluff) for distinction. He is spoken of as Doháte as frequently as Dohásän.

According to one informant, at the time of the Osage massacre Chouteau had a trading post about a day's journey east of the present Fort Sill, and the Kiowa went to him and told him of their misfortune, whereupon he went to Fort Gibson and induced the soldiers to rescue the captives from the Osage and return them to their friends. This is perhaps a confusion of events. The trading post referred to was at Chouteau spring, on the east side of Chouteau creek which flows into the South Canadian from the east, about 5 miles northeast of the present town of Purcell, Indian Territory. It does not appear, however, to have been established until after, and as a result of, this expedition.

The expedition is described in detail by the artist Catlin, who accompanied it and was present at the council on its return. As the Comanche, Kiowa, and Wichita lived so remote from the frontiers, they had not yet been brought into official connection with the United States, and consequently had several times, as we have seen, come into collision with small parties of Americans on the borders of their country. The government had for some time been desirous of entering into treaty relations with them, more especially as the plan of colonizing the eastern tribes in the western country had been put into operation. As the Osage, who were already in treaty relations with the government, had several captives taken from the more western tribes, it was decided to purchase these prisoners and send them home under military escort as a token of the friendly intentions of the government, with an invitation to the chiefs of those tribes to come to the military post and make a treaty with the United States, the Osage, and the immigrant tribes.

Accordingly, the two Kiowa children and two Wichita children, captives, were purchased from the Osage and brought to Fort Gibson; unfortunately, the little Kiowa boy was killed near the post shortly after by a blow from a ram. An expedition of the First dragoons was organized, under command of General Leavenworth, to restore the children to their parents and open communication with their tribes. The troops, numbering about four hundred, left Fort Gibson toward the end of June, 1834, taking with them the three children and accompanied by about thirty of the Osage, Cherokee, Delaware, and Seneca tribes, together with the artist Catlin, and, according to the Indian account, Chouteau and perhaps another trader. Their interpreter was a Cherokee with a "very imperfect" knowledge of Spanish, through which language he hoped to open communication with Spanish-speaking Indians among the tribes visited; his ignorance probably accounts for the atrocious names and etymologies given by Catlin. The march in the heat of summer proved so severe that by the time the command reached the junction of Washita and Red rivers about one third of the number, including the commanding general, were prostrated; the remainder, constantly dwindling, pushed on in charge of Colonel Henry Dodge, keeping a general northwest course along the divide between the two streams. They were considered to be within the Comanche country after crossing the Washita.

[Illustration: FIG. 67--Meeting of the dragoons and the Comanche (after Catlin)]

Having traveled about two weeks, they one day discovered a large party of Comanche several miles ahead, sitting quietly on their horses watching the movements of the advancing troops, and holding, their long lances in their hands, the blades glistening in the sun. As the cavalry advanced toward them the Indians retreated to another ridge. This was repeated several times, until at last, says Catlin--

Colonel Dodge ordered the command to halt, while he rode forward with a few of his staff and an ensign carrying a white flag. I joined this advance, and the Indians stood their ground until we had come within half a mile of them and could distinctly observe all their numbers and movements. We then came to a halt, and the white flag was sent a little in advance and waved as a signal for them to approach, at which one of their party galloped out in advance of the war party on a milk-white horse, carrying a piece of white buffalo skin on the point of his long lance in reply to our flag.... The distance between the two parties was perhaps half a mile, and that a beautiful and gently sloping prairie, over which he was for the space of a quarter of an hour reining and spurring his maddened horse and gradually approaching us by tacking to the right and left like a vessel beating against the wind. He at length came prancing and leaping along till he met the flag of the regiment, when he leaned his spear for a moment against it, looking the bearer full in the face, when he wheeled his horse and dashed up to Colonel Dodge with his extended hand, which was instantly grasped and shaken. We all had him by the hand in a moment, and the rest of the party seeing him received in this friendly manner, instead of being sacrificed, as they undoubtedly expected, started under full whip in a direct line toward us, and in a moment gathered like a black cloud around us.... The warrior's quiver was slung on the warrior's back, and his bow grasped in his left hand ready for instant use if called for. His shield was on his arm; and across his thigh, in a beautiful cover of buckskin, his gun was slung, and in his right hand his lance of fourteen feet in length. Thus armed and equipped was this dashing cavalier, and nearly in the same manner all the rest of the party (_Catlin, 4_).