Part 16

When the purpose of the expedition had been explained to them, the Comanche said that their great village was a few days farther ahead, and abandoning their war expedition, they turned and escorted the troops to their camp. According to statements made by old men of the tribe to Horace P. Jones, post interpreter at Fort Sill, this Comanche village in 1834 was situated on Chandler creek, close to its junction with Cache creek, about ten miles north of the present Fort Sill. The artist gives a glowing account of the surrounding country and of their reception by the Comanche.

Having led us to the top of a gently rising elevation on the prairie, they pointed to their village at several miles distance, in the midst of one of the most enchanting valleys that human eyes ever looked upon. The general course of the valley is from northwest to southeast, of several miles in width, with a magnificent range of mountains rising in distance beyond, it being without doubt a huge spur of the Rocky mountains, composed entirely of a reddish granite or gneiss, corresponding with the other links of this stupendous chain. In the midst of this lovely valley we could just discern amongst the scattering shrubbery that lined the banks of the water courses, the tops of the Comanche wigwams and the smoke curling above them. The valley for a mile distant about the village seemed speckled with horses and mules that were grazing in it. The chiefs of the war party requested the regiment to halt until they could ride in and inform their people who were coming. We then dismounted for an hour or so, when we could see them, busily running and catching their horses, and at length several hundreds of their braves and warriors came out at full speed to welcome us, and forming in a line in front of us, as we were again mounted, presented a formidable and pleasing appearance. As they wheeled their horses, they very rapidly formed in a line and dressed like well-disciplined cavalry. The regiment was drawn up in three columns, with a line formed in front, by Colonel Dodge and his staff, in which rank my friend Chadwick and I were also paraded, when we had a fine view of the whole manoeuvre, which was picturesque and thrilling in the extreme.

In the center of our advance was stationed a white flag, and the Indians answered to it with one which they sent forward and planted by the side of it. The two lines were thus drawn up face to face within 20 or 30 yards of each other, as inveterate foes that never had met; and to the everlasting credit of the Comanches, whom the world had always looked upon as murderous and hostile, they had all come out in this manner, with their heads uncovered, and without a weapon of any kind, to meet a war party bristling with arms and trespassing to the middle of their country. They had every reason to look upon us as their natural enemy, as they have been in the habit of estimating all pale faces; and yet instead of arms or defences, or even of frowns, they galloped out and looked us in our faces, without an expression of fear or dismay, and evidently with expressions of joy and impatient pleasure, to shake us by the hand, on the bare assertion of Colonel Dodge, which had been made to the chiefs, that we came to see them on a friendly visit.

After we had sat and gazed at each other in this way for some half an hour or so, the head chief of the band came galloping up to Colonel Dodge, and having shaken him by the hand, he passed on to the other officers in turn and then rode alongside of the different columns, shaking hands with every dragoon in the regiment; he was followed in this by his principal chiefs and braves, which altogether took up nearly an hour longer, when the Indians retreated slowly toward their village, escorting us to the banks of a fine, clear stream and a good spring of fresh water, half a mile from their village, which they designated as a suitable place for our encampment (_Catlin, 5_).

While there the artist painted the pictures of the chief men of the tribe, together with camp scenes. The pictures form a part of the Catlin gallery in the National Museum at Washington, District of Columbia. In his usual incorrect style, he estimated the population of the tribe at thirty thousand to forty thousand. It may possibly have been one-tenth of that number.

After a few days the command, guided by some of the Comanche, started for the Wichita village lying farther to the west. After four days' march, keeping close along the base of the mountains, they reached the village, which was situated on the northeast bank of the North fork of Red river, about 4 miles below the junction of Elm fork, and within the present limits of the reservation. It was close to the mouth of Devil canyon, with the river in front and the mountains behind. It was an old settlement site of the Wichita, having been occupied by them as far back at least as about the year 1765 (_Lewis and Clark, 8_). Catlin thus describes it:

We found the mountains inclosing the Pawnee [i.e., Pawnee Pique, or Wichita] village, on the bank of Red river, about 90 miles from the Comanchee town. The dragoon regiment was drawn up within half a mile or so of this village and encamped in a square, where we remained three days. We found here a very numerous village containing some five or six hundred wigwams, all made of long prairie grass thatched over poles which are fastened in the ground and bent in at the top, giving to them in distance the appearance of straw beehives, as in plate 173 [figure 68 herein], which is an accurate view of it, showing the Red river in front and the "mountains of rocks" behind it. To our very great surprise we have found these people cultivating quite extensive fields of corn (maize), pumpkins, melons, beans, and squashes; so, with these aids and an abundant supply of buffalo meat, they may be said to be living very well (_Catlin, 6_).

The picture by Catlin gives a good idea of the location and a tolerable idea of the peculiar conical grass houses of the Wichita, who have always been noted as an agricultural tribe. As usual, however, he has grossly overestimated their number, attributing to the village five or six hundred houses, and to the Wichita and Kiowa eight to ten thousand population. It is very doubtful if the two tribes, with all their affiliated bands, ever numbered a total of twenty-five hundred. The Wichita village may have had, all told, seventy or eighty houses. When the author examined the ground, in 1893, the circular depressions where the houses had stood were still regular in shape and plainly visible. According to Wichita information, the village was called Kĭ´tskûkătû´k, a name which seems to refer to its situation beside the mountain, and was abandoned soon after 1834, when the tribe removed to a new location, where Fort Sill is now located. From there they again removed to Rush spring, about 25 miles farther east, where Marcy found them in 1852. The mountains immediately about the site of the village visited by the dragoons are still known to the Kiowa as _Do`gúat K`op_, "Wichita mountains," the name not being applied by them to the more eastern portion of the range.

[Illustration: FIG. 68--Kĭ´tskûkătû´k, the Wichita village on Northfork in 1834 (after Catlin)]

The meeting with the Wichita threatened at the start to be hostile. Having learned that they had in their possession a captive white boy, Colonel Dodge demanded that he be surrendered. They repeatedly denied having any knowledge of the boy or the circumstances attending his capture until, being convinced by the sight of their own children brought back by the dragoons that the intentions of the white visitors were friendly, they produced him.

An order was immediately given for the Pawnee and Kiowa girls to be brought forward. They were in a few minutes brought into the council house, when they were at once recognized by their friends and relatives, who embraced them with the most extravagant expressions of joy and satisfaction. The heart of the venerable chief was melted at this evidence of the white man's friendship, and he rose upon his feet, and taking Colonel Dodge in his arms and, placing his left cheek against the left cheek of the colonel, held him for some minutes without saying a word, whilst tears were flowing from his eyes. He then embraced each officer in turn in the same silent and affectionate manner, which form took half an hour or more before it was completed.

From this moment the council, which before had been a very grave and uncertain one, took a pleasing and friendly turn, and this excellent old man ordered the women to supply the dragoons with something to eat, as they were hungry. The little encampment, which heretofore was in a woeful condition, having eaten up their last rations twelve hours before, were now gladdened by the approach of a number of women who brought their "back loads" of dried buffalo meat and green corn, and threw it down amongst them. This seemed almost like a providential deliverance, for the country between here and the Comanchees was entirely destitute of game and our last provisions were consumed.

The council thus proceeded successfully and pleasantly for several days, whilst the warriors of the Kiowas and Wicos [Wacos], two adjoining and friendly tribes living farther to the west, were arriving, and also a great many from other bands of the Comanchees, who had heard of our arrival, until two thousand or more of these wild and fearless-looking fellows were assembled, and all, from their horses' backs, with weapons in hand, were looking into our pitiful little encampment of two hundred men, all in a state of dependence and almost literal starvation, and at the same time nearly one-half the number too sick to have made a successful resistance if we were to have been attacked (_Catlin, 7_).

The result of the council was that a large delegation from the allied tribes returned with the troops to Fort Gibson, where arrangements were made for the subsequent treaties of 1835 and 1837, as already described, which mark the beginning of the modern history of the Kiowa, Comanche, Wichita, and affiliated bands.

The Wichita, as well as the Kiowa, still remember this friendly meeting. Nasthoe, a Wichita chief, in giving testimony in 1894 in regard to the location of the old village, said: "I was told that the white people and the Osage and the Kidi-ki-tashe [Wichita] came to that old village, where they lived and brought that girl and boy, and inside of one of those tipis they had made a feast among themselves, and the soldiers had fired their guns around there. The meaning of that was a peace" (_Greer County, 1_).

While with this expedition Catlin painted a number of portraits, the first on record from these tribes. He has this to say of his Kiowa subjects:

The head chief of the Kioways, whose name is Teh-toot-sah [Dohásän, see page 175], we found to be a very gentlemanly and high-minded man, who treated the dragoons and officers with great kindness while in his country. His long hair, which was put up in several large clubs and ornamented with a great many silver brooches, extended quite down to his knees. This distinguished man, as well as several others of his tribe, have agreed to join us on the march to Fort Gibson, so I shall have much of their company yet, and probably much more to say of them at a future period. Bon-son-gee (The New Fire) [Bohón-kóñkya, Black-cap], is another chief of this tribe, and called a very good man; the principal ornaments which he carried on his person were a boar's tusk and his war whistle, which were hanging on his breast. Quay-ham-kay (The Stone Shell) is another fair specimen of the warriors of this tribe ... Wun-pan-to-mee (The White Weasel) [Gunpü´ñdamä´, Medicine-tied-to-tipi-pole], a girl, and Tunk-aht-oh-ye (The Thunderer), a boy, who are brother and sister, are two Kioways who were purchased from the Osages, to be taken to their tribe by the dragoons. The girl was taken the whole distance with us, on horseback, to the Pawnee village, and there delivered to her friends, as I have before mentioned; and the fine little boy was killed at the fur trader's house, on the banks of the Verdigris, near Fort Gibson, the day after I painted his portrait, and only a few days before he was to have started with us on the march. He was a beautiful boy of nine or ten years of age, and was killed by a ram, which struck him in the abdomen, and knocking him against a fence, killed him instantly. Kots-a-to-ah (The Smoked Shield) is another of the extraordinary men of this tribe, near 7 feet in stature, and distinguished not only as one of the greatest warriors, but the swiftest on foot in the nation. This man, it is said, runs down a buffalo on foot, and slays it with his knife or his lance as he runs by its side! (_Catlin, 8_).

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LXXVI

BÓHON-KÓÑKYA, "QUAYHAMKAY," GUNPÄÑDÂMÄ, AND "KOTSATOAH" (AFTER CATLIN)]

Two of those mentioned by Catlin--Dohásän and Bóhón-kóñkya--were signers of the first Kiowa treaty, in 1837, and are still well remembered, as is also the girl, Gunpä´ñdamä´. The other names are too badly mangled to be identified, and the memory of the swift runner seems to have utterly perished.

WINTER 1834-35

[Illustration: FIG. 69--Winter 1834-35--Bull-tail killed.]

_Pá-tón Ehótal-de Sai_, "Winter that Bull-tail was killed." He was killed by the Mexicans. The figure above the winter sign has a blood spot upon the body to represent the wound, while the erect cue from the head indicates his name.

[Illustration: FIG. 70--Summer 1835--Cat-tail rush sun dance.]

The Kiowa had made their winter camp on the Washita, when a war party set out against the _Toñhéñ-t'a`ká-i_ (Mexicans of the waterless country), or Chihuahuans. Having started late, they camped all winter at a mountain toward the southern edge of the Staked plain, known as _Déngyä-kóñ K`op_, or "Black-ice mountain." One morning in the early spring, while several men were out looking for their ponies, they were suddenly surrounded by the Mexicans and all killed, including Pa-ton, who was shot through the body. Their comrades saw the fight from a distance, but, being outnumbered and therefore afraid to come near to help them, they got away as soon as they could.

SUMMER 1835

_Donpä K`ádó_, "Cat-tail rush sun dance." This was the first sun dance held by the Kiowa after the recovery of the _taíme_ from the Osages, already narrated, and is thus distinguished because it was held at a place where a great many cat-tail rushes (_Equisetum arvense_) were growing on the south bank of North Canadian river, at the Red hills, about 30 miles above the present Fort Reno, Oklahoma. The soft white portion of the lower part of the stalk of this rush is eaten raw by the Indians with great relish. The picture above the medicine lodge represents the _taíme_ _bíĭmkâ-í_ or rawhide box in which the _taíme_ is kept.

It was immediately after this dance that a war party of Kiowa made the raid far down toward the coast in which they captured Bóiñ-edal (Big-blond), now the oldest captive in the tribe. This man, sometimes known to the whites as Kiowa Dutch, was born in Germany and is now, according to his own account, about 70 years of age. He remembers having gone to school in Germany as a small boy, and came to this country, when about 8 or 9 years of age, with his father, stepmother, and an elder brother. He describes the place where they located as being a small settlement on a large river, up which ships could sail, where there were alligators and trees with long moss, and which was within a day's ride of the sea. The people were engaged in raising cotton, his family being the only Germans. From other evidence it seems to have been about Matagorda or Galveston bay, showing that the Kiowa carried their raids in this direction even to the coast. Within a year of their coming, and before he had learned English, a Kiowa war party attacked the settlement at night, carried off himself, his mother, and his brother, and probably killed his father; his mother was taken in another direction and he never saw her again; she was afterward ransomed by Tométe, the trader already mentioned; his brother committed suicide during the cholera epidemic of 1849; Bóiñ-edal is still with the tribe. As his name indicates, he is a typical German in appearance, and still remembers a few words of his mother language, besides having a fair knowledge of English and Spanish, although he does not remember his own name or birthplace. It was about the same time that the Comanche raided Barker's fort, on the Navasota, in eastern Texas, and carried off the girl Cynthia Parker, who afterward became the mother of Quanah, the present chief of the tribe. The story of these captives may have a hundred parallels among the three confederated tribes.

[FIG. 71--Winter 1835-36--Big-face killed]

WINTER 1835-36

Tó`-edalte (Big-face) was shot through the body and killed by the Mexicans while on a raid into old Mexico. This is Set-t'an's statement, which is borne out by the picture of a man, whose name is indicated by the figure of a big head or face above. Other informants, however, deny any knowledge of such a man, and in the notes accompanying the Scott calendar he is called Wolf-hair. The gunshot wound is indicated in the ordinary way.

SUMMER 1836

_Gui P a K`ádó_, "Wolf-river sun dance." The figure of a wolf or coyote above the medicine lodge indicates that the dance was held on _Gui P a_ or Wolf river, i. e., Wolf-creek fork of the North Canadian. Soon after the dance the Kiowa moved to another camp north of the Arkansas, while the Kiñep band went on to pay a social visit to the Crows and buy from them ermine and elk teeth for ornamenting their buckskin shirts and the dresses of the women. After they had gone, those who remained behind were attacked in their camp by the whole Cheyenne tribe, but the Kiowa threw up breastworks and defended themselves until their assailants were compelled to retire.

[Illustration: FIG. 72--Summer 1836--Wolf-river sun dance]

WINTER 1836-37

_K`íñähíate Ehótal-de Sai_, "Winter that K`íñähíate was killed." K`íñähíate ("Man") was killed in an expedition against the _Ä´-t'á`ká-i_, "Timber Mexicans," or Mexicans of Tamaulipas and the lower Rio Grande. The tribe was camped on upper Red river at the time. The name is indicated by a small figure of a man above a similar larger figure, with which it is connected by a line, the death wound being indicated on the lower figure. No better illustration of the wide range of the Kiowa could be given than the fact that while one band was thus raiding in Mexico another, as we have just seen, was visiting upon the upper Missouri.

[Illustration: FIG. 73--Winter 1836-37--K`íñähíate killed]

SUMMER 1837

_Säk`ota Ä´otón-de Pai_, "Summer that the Cheyenne were massacred," or _Á`k`ádo Pai_, "Wailing sun-dance summer." The figure is the conventional Indian symbol for a battle, with the party attacked defending themselves behind breastworks thrown up in the sand, and the arrows flying among them; below the main figure is another of a man wearing a war bonnet. Compare the battle pictographs from the Dakota calendars as given by Mallery (figure 75).

[Illustration: FIG. 74-Summer 1837--Cheyenne massacred]

At the time of the fight the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache were camped upon a small tributary of Scott creek (_Pohón-ä P'a_, "Walnut creek"), an upper branch of the North fork of Red river, southward from the present Port Elliott in the panhandle of Texas. It was in early summer, and they were preparing for the sun dance; a young man was out alone straightening arrows when he saw two men creeping up, with grass over their faces. Thinking they were Kiowa deer hunters, he advanced to meet them, when they fired and wounded him and his horse; he fled back to camp and gave the alarm, and Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache rushed out in pursuit. They soon came up with a small party of the enemy, who proved to be Cheyenne. The Kiowa and their allies killed three of them there, and following the fugitives killed several others; continuing along the trail down the north side of the creek to a short distance below its junction with Sweetwater, they came upon the main camp of the Cheyenne, who dug holes in the sand and made a good defense, but were at last all killed except one, who strangled himself with a rope to avoid capture. The bodies of the dead Cheyenne, 48 in number, were scalped, stripped, and laid along the ground in a row by the victors. Six Kiowa were killed, including the grandfather of the present Lone-wolf. T'ébodal, the oldest man now in the tribe, was engaged in this encounter.

[Illustration: FIG. 75--Battle pictures (from the Dakota calendars)]

Set-t´an states that one Cheyenne wearing a war bonnet was killed as he came out of a tipi (see figure 271). Other informants do not remember this, but say that the Kiowa captured a fine medicine lance in a feathered case, and also a _pabón_ or Dog-soldier staff, of the kind carried by those who were pledged to die at their post. The stream where the battle took place is since, called _Sä´k`ota Ä´otón-de P'a_, "Creek where the Cheyennes were massacred." The summer of the occurrence is sometimes called _Á'k`ádá Pai_, "Wailing sun-dance summer," because, although the Kiowa wailed for their dead, the sun dance was not on that account abandoned.

WINTER 1837-38

_A´daltem Etkúegán-de Sai_, "Winter that they dragged the head." The figure above the winter mark shows a horseman carrying a bloody scalp upon a lance and dragging a bloody head at the end of a reata.

Three Comanche, two men and a woman, were camped alone one night in a tipi on the Clear fork of the Brazos (_Ä´sese P'a_, "Wooden-arrowpoint river"), in Texas, when one of them noticed somebody raise the door-flap and then quickly drop it again; he told the others, and as silently and swiftly as possible they ran out, and jumping over a steep bank of the creek hid themselves just a moment before their enemies returned and fired into the vacated tipi. The Comanche returned the fire from their hiding place and then made their escape to a Kiowa camp near by. In the morning the Kiowa returned to the spot, together with the Comanche, and found a dead Arapaho lying where he had been shot; they scalped and beheaded him, and brought the head into camp dragging at the end of a reata. The old German captive, Bóiñ-edal, then a little boy and who had been with the Indians about two years, witnessed this barbarous spectacle and still remembers the thrill of horror which it sent through him.

[Illustration: FIG. 76--Winter 1837-38--Head dragged.]

SUMMER 1838