Part 18

The explanation appears to be a myth founded on a misconception of the tribal sign for Dakota, which is the same as for necklace, i.e., a sweeping pass of the hand across the throat, but commonly translated "beheaders" when applied to that tribe.

WINTER 1844-45

_Ä´-tahá-ik`í Ehótal-de Sai_, "Winter that War-bonnet-man was killed." The figure shows a man wearing a war-bonnet (_ä´-tahá-i_) and with a wound in his breast. He is further distinguished by the crosses (stars) with which his war shirt is ornamented. This "medicine shirt" was covered with dark-blue stars, with a green moon in front, in addition to which he wore a fine war-bonnet. He was also called Sét-k`ódalte, "Bear-neck."

The brother of Zépko-eéte (Big-bow, grandfather of the present old Big-bow, from whom he takes his name) had been killed in Tamaulipas, and at the last sun dance Big-bow had "given the pipe" to the Kiowa and their allies to revenge him. A large party of over two hundred warriors, including a number of Apache and Comanche, set out under Big-bow, and after crossing the Rio Grande and approaching the Salado (_Señ P'a_, "Cactus river") they reached a stone fort, in which a small number of Mexicans, not soldiers, had taken refuge. The Mexicans had with them their families, also two Indians, who wore feather crests upon their heads. The fort was so provided with loopholes that they could fire upon the attacking party, themselves remaining concealed. The first attack was repulsed, and Ä´-tahá-ik`í was killed; but the besiegers succeeded in piling wood against the log walls of the fort and setting fire to it, when all the defenders were either burned or killed as they tried to escape. ´dalpepte took part in this affair. After this fight the Kiowa warriors went farther into Mexico and had another encounter, in which Big-bow, the leader, was killed, in consequence of which the war party returned home.

[Illustration: FIG 91--Winter 1844-45--Ä´-tahá-ik`í killed.]

"Giving the pipe" is the ceremonial way of enlisting recruits for a large war party. For small expeditions the invitation is given as described in treating of the _Gúa-dágya_ (winter 1862-63). At the time of the annual summer assemblage for the sun dance the organizer of the expedition, who must necessarily be a person of some prominence, sends a pipe to the leaders of each of the principal warrior orders--_Kâ´itséñko_, _T'äñpéko_, etc.--in turn. If these leaders sanction the enterprise, they themselves smoke and present the pipe to the members of their orders at their next meeting, and all who smoke engage themselves by this act to join the expedition at the time appointed by the original giver of the pipe. No one is obliged to smoke against his will, but when a sufficient number have determined upon the expedition, it takes precedence of all others, and no other parties or individuals may start out against the enemy in any direction until this expedition is concluded.

[Illustration: FIG. 92--Giving the war pipe (from the Dakota calendars).]

SUMMER 1845

_Tsó-`k`ódal K`ádó_, "Stone-necklace sun dance." The figure above the medicine lodge is intended to represent a girl, distinguished by short sleeves, with a stone hanging from her neck.

This dance, like the three preceding, was held on _K ádó P'a_ (Kiowa Medicine lodge creek), which was a favorite stream for the purpose, on account of the abundance there of cottonwoods, of which the medicine lodge was constructed. The event which distinguished the dance was the death of a girl named Tsó-k`ódalte (for Tsó-k`ódalpä-te), "Stone-necklace," who was much beloved by her father, and the consequent wailing for her during the season of the ceremony.

[Illustration: FIG. 93--Summer 1845--Stone-necklace sun dance]

WINTER 1845-46

In this winter K`ódal-aká-i, "Wrinkled-neck," built a trading post on the South Canadian. The picture is sufficiently suggestive. This post was in the panhandle of Texas, on the north bank of the South Canadian (_Gúadal P'a_, "Red river"), just above Bosque Grande creek and about 2 miles above the entrance of Red-deer creek (_Ko`gá-i P'a_, "Elk creek"). It was in a swampy and well-timbered location, just west of one of the main trails from Arkansas river southward. It was owned by William Bent, called by the Kiowa Máñtahák`ia ("Hook-nose-man," "Roman-nose") who, in the spring of 1844, had built a trading post, as already noted, at _Gúadal Dóha_, higher up on the same river. Both were in charge of a clerk known to the Kiowa as K`ódal-aká-i, "Wrinkled-neck."

The removal of Bent's base of operations from the Arkansas to the Canadian seems to have marked the southward drifting of the tribes, in consequence of the destruction of the buffalo and the encroachments of the Dakota, as noted by Frémont and other western explorers of this period. At the same time the Kiowa had dealings with another trading post, kept by William Allison, known to them as Tsódal-héñte, "No-arm," on Arkansas river at the junction of upper Walnut creek, in Kansas. As has been stated, the first trading post ever established in their country was built by Chouteau, on Cache creek, near the present Fort Sill.

[Illustration: FIG. 94--Winter 1845-46-Wrinkled-neck's trading post]

SUMMER 1846

_Pá-guñhéñté Äópäñ-de K`ádó_, "Sun dance when Hornless-bull was made a Kâ´itséñi-k`ia." The figure beside the medicine lodge represents a man with the feather headdress and paint of the Kâ´itséñko, the chief order of the warrior society. There is nothing to indicate the name of the individual, which is carried in the memory of the artist. This dance was held on a small tributary of the North Canadian, a short distance above Kiowa Medicine-lodge creek.

The Yä´`pähe or military organization of the Kiowa has been already noted. The highest order was the Kâ´itséñko, or "Real dogs (?)," a select body of ten of the bravest warriors, who were pledged to lead every desperate charge and to keep their place in the front of battle until they won victory or death. With this purpose in view, their leader carried a ceremonial arrow, with which he anchored himself to the ground by means of a broad sash of elk-skin, which encircled his neck like a collar and hung down at his right side to the earth; at the lower end, where it trailed upon the ground, there was a hole, and when forming line for the charge it was his duty to dismount in front of his warriors, and, by thrusting the arrow through this hole, to fix himself in this position, there to remain until his party was victorious, or until, seeing that all was lost, they gave him liberty to retreat by pulling out the arrow from the ground. Should they forget this in the hurry of their flight, he must remain and die at his post. During the

## action, also, he was obliged to remain stationary, without endeavoring

in any way to avoid the danger.

[Illustration: FIG. 95--Summer 1846--Hornless-bull initiated.]

Whenever a leader died or was killed another was selected from among the Kâ´itséñko to carry the arrow. As the regulations governing it were adhered to very strictly, it can readily be understood that on the occasion of an election the office usually sought the man. As the Kiowa or other tribes, however, had no desire to sacrifice their bravest men needlessly, the ceremonial arrow or its equivalent was carried only when the expedition meant war to the bitter end against the enemy. In the absence of this emblem of his rank the owner took his place as an ordinary warrior. He might even lend it to a warrior who wished to distinguish himself in a war party while the owner remained at home; but should he do this when any serious expedition was in preparation, he was considered to be a coward and was degraded from his rank. The leaders of the Tóñkóñko, "Black legs," another warrior order, carried a lance somewhat resembling a shepherd's crook and called a _pabón_, which had nearly the same purpose as the arrow of the Kâ´itséñko. The noted chief Set-ängya, who was killed at Fort Sill in 1871, was the leader of the Kâ´itséñko at that time, and deliberately invited death in accordance with the obligation of his office.

The Kâ´itséñko initiations took place only on the occasion of a sun dance and were not of frequent occurrence, so that the event was always a matter of considerable importance. The membership was always kept up to the requisite number of ten. The prominent feature of the ceremony was the investiture of the new members with the _ópäm-yaípo_, or collar sash of the order; hence the verb _äópä_, "to initiate into the Kâ´itséñko," which is derived from the verb _äópäñ_, "to tie with a rope around the neck." This ceremony evidently explains the picture from the Dakota calendar (figure 96) which Mallery translates "they made bands of strips of blankets in the winter," and goes on to say: "These bands were of mixed colors and reached from the shoulders to the heels. They also made rattles of deer-hoofs by tying them to sticks with bead-covered strings. The man has a sash over his shoulders and a rattle in his hand." The rattle was also a part of the ceremonial equipment of the Dog-soldiers, and as the Dakota calendar does not distinguish between seasons, the ceremony may as easily have taken place in the summer, the ordinary season for Indian celebrations on the plains.

[Illustration: FIG. 96--Dog-Soldier initiated(?) (from the Dakota calendars).]

Of the ten _ópäm-yaípo_, the principal one, called the _yaípo-kóñkya_, "black rope," was made of elk-skin colored black and was worn by the leader, the most noted of whom in recent memory was Set-ängya. Three were made of red cloth and were called _yaípo-gúădal_, "red ropes," while the remaining six were made of elk-skin dyed red and were called simply _ópäm-yaípo_. Any of the Kâ´itséñko was at liberty, if he did not choose to go on a particular expedition, to lend his sash to another for the occasion; but if cowardice was suspected to be his motive for this

## action he was degraded from his rank and the sash taken from him and

given to a braver man. Usually each one had a younger partner (_tsä_), whom he allowed to wear his sash while in camp or even on less important expeditions, but when any great war party was on foot, he must wear it and go himself or run the risk of being considered a coward. When a wearer became too old to go to war, he formally resigned his sash to some younger man whom he deemed worthy to wear it, the recipient acknowledging the honor with presents of blankets or other property. Sometimes the sash was publicly taken from a warrior grown too old to wear it in battle, but this was not necessarily regarded as a degradation when there was no implication of cowardice.

WINTER 1846-47

_Sénpága Etá`ga-de Sai_, "Winter when they shot the mustache." The figure represents a man shot in the mustache or upper lip by an arrow. The long hair and the breech-cloth shows that he was an Indian, and the beard or mustache is exaggerated to accentuate the idea. Mustaches are not infrequent among the older men of the Kiowa, and Set-ängya had almost a full beard.

While the Kiowa were encamped for the winter on Elk creek, a tributary of the North fork of Red river, within the limits of the present reservation, a band of Pawnee coming on foot stole a number of their horses. The Kiowa pursued them northward and overtook them on the Washita and recovered the horses after a fight in which one Pawnee was killed. In this action Set-ängya engaged a Pawnee and was about to stab him with his lance when, his foot slipped on the snow, causing him to fall, and the Pawnee sent an arrow through Set-ängya's upper lip.

SUMMER 1847

_Mâ´nka-gúădal Ehótal-de Pai_, "Summer that Red-sleeve was killed." The figure shows the Indian leader with his war-bonnet and red sleeve. The medicine lodge is absent, showing that there was no sun dance that year.

[Illustration: FIG. 97--Winter 1846-47--Mustache shooting.]

Mânka-gúădal is the Kiowa name of the Comanche chief Red-sleeve (Îkämosa?), who was killed in an attack against a party of Santa Fé traders in Kansas, where the Santa Fé trail crossed Pawnee fork of the Arkansas, below the present Fort Larned, which was not built until 1859. Pawnee fork, properly called by the Kiowa _Aíkoñ P'a_, "Dark-timber river," is sometimes called by them from this circumstance _Mâ´nka-gúădal-de P'a_, "Red-sleeve's river." According to the story told by the Kiowa, they and the Comanche were out in search of the Pawnee when they met at this point a large party of white men with wagons--evidently Santa Fé traders. Red-sleeve wanted to attack them, but Set-ängya, the Kiowa leader, refused, saying that the whites were their friends. Red-sleeve then taunted the Kiowa as cowards, put on his war-bonnet, and, calling his Comanche, attacked the traders. The Kiowa, wishing to avoid trouble, drew off. About the first fire a bullet went through the leg of Red-sleeve and into the spine of his horse, so that the animal fell, pinning his wounded rider to the ground. He called on Set-ängya to help him, but the Kiowa chief refused on account of the taunt of cowardice, and the white men came up to Red-sleeve and shot him.

[Illustration: FIG. 98--Summer 1847--Red-sleeve killed.]

As the government had but little communication with the tribes of the southern plains until some years after the Mexican war, there is no direct notice of this occurrence in the official reports, but a letter by agent Fitzpatrick in the report of the Indian Commissioner for 1848, the year after the attack upon the train, bears out the statement of the Kiowa that they were anxious to keep peace with the whites, even at the risk of quarreling with the Comanche and losing some very profitable business opportunities. Speaking of depredations upon parties traveling on the emigrant roads and the Santa Fé trail, he says:

Before leaving there [Bent's fort] last February I had an interview with some of the Kiaway chiefs, and who have heretofore been allies of the Comanches. They expressed themselves as sorry for having anything to do with the war against us, and promised to quit their country and all intercourse with the Comanches and join the Cheyennes on the Arkansas, who are the friends of the whites. This course I approved, and since my departure from that country last spring learned that nearly all the Kiaways have moved to the country of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes and are living in perfect amity with the surrounding tribes.

He also states that there seem to have been fewer attacks made upon travelers along the Santa Fé road recently, which he can account for only on the supposition that "the Indians having, in 1846 and 1847, secured so much booty by their daring outrages upon travelers, are now and have been the past summer luxuriating in and enjoying the spoils" (_Report, 77_).

[Illustration: FIG. 99--Winter 1847-48--Winter camp.]

WINTER 1847-48

They camped all winter on _T'aiñ P'a_, "White river," an extreme upper branch of the South Canadian (perhaps identical with Major Long's creek). The figure represents the winter camp with the brush windbreak around it.

[Illustration: FIG. 100--Summer 1848--Initiation sun dance.]

SUMMER 1848

_Ópäñ K`ádó_, "Kâ´itséñko initiation sun dance." This dance was held on Arkansas river near Bent's fort, in Colorado, and was distinguished by the initiation of several Kâ´itséñko (see summer 1846). The figure represents an initiate with his (red) body paint and _ópämyaípo_.

[Illustration: FIG. 101--Winter 1848-49-Antelope drive.]

WINTER 1848-49

The Kiowa were camped on Arkansas river near Bent's fort and made "antelope medicine" (_ät'á´kagúa_) for a great antelope drive. Compare the figures from the Dakota calendars of Mallery (figure 102).

The antelope drive was made only in seasons of scarcity, when the supply of buffalo meat was insufficient, and only in the winter, at which season the antelope are accustomed to go in herds, while in the spring and summer they scatter. Such a drive was an event so rare that one informant over 60 years of age had seen but one in his lifetime.

When it has been decided to have an antelope drive, the "antelope medicine-man" builds a special tipi and remains in it all night, singing his medicine songs until daylight. In the morning he starts out in the probable direction of the antelope, carrying in each hand a rod about two feet long decorated at each end with eagle feathers and in the center with a wheel from which depend the feathers of other carnivorous birds, his face is painted white, a buffalo robe is thrown over his shoulder, and a whistle hangs from his neck. He is accompanied by the whole tribe, mounted and on foot--men, women, and children. On arriving at the place selected for the hunt, he sits upon the ground, facing the direction in which the antelope are supposed to be; in most other Indian ceremonies the priest faces the east. Beside him sit some of the principal men, while behind stand several women. The two men chosen to sit next him on each side must be men known as successful in the hunt and on the warpath. He plants the two decorated sticks in the ground in front of him, lights his pipe, and begins to smoke; after smoking a little while he hands the rods to the men sitting next him, crossing his right hand over his left as he does so, and giving their hands a peculiar pressure four times. These two men then rise, put their hands upon his head--a gesture of prayer or invocation--step across each into the place of the other so as to again reverse the position of the rods, and then, after the same four hand pressures, again plant the rods in front of the priest.

[Illustration: FIG. 102--Antelope drives (from the Dakota calendars)]

Two other men, noted war chiefs, then take their places beside the priest, while the first two sit next them. Grasping the upright sticks at the top, the priest now sings the first antelope song, blowing upon the whistle at intervals, while all the surrounding men and women join in the song, and the four men sitting beside him beat time on the ground. Four different songs are sung in this manner, the sticks being grasped lower down at each song, until at the last song the priest pulls them out from the ground, and, holding them by their lower ends, pushes them out alternately in front of himself, while the whole company--mostly women now, as the men have gone on ahead--swell the chorus, waving their arms with a sweeping motion, as if grasping at the antelope. Then the two war chiefs place their hands upon his head as before, and he gives them the sticks, with four other hand pressures. Taking the rods, the two chiefs run forward on foot at full speed on diverging lines until they meet two horsemen, to whom they deliver the rods, and then return to the place where the priest is sitting with the women and children. In the meantime the hunters have ridden far out in a semicircle, so as to inclose a large area of country. The two hunters who have taken the rods now also ride far out on diverging lines, then turn, cross each other's paths, and return to the priest. The four songs "draw the minds" of the antelope to the priests, and the crossing of the paths typifies the surrounding of the game by the lines of hunters.

The horsemen now begin to close in toward the center, driving before them the antelope and any other animals that may be within the semicircle; as they approach, the women close in from, the opposite side, and as the circle contracts, with the frightened animals running about within it, they seize them with their hands or with reatas. It is said that once, in such a drive, a woman caught a coyote by throwing her arms about its neck. No shooting is allowed within the circle, but any antelope that break through are pursued and shot outside (for other methods, see winter 1860-61).

[Illustration: FIG. 103--Summer 1849--Cholera sun dance.]

SUMMER, 1849

_Mayíagyă´ K`ádó_, "Cramp (i. e., cholera) sun dance." The figure beside the medicine lodge represents a man with his limbs drawn up by the pangs of cholera, which the Kiowa name "the cramp," from its characteristic feature. Compare the corresponding figure (104) from the Dakota calendar for the same disease.

This was during the great cholera epidemic that swept the country in the spring and summer of 1849, which was carried to the plains by the California and Oregon emigrants and by some of the tribes then in process of removal from the east. The Kiowa remember this as the most terrible experience within their history, far exceeding in fatality the smallpox of nine years before. It was a disease before entirely unknown to them, and was particularly dreaded on account of its dreadful suddenness, men who had been in perfect health in the morning being dead a few hours later. The disease appeared immediately after the sun dance, which was held on Mule creek (_Ädóä P'a_, "Tipi wind-break river"), between Medicine-lodge creek and the Salt fork of the Arkansas, and, like the previous smallpox, it was brought by visiting Osage who attended the dance. During the performance a man became inspired or "crazy," as in the ghost dance, and prophesied that something terrible was about to happen after the _taíme_ had been returned to its box. Hardly was the dance over and the _taíme_ put away when a man was attacked by this strange disease and died in a few hours; then another became sick and died as suddenly, and another, until in a few days the epidemic spread through the tribe, killing great numbers, including an unusual proportion of medicine-men. The Kiowa say that half their number perished during its prevalence; this is probably an exaggeration, but whole families and camps were exterminated and their tipis were left standing empty and deserted. Many in their despair committed suicide, but the survivors saved themselves by scattering in different directions until the disease had spent its fury.

The tribes of the lake region and those which had been recently removed to Indian Territory generally escaped the disease, but among the wild tribes of the plains, from the Dakota to the Comanche, the ravages of the cholera during this season were as awful as among the white population of the eastern states. The western Dakota, who suffered severely, believed that the disease had been deliberately introduced by the whites for their more speedy extermination (_Report, 78_). The agent for the Pawnee states that up to June of 1849 twelve hundred and thirty-four persons, or nearly one-fourth of the tribe, had already died, and the disease was still making fearful ravages among them, while the survivors were in such dread of the terrible scourge that no persuasion could induce them to bury the dead, and within a short distance of the agency it was not unusual to find the unburied corpses

## partially devoured by wolves (_Report, 79_).

[Illustration: FIG. 104--Cholera (from the Dakota calendars).]