Part 23

The Ute carried the _taíme_ with them to their own country, but misfortune went with it. The son of its capturer was shortly afterward killed in a fight with the Cheyenne, and soon after that the custodian himself was killed by a stroke of lightning. Afraid to keep longer such "bad medicine," they brought both images down to the trader Maxwell, in New Mexico, who placed them on a shelf in his store, where they remained in plain view for a long time, but were finally lost. The Ute left word with Maxwell that the Kiowa, if they came for the images, might have them, on payment of a specified number of ponies. For some reason the Kiowa did not come--perhaps because they were afraid to trust themselves so far in their enemies' country.

While the sacred images were on Maxwell's shelf they were seen by a brother of George Bent, of the noted pioneer trading family, from whom the author obtained a description of their appearance. They were two small carved stones or petrifactions, the _taíme_ proper having the shape of a man's head and bust, and was decorated and painted. The other resembled in form a bear's kidney. While in New Mexico some years ago the author made diligent inquiry among Maxwell's former business associates concerning the images, but found no one who could throw any light upon their whereabouts. In 1893 Big-bow and some others of the tribe visited the Ute, chiefly for the purpose of ascertaining the fate of the _taíme_, not knowing that it had passed out of their possession. They learned nothing, however, as they asked no direct questions concerning it and the Ute volunteered no information. This was the first friendly meeting between the two tribes, although as early as 1873 the Kiowa chiefs in council had made an urgent request to the agent that some good white man should be sent with them to make peace with the Ute (_Battey, 18_).

When the news of the defeat reached them, the Kiowa were encamped on the Arkansas, near Fort Larned, where at that time they drew their government issues. They at once moved down to the Washita and encamped adjoining the Cheyenne village under Black-kettle, on the western border of Oklahoma. This village was soon after destroyed by Custer. About this time steps were taken to confine the confederated tribes to the reservation assigned them by the late treaty, which was soon after accomplished, and as a people the Kiowa never again went back to the neighborhood of Arkansas river.

The only official reference to this fight, if indeed it does refer to it, is the incidental mention in a letter of about June 20 that an appointment by the agent for the Ute and Jicarilla Apache had been postponed in consequence of the absence of Kaneatche, who was away and had had a fight with the Kiowa and Comanche (_Report, 88_). Kaneatche, Kanache, or Conyatz (_Kanats_ according to Major Powell) was the head chief of the confederate Ute and Jicarilla band of Apache, and on his death was succeeded by Ouray.

The encounter is thus noted by a contemporary author:

During the previous summer [1868] a war party of Ute left their haunts in New Mexico, and after marching on foot a distance of over 500 miles fell upon a band of Kiowa, completely routed them, captured a number of ponies, took many scalps, and, more calamitous than all, got possession of the "medicine" of the band. As might be inferred, the Kiowa had a superstitious dread of the very name Ute (_Keim, 2_).

The action and the grief of the Kiowa over the loss of their medicine are further described by a writer in a contemporary Kansas newspaper, who evidently speaks with exact knowledge:

About the 10th of July [1868] the Kiowa had a battle with the Ute, in which the chief Heap-of-Bears and seven other Kiowa braves were killed. Heap-of-Bears had on his person the medicine of the Kiowa, which was captured by the Ute, who still retain it. This medicine consists of an image about 18 inches in length, carved to represent a human face, and covered with the down and feathers of the eagle and other birds and swathed in wrappers of different materials of value. Although I have been conversant with Indian habits and customs for a long time, I was surprised to find the value these people attach to this medicine. They begged and implored Colonel Murphy to recover it for them, and promised to pay the Ute as many horses as they wanted, and also to make a permanent and lasting peace, not only with the Ute, but also to refrain from further depredations on the Texas border, if this should be restored. Colonel Murphy promised to endeavor to recover it, but I think his success in the matter will be doubtful, as the Ute also attach great importance to their capture, believing that while they retain it the Kiowa will be powerless to do them harm (_Abbott, 1_).

[Illustration: FIG. 144--Winter 1868-69--Tän-gúădal killed.]

WTNTER 1868-69

_Tän-gúădal Ehótal-de Sai_, "Winter that Tän-gúădal was killed." _Tän_ is the name of a particular variety of headdress, also of an edible root resembling a turnip; _gúădal_ signifies red. Shortly after the removal to the Washita, a small raiding party went to Texas. In an encounter with a white man and boy both parties fired simultaneously and Tän-gúădal was killed. Although a young man, he was a noted warrior and the hereditary owner of a medicine lance or _zebat_, shaped and adorned like an arrow. The event is indicated on the Set-t'an calendar by the figure, above the winter mark, of a man holding the arrow lance. On the Anko calendar it is indicated by the rude figure of the medicine lance.

This medicine lance, which was hereditary in Tän-gúădal's family, came originally from the Crows. The one carried by him on this occasion, as described by Set-k`opte, who was with the party, had a Mexican-made steel blade and was left sticking upright in the ground at the place where they rested before the encounter, the owner not having taken it into the fight. Set-t'aiñte claimed the hereditary right to this medicine lance, through marriage into the family of one of Tän-gúădal's ancestors. Despite the protest of Tän-gúădal, he made a similar lance, which he carried for several years (see summer 1874). This lance of Set-t'aiñte is said to have had a separable ornamented wooden point, which was inserted on ceremonial occasions, while an ordinary steel blade was substituted when it was to be used in actual service. Similar "medicine" lances for ceremonial purposes were used also among other tribes.

While this expedition was in Texas another party, under Stumbling-bear, went up the Canadian to bury the bones of those killed with Set-dayá-ite in the encounter with the Ute.

SUMMER 1869

_Ä´tahá-i Gyä´`gan-de K`ádó_, "Sun dance when they brought the war-bonnet." On both calendars this sun dance is designated by the figure of a war-bonnet (_ä-tahá-i_, "feather crest") above the medicine lodge.

[Illustration: FIG. 145--Summer 1869--War-bonnet sun dance.]

The dance was held on the north side of the North fork of Red River, a short distance below the junction of Sweetwater creek, near the western line of Oklahoma, the Kiowa having been removed during the preceding autumn from Kansas and the north to their present reservation, but still ranging outside the boundaries, under the hunting privilege accorded by the late treaty. While the dance was in progress, Big-bow, who had gone with a large party against the Ute to avenge the death of Set-dayá-ite the year before, returned with the war-bonnet of a Ute whom he had killed in the mountains at the head of the Arkansas, in Colorado. By a curious chance this Ute was one whom the Cheyenne or Arapaho had wounded and scalped on a former expedition. The Ute had taken their wounded comrade to the Mexicans of New Mexico, who cured him, only to die soon afterward by the hand of a Kiowa. The facts in the case were learned by Big-bow on his friendly visit to the Ute in 1893.

WINTER 1869-70

_Dómbá Etpé-de Sai_, "Winter when they were frightened by the bugle." The circumstance is indicated on both calendars by means of a bugle in connection with the winter mark.

[Illustration: FIG. 146--Winter 1869-70--Bugle scare.]

This was a winter of chronic alarm, as the Cheyenne, the neighbors and friends of the Kiowa, were on the warpath and were being hard pressed by Custer. The Kiowa had made their winter settlement in two camps on Beaver creek, near the junction of Wolf creek, in the vicinity of the present Fort Supply, in Oklahoma. It was reported that soldiers were in the neighborhood, and a party of young men went out to look for them. On returning, about daylight, one of them, who carried a bugle, blew it to announce their approach, with the result that the whole camp, thinking that the troops were about to attack them, fled precipitately several miles before the truth was discovered.

According to another account, the bugle was blown by Set-t'aiñte, who for many years carried on ceremonial occasions a bugle which he had probably obtained from some army post. He had been on a visit to the Arkansas, and blew it on his return in order to locate the camp.

SUMMER 1870

_É`gú Gyäk`íädă-de K`ádó_, "Plant-growing sun dance," or _K`ádó Paíñyoñhä´-de_, "Dusty sun dance." The former is the more common designation. This sun dance, like the last, was held on the North fork of Red river, but on the south side, in what is now Greer county, Oklahoma, near where the reservation line strikes the stream. During the dance the traders brought corn and watermelons to sell to the Indians. The seeds were thrown away, and on returning to the spot in the fall the Kiowa found that they had germinated in the sandy soil and developed into full growth; hence the common name of the dance, indicated on the Set-t'an calendar by a stalk of green (blue) corn beside the medicine lodge. On the Anko calendar it is distinguished as the "Dusty sun dance," on account of the high winds which raised clouds of dust during the dance and which are rudely indicated by close black lines across the medicine pole. No other event is recorded, the dance serving merely as a chronologic point.

[Illustration: FIG. 147--Summer 1870--Plant-growing sun dance; dusty sun dance.]

WINTER 1870-71

_Set-ä´ngya Ä´ton Ágan-de Sai_, "Winter when they brought Set-ängya's bones."

For this winter the Set-t'an calendar records the bringing home of the bones of young Set-ängya, indicated by a skeleton above the winter mark, with a sitting bear over the head.

[Illustration: FIG. 148--Winter 1870-71--Set-ängya's bones brought home; drunken fight; negroes killed.]

In the spring of 1870, before the last sun dance, the son of the noted chief Set-ängya ("Sitting-bear"), the young man having the same name as his father, had made a raid with a few followers into Texas, where, while making an attack upon a house, he had been shot and killed. After the dance his father with some friends went to Texas, found his bones and wrapped them in several fine blankets, put the bundle upon the back of a led horse and brought them home. On the return journey he killed and scalped a white man, which revenge served in some measure to assuage his grief. On reaching home he erected a tipi with a raised platform inside, upon which, as upon a bed, he placed the bundle containing his son's bones. He then made a feast within the funeral tipi, to which he invited all his friends in the name of his son, telling them, "My son calls you to eat." From that time he always spoke of his son as sleeping, not as dead, and frequently put food and water near the platform for his refreshment on awaking. 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 Anko calendar records two incidents. The first was a drunken fight between two Kiowa, in which one killed the other, indicated by the rude representation of two heads with a bottle between them. The other event was the killing of four or five negroes in Texas by a party led by Mamä´nte ("Walking-above)," who brought back the scalps with the woolly-hair attached. It is shown on the calendar by means of a figure with bullet and arrow wounds, drawn below the heads and the bottle. An attempt has been made to indicate the peculiar woolly hair of the negro; the trousers are blue, like those worn by soldiers, Anko thinking they were probably soldiers, because, as he says, "Negroes can't go alone."

[Illustration: FIG. 149--Summer 1871--Set-t'aiñte arrested; Koñpä´te killed.]

In this winter Ansó-gíăni or Anso`te, "Long-foot," the great medicine keeper, died of extreme old age. He had been in charge of the _taíme_ for forty years; consequently there was no sun dance for two years until his successor was selected.

SUMMER 1871

For this summer the Anko calendar records the death of Koñpä´te, "Blackens-himself," who was shot through the head in a skirmish with soldiers. He was the brother of the noted raider, White-horse. The event is indicated by the rude representation of a head struck by a bullet. As there was no dance this summer, the medicine lodge is not represented on either calendar.

The great event of the summer was the arrest of the noted chiefs and raiders, Set-t'aiñte, Set-äñgya and Ä´do-eétte, "Big-tree." The figure on the Set-t'an calendar shows the soldier arresting Set-t'aiñte, distinguished by the red war-paint which he always used.

Notwithstanding the promises of good conduct which had induced General Sheridan to release Lone-wolf and Set-t'aiñte when the tribe had been brought to the reservation in December, 1868, the Kiowa had never ceased their raids into Texas, and had constantly behaved in the most insolent manner toward the agent and military commander on the reservation. On May 17, 1871, a party of about one hundred warriors, led by Set-t'aiñte and Set-ängya, attacked a wagon train in Texas, killed 7 men and captured 41 mules. Shortly afterward Set-t'aiñte had the boldness to avow the deed to the agent, Lawrie Tatum, who at once called upon the commander at Fort Sill to arrest Set-t´aiñte and several other chiefs who had accompanied him, viz: Set-ängya, Big-tree, Big-bow, Eagle-Heart and Fast-bear. The officer promptly responded and arrested the first three; Eagle-heart escaped and the other two were absent at the time. On May 28, the three prisoners were sent under military guard to Fort Richardson (Jacksboro), Texas, to be tried for their crimes, when Set-ängya attacked the guard and was killed in the wagon (_Report, 89_; _Record, 11_; _Battey, 19_; _Tatum letter_). The fate of the other prisoners is noted elsewhere.

According to the Kiowa account, which is correct in the main incidents, the prisoners having been disarmed, Set-ängya was placed in a wagon, accompanied by a single soldier, and Set-t'aiñte and Big-tree were put into another wagon with other guards, and an escort of cavalry and Tonkawa scouts rode on either side. Leaving Fort Sill, they started toward the south on the road to Texas, when Set-ängya began a loud harangue to the two prisoners in the other wagon, telling them that he was a chief and a warrior, too old to be treated like a little child. Then pointing to a tree where the road descends to cross a small stream about a mile south of the post, he said: "I shall never go beyond that tree." As he spoke in the Kiowa language, none but the prisoners knew what he was saying. Then raising his voice, he sang his death song, the song of the Kâitséñko, of whom he was chief:

I´ha hyo´ o´ya i´ya´ i´ya' o i´ha ya´ya yo´yo´ A´he´ya ahe´ya´ ya´he´yo´ ya e´ya he´yo e´he´yo Kâ´itseñ´ko änä´obahe´ma haa´-ipai´-degi o´ba´-ikă´ Kâi´tse´ñko änä´obahe´ma hadâ´mga´gi o´ba´-ikă´ _I hahyo, etc._ _Aheya, etc._ O sun, you remain forever, but we Kâitse´ñko must die. O earth, you remain forever, but we Kâitse´ñko must die.

The song ended, he suddenly sprang upon the guard with a knife which he had managed to conceal about his person, and had cut him seriously when the soldiers following behind fired and he fell dead in the wagon. He was buried in the military cemetery at Fort Sill, but there is nothing to distinguish the grave. The Kiowa statement of his singing his death song is corroborated by Battey and by agent Tatum.

Although a noted warrior and a chief of the Kâitséñko, Set-ängya was generally feared and disliked by the tribe on account of his vindictive disposition and his supposed powers of magic. It was believed that he could kill an enemy by occult means, and that he had in this manner actually disposed of one or two who had incurred his displeasure. The knife with which he attacked the soldier is reputed to have been a "medicine knife," which he could swallow and disgorge as demanded by the necessity of concealment or use; several stories are told by the Indians to confirm this belief. His paternal grandmother was a woman of the Sarsi (_Pákiägo_, a small tribe incorporated with the Blackfeet,) who had married a Kiowa when the latter tribe lived in the far north. Unlike Indians generally, he habitually wore a mustache and straggling beard. He left two children; the elder, a son, was adopted into a white family under the name of Joshua Given, was educated in the east, married a white lady, afterward returned as a missionary to his people, and died of consumption about four years ago. The younger child, Julia Given, was until recently employed in one of the mission schools on the reservation.

[Illustration: FIG. 150--Set-t'aiñte in prison (from _Scribner's Monthly_, February, 1874)]

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LXXVIII

PHOTO BY SOULE (1) 1872

LAWRIE TATUM, FIRST KIOWA AGENT, WITH GROUP OF RESCUED CAPTIVES]

Bearing on the subject of the arrest of the three chiefs and the death of Set-ängya, we quote at length from a letter written by Lawrie Tatum, the first agent for the Kiowa and associated tribes, from whom the author has obtained much valuable information in response to letters of inquiry. Mr Tatum, who is now (1896) living in Springdale, Iowa, at the advanced age of 75 years, is a member of the Society of Friends, and was appointed, on their recommendation, in accordance with the "Indian peace policy" of President Grant, soon after the tribes were brought upon the reservation. He took charge, as he states, July 1, 1869, and resigned March 31, 1873, in consequence of the release of Set-t'aiñte and Big-tree, a measure which he opposed, as it was on his motion that these men were originally arrested. During his incumbency he rescued a number of white captives without ransom--a thing before unexampled. On this point he states, in a letter of March 31, 1896:

I recovered fourteen white captives from the Indians, two of whom had forgotten their names and every word of English. I advertised for their parents and found them. I also recovered twelve Mexicans. I was the first agent, I think, that those Indians had, who obtained captives of them without paying a ransom. A part of them were procured by withholding rations from the band that had them, and a part were obtained by means of the leverage that Colonel Mackenzie gave by taking a hundred women and children from a raiding camp to Texas.

His stringent measures at times brought him into disfavor with his co-religionists, but had great influence in bringing these unruly tribes under effectual control. He writes, under date of April 7, 1896:

General Sherman called at my office, Kiowa and Comanche agency, Indian Territory, fifth month, 23, 1871, to see if I knew of any Indians having gone to Texas lately. He said that a party of Indians, supposed to number about one hundred and fifty, had attacked a train of ten wagons about 17 miles from Fort Richardson and killed the trainmaster and six teamsters. Five others escaped. Being at the fort at the time, he gave orders for the available troops to follow them with thirty days' rations and report at Fort Sill.

I told the general that I could not then tell what Indians they were, but thought that I could ascertain in a few days. Four days later the Indians came after their rations. Before issuing I asked the chiefs to come into the office, and told them of the tragedy in Texas, and wished to know if they could tell by what Indians it had been committed. Satanta immediately arose and said:

"Yes; I led in that raid. I have been told that you have stolen a large amount of our annuity goods and given them to the Texans. I have repeatedly asked for arms and ammunition, which have not been furnished, and made other requests which have not been granted. You do not listen to my talk. 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. I want you to remember that.

"On account of these grievances a short time ago I took about one hundred of my warriors, whom I wished to teach how to fight, to Texas, with the chiefs Satank [_Set-ängya_], Eagle-heart, Big-tree, Big-bow, and Fast-bear. We found a mule train, which we captured, and killed seven of the men. Three of our men got killed, but we are willing to call it even. It is all over now, and not necessary to say much more about it. We don't expect to do any raiding around here this summer. If any other Indian claims the honor of leading that party he will be lying to you, for I led it myself."