Part 6

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. In 1856 a war party of nearly one hundred arrived at Albuquerque, New Mexico, having passed through the center of the settlements of that territory, on their way to attack the Navaho. They were turned back by the military commander, committing several depredations as they retired (_Report, 5_). Two years later another large war party, together with some Cheyenne, passed Fort Garland, Colorado, almost on the great divide, in pursuit of the Ute (_Report, 6_).

[Illustration: FIG. 44--Dohásän or Little-bluff, principal chief, 1833--1866 (after Catlin, 1834)]

DEFIANT SPEECH OF DOHÁSÄN

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. The great chief Dohásän, after listening in respectful silence to the end, sprang to his feet, and, calling the attention of the agent to the hundreds of tipis in the valley below, replied in a characteristic speech:

The white chief is a fool. He is a coward. His heart is small--not larger than a pebble stone. His men are not strong--too few to contend against my warriors. They are women. There are three chiefs--the white chief, the Spanish chief, and myself. The Spanish chief and myself are men. We do bad toward each other sometimes, stealing horses and taking scalps, but we do not get mad and act the fool. The white chief is a child, and like a child gets mad quick. When my young men, to keep their women and children from starving, take from the white man passing through our country, killing and driving away our buffalo, a cup of sugar or coffee, the white chief is angry and threatens to send his soldiers. I have looked for them a long time, but they have not come. He is a coward. His heart is a woman's. I have spoken. Tell the great chief what I have said (_Report, 7_).

SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC OF 1861-62

In the winter of 1861-62 the smallpox, brought back from New Mexico by a party of Kiowa returning from a trading trip, again ravaged the Kiowa, Comanche, and other tribes of the plains (see the calendar). To prevent a recurrence of the disease, the government soon afterward took measures for vaccinating the western Indians. In the summer of 1863 a delegation of Kiowa visited Washington and gave permission for the establishment of mail stations along the roads through their country in southeastern Colorado (_Report, 8_).

INDIAN WAR ON THE PLAINS, 1864

The chronic raiding still continued. In 1860 the troops had been ordered to chastise the Kiowa and Comanche, but apparently with little effect. Then came the rebellion, involving all the civilized and partly civilized tribes of the south and reacting on the wild tribes of the plains. At the same time the fugitive hostiles from the Sioux war in Minnesota in 1862, who had taken refuge with their western brethren of the same tribe, helped to increase the ferment. There is evidence also that agents of the Confederacy had something to do with this result. In the fall of 1863 it was learned that a combination had been formed by the Dakota, Cheyenne, part of the Arapaho, the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache--all the principal fighting tribes--to inaugurate a general war along the plains in the spring. To meet the emergency, messages were sent out to the different tribes in June, 1864, directing all friendly Indians to repair at once to certain designated military posts, with a warning that all found away from these posts after a certain date would be considered hostile. As it was difficult for troops to distinguish one tribe from another, an order was issued at the same time prohibiting the friendly Indians in eastern Kansas from going out on their usual buffalo hunt upon the plains.

Only a part of the Arapaho, and later some of the Cheyenne, responded and came in. After waiting a sufficient time, Governor Evans of Colorado issued a proclamation in the summer of 1864 designating all Indians remaining out as hostiles, whom all persons were authorized to kill and destroy as enemies of the country, wherever they might be found (_Report, 9_). In August the agent at Fort Lyon, Colorado, for the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Cheyenne, and Arapaho, wrote that "the orders are to kill every Indian found in the country, and I am inclined to assist in carrying the orders into effect" (_Report, 10_).

The official reports covering the summer of 1864 are full of notices of murders and depredations on the plains. The agent of the Overland Mail stated in August that as a consequence the company had been compelled to abandon all its stations for a distance of 400 miles, while every ranch within the same section had been deserted. He reported that the Indians "arrogantly declare that the land belongs exclusively to them; they intend to regain and hold it if they have to destroy every white man, woman, and child to accomplish their purpose. It would seem that the recent enormous emigration across the plains has alarmed many of the tribes and infused into their rude minds the belief that the whites were about to take possession of their country" (_Report, 11_). The great emigration referred to was in consequence of the rush to the gold mines of Pike's Peak, discovered in 1858.

VACCINATION AMONG THE PLAINS TRIBES--SET-T'AIÑTE

As usual, the Indians had deferred hostilities until the grass was high enough in the spring to enable their ponies to travel. In April a government physician, who had been sent among these tribes to vaccinate them as a protection from the smallpox which had recently decimated them, as already noted, found them all apparently friendly. From him we have an interesting description of the appearance and home life of the famous chief Set-t'aiñte. He writes from Fort Larned:

I have been two weeks among the Kiowas, about 40 miles up the Arkansas river. I was four days in Satana's [_Set-t'aiñte_] or White Bear's village, who is, I believe, their principal chief. He is a fine-looking Indian, very energetic, and as sharp as a brier. He and all his people treated, me with much friendship. I ate my meals regularly three times a day with him in his lodge. He puts on a good deal of style, spreads a carpet for his guests to sit on, and has painted fireboards 20 inches wide and 3 feet long, ornamented with bright brass tacks driven all around the edges, which they use for tables. He has a brass French horn, which he blew vigorously when the meals were ready. I slept with Yellow Buffalo, who was one of the chiefs that visited Washington with Major Colley. They have quite a number of cows and calves and a good many oxen and some mules and American horses that they say they stole from Texas. A body of Kiowas and Comanches and some Cheyennes intend to make another raid into Texas in about five or six weeks.

It will be remembered that Texas was at this time in armed rebellion against the general government, a fact which confirmed the Indians in their belief that Texans and Americans were two distinct and hostile nations. With correct prophecy the doctor surmises that a successful result in the contemplated raid will encourage them to try their hand farther north. By this time he had vaccinated nearly all the Indians of the upper Arkansas (_Report, 12_). Fort Larned, in western Kansas, was then the distributing point for the goods furnished by the government to the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache.

[Illustration: Photo by Soule, about 1870

FIG. 45--Set-t'aiñte (Satanta) or White-bear]

THE LITTLE ARKANSAS TREATY IN 1865

In a few months the grass was up and a change came o'er the spirit of the dream. Hostilities had begun on the plains, and in order that the innocent might not be punished with the guilty, the friendly tribes along the eastern border had been forbidden to go out into the buffalo country. This deprivation of accustomed privileges naturally caused great dissatisfaction among the friendly Indians, who had come to depend on their annual buffalo hunt to eke out their scanty food supply, and they complained bitterly that the government had been feeding and clothing the hostiles, while they themselves had been left to starve. In a strong letter their agent writes that, while he has a desire to shield all Indians from wrong and severe treatment, yet "lead, and plenty of it, is what the Kiowas want and must have before they will behave." He denounces them as murderous thieves, and says that he has had personal experience of their insolence and outrages (_Report, 13_). The incidents of this war noted on the calendar are the encounter at Fort Larned, in which the Kiowa ran off the horses of the soldiers, and the attack on a Kiowa camp by a detachment of troops and Ute Indians under command of Kit Carson (see the calendar).

From the agent's report it appears that the Indians had begun hostilities in the summer simultaneously on the Platte and the Arkansas, and up to September had killed a number of people and run off several thousand head of horses, mules, and cattle. Communication between the Colorado settlements and the Missouri had been almost entirely cut off, the overland coaches had to be supplied with large escorts, and emigrant trains were compelled to combine for safety. It was thought that all the tribes of the plains were on the warpath together. The Indians were well mounted, knew the whole country perfectly, and so far, in every contest on anything like equal terms, had proven themselves a match for the white soldiers. As nearly the whole available force of the government was then employed in suppressing the rebellion, no additional troops could be sent to the frontier, and Governor Evans of Colorado asked and received permission to raise a force of volunteers against the hostiles. It was the opinion of many persons, including army officers stationed in the country, that the whole trouble might have been averted had the Indians been properly treated by the whites (_Report, 14_).

In spite of the serious condition of affairs it was evident that the chiefs did not want war. Early in September peace overtures were received from the Cheyenne and Arapaho, who soon after came in and camped as directed near Fort Lyon, Colorado. A month later the agent reported that the Kiowa and Comanche had committed no depredations for a long time and were supposed then to be south of the Arkansas, near the Texas border (_Report, 15_). Before the trouble began they had been encamped on the Arkansas, near Fort Larned. As the tribes had now expressed their desire for peace, a commission was sent out early in 1865 to meet them for that purpose. The commissioners met the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache on August 15 at the mouth of the Little Arkansas, where now is the town of Wichita, Kansas, and received their promise to cease hostilities and to meet the same commission in October to make a regular treaty of peace. Three days later the Cheyenne and Arapaho entered into a similar agreement at the same place. The Kiowa chiefs signing the agreement were Dohásän as head chief, Gúi-pä´go ("Lone-wolf"), Sét-dayâ´-ite ("Many-bears"), Set-t'aiñte ("White-bear"), Te'né-angópte ("Kicking-bird"), and Set-ĭmkía ("Pushing-bear," commonly known as Stumbling-bear), with Sét-tádal ("Lean-bear") for the Apache, and eight of the Comanche. Credit for this result is due largely to the efforts of agent Leavenworth, who secured a suspension of military operations while he went out to bring in the Indians, a matter of peculiar difficulty in view of their fresh recollection of the massacre of friendly Cheyenne by Colonel Chivington in the autumn of the preceding year (_Report, 16_).

Pursuant to agreement, commissioners met the five tribes in October, 1865, at the mouth of the Little Arkansas, where treaties were made with the Cheyenne and Arapaho on the 14th, with the Apache on the 17th, and with the Kiowa and Comanche on the 18th. By the treaty with the Apache they were officially detached from the Kiowa and Comanche and attached to the Cheyenne and Arapaho, who agreed to relinquish their reservation in southeastern Colorado for one farther south, in Kansas and Indian Territory. The Kiowa and Comanche agreed to remove south of the Arkansas, the reservation proposed for their future home being a tract in western Texas and Oklahoma, as follows: Commencing on the Canadian river where the eastern line of New Mexico crosses the same; thence running south along said line to the southern boundary of New Mexico; thence in a northeastwardly direction to the headwaters of Big Wichita river; thence down said river to its mouth or its junction with Red river; thence due north to Canadian river; thence up the Canadian to the place of beginning. By this treaty, which was intended, to be only temporary, they gave up all claims in Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico, and were restricted to southwestern Oklahoma and the region of the Staked plain in Texas. Five white captives were surrendered by the Kiowa and Comanche at the same time (_Treaty_).

DEATH OF DOHÁSÄN

In the course of the talk Dohásän, on behalf of his people, made a vigorous protest against being confined to a reservation, claiming that the Kiowa owned from Fort Laramie and the North Platte to Texas and had always owned it, and that he did not want his country cut up and divided with other tribes or given to the white man; his people wanted a large country to roam over; they did not want to stay long in one place, but wanted to move about; the Santa Fé road was open and would not be disturbed, but the rest of their country he wanted let alone. Notwithstanding this protest the treaty was signed. Among others officially present were Kit Carson, William Bent, and Agent Leavenworth, with William Shirley and Jesse Chisholm as interpreters (_Report, 17_). Dohásän died shortly afterward, early in 1866, and with his death began the rapid decline of the Kiowa tribe. He was succeeded by Gúi-pä´go, "Lone-wolf," adopted father of the present chief of the same name. But the Indian day was drawing to a close. Within a few years the Kiowa were practically prisoners on a reservation, and their chiefs were the creatures of petty factions and mere figureheads in the hands of the government.

KIOWA RAIDS CONTINUED

As a result of these peaceful efforts, there were but few reports of disturbances during the next year, excepting from the incorrigible Kiowa. Notwithstanding all their promises, Set-t'aiñte led a war party into Texas and returned with five captives, a woman and four children, whom he brought into Fort Larned for ransom. The agent sharply reminded him of his promise to cease such acts, and demanded the surrender of the prisoners without compensation, whereon, under pretense of consulting the other chiefs, Set-t'aiñte took them to Fort Dodge, where the commander, compassionating their condition, rescued them for a large sum. In reporting the circumstance, their agent urges that it is high time the Kiowa were made to feel the strong arm of the government as the only means of bringing them to a sense of their duty, as they even went so far as to boast that stealing white women was a more lucrative business than stealing horses (_Report, 18_).

Other complaints came in during the next year, but full investigation by the military authorities satisfied them that with the exception of this raid by Set-t'aiñte the Kiowa and Comanche were innocent (_Report, 19_). Accordingly measures were taken to arrange a meeting with these tribes to establish more definite treaty relations, as contemplated in the provisional treaty of 1865. Preliminary to this meeting Agent Labadi, with a small party, went from Santa Fé across to the Texas border, where he met a large portion of the confederated tribes and urged on them the necessity of keeping peace with the government, at the same time demanding the free surrender of all white captives of the United States held by them, concluding by telling them that all of their tribes hereafter found north of the Arkansas would be treated as hostiles. After a conference among themselves, the chiefs agreed to deliver up the captives and end all difficulties, and arranged for a full meeting later, when some absent chiefs should have returned. In regard to the raids into Texas, they distinctly stated that they had been told by the military officers of the government to do all the damage they could to Texas, because Texas was at war with the United States (referring to the recent rebellion), and that until now they were ignorant that peace had been established. Although it is pretty certain that some of them at least had already been told that the rebellion was at an end, yet there can be no doubt that the peculiar relations which from the very beginning had existed between Texas and the general government furnished them a plausible excuse for the depredations (_Report, 20_).

THE TREATY OF MEDICINE LODGE, 1867, AND ITS RESULTS

The result of these negotiations was the treaty of Medicine Lodge on October 21, 1867, by which the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache were officially confederated and agreed to come upon their present reservation (see the calendar). This treaty merits extended notice, inasmuch as it changed the whole status of the Kiowa and their allies from that of independent tribes with free and unrestricted range over the whole plains to that of pensioners dependent on the government, confined to the narrow limits of a reservation and subject to constant military and civilian supervision. For them it marks the beginning of the end. Moreover, on the provisions and promises of this treaty are based all the arguments for and against the late unratified agreement of 1892. It will be necessary first to review the situation.

For a number of years the Indian problem on the plains had been constantly growing more serious. The treatment accorded by Texas to her native and border tribes had resulted in driving them northward to the country of upper Red river and the vicinity of the Santa Fé trail, where they were a constant menace both to the trading caravans and to the frontier settlers of Kansas and Colorado. In addition to the old Santa Fé trail the thousands of emigrants to California and Oregon had established regular roads across the plains, in the north along the North Platte and in the south along the base of the Staked plain, while the discovery of gold in Colorado in 1858 brought a flood of white settlement into the very heart of the Indian country, driving away the buffalo and narrowing the range of the tribes. Encroachments and reprisals were becoming chronic, and it was evident that some arrangement must be made by which the wild tribes could be assigned a territory remote from the line of settlement and travel, where they might roam and hunt undisturbed, without danger of coming into collision with the whites.

The conditions a few years previous are well summed up by the veteran trader William Bent, at that time agent for the Cheyenne and Arapaho, in an official report dated October 5, 1859. In it he says:

The Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes scrupulously maintain peaceful relations with the whites and with other Indian tribes, notwithstanding the many causes of irritation growing out of the occupation of the gold region, and the emigration to it through their hunting grounds, which are no longer reliable as a certain source of food to them. These causes precipitate the necessity of immediate and sufficient negotiations for the safety of the whites, the emigrant roads, and the Indians....

The Kiowa and Comanche Indians have for two years appeared in full numbers and for long periods upon the Arkansas, and now permanently occupy the country between the Canadian and Arkansas rivers. This is in consequence of the hostile front opposed to them in Texas, by which they are forced toward the north, and is likely to continue perpetual.... A smothered passion for revenge agitates these Indians, perpetually fomented by the failure of food, the encircling encroachments of the white population, and the exasperating sense of decay and impending extinction with which they are surrounded....

I estimate the number of whites traversing the plains across the center belt to have exceeded sixty thousand during the present season. The trains of vehicles and cattle are frequent and valuable in proportion. Post lines and private expresses are in constant motion. The explorations of this season have established the existence of the precious metals in absolutely infinite abundance and convenience of position. The concourse of whites is therefore constantly swelling and incapable of control or restraint by the government. This suggests the policy of promptly rescuing the Indians and withdrawing them from contact with the whites, as the element capable of such immediate management as may anticipate and prevent difficulties and massacre. I repeat, then, as the suggestion of my best judgment, that immediate and sufficient steps be taken to assemble and finally dispose of these particular tribes of Indians, viz, the Kiowa and Comanches, the Cheyennes, and the Arapahoes, by reducing them, under treaties and arrangements, to become agricultural and pastoral people, located within specific districts, judiciously selected and liberally endowed, to which they shall be restricted and the white men excluded from among them. These numerous and warlike Indians, pressed upon all around by the Texans, by the settlers of the gold region, by the advancing people of Kansas and from the Platte, are already compressed into a small circle of territory, destitute of food, and itself bisected athwart by a constantly marching line of emigrants. A desperate war of starvation and extinction is therefore imminent and inevitable unless prompt measures shall prevent it (_Report, 21_).

Despite this warning no steps were taken toward a remedy, and in April, 1864, the irritation resulted in a war with the Cheyenne, speedily involving also the Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, with several bands of the Dakota. The most memorable incident of this war was the massacre of 120 friendly Cheyenne, encamped under the protection of the United States flag, near Fort Lyon, on Sand creek, Colorado, by Colorado militia under Colonel Chivington, on November 29, 1864. Hostilities ended with treaties made with the five tribes chiefly concerned at the mouth of the Little Arkansas (now Wichita, Kansas), in October, 1865, as already noted. Short as the war had been, it had cost the government over $30,000,000 and an unknown number of lives (_Report, 22_).

From this time the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, as tribes, remained quiet, according to the terms of the treaty, but it was otherwise with the more northern Indians, who found themselves subjected to constant aggressions in spite of all agreements. In July, 1866, a war broke out with the Sioux, and in April, 1867, it spread to the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Leading incidents of these campaigns were the massacre of Lieutenant-Colonel Fetterman's whole command at Fort Phil. Kearney, December 21, 1866, and the burning of a large Cheyenne village on the Pawnee fork, by General Hancock, in April, 1867 (_Report, 23_).