or ants from a hole); an ancient name used by the Kiowa to designate
themselves, but later than _Kwu´`da_, q. v. The two names, which have
the same meaning, may refer to their mythic origin or to their coming
into the plains region. The name _Te´pdă´_ may have been substituted for
Kwu´`da´, in accordance with a custom of the tribe, on account of the
death of some person bearing a name suggestive of the earlier form.
_Tepk`i´ñägo_--"People coming out," another form of _Te´pdă´_.
_Wi´tapähä´tu_--The Dakota name, which the Dakota commonly render as
people of the "island butte," from _wita_, island, and _pähä_, locative
_pähäta_, a butte. They are unable to assign any satisfactory reason for
such a name. See _Witapähät_.
_T'häpet'häpa´yit'he_--Arbuthnut letter in Bur. Am. Eth. (given as the
Cheyenne name for the Kiowa).
_Vi´täpä´tu´i_--Name used for the Kiowa by the Sutaya division of the
Cheyenne.
_Watakpahata_--Mallery in Fourth Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth., 109, 1886.
_Wate-pana-toes_--Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana, 85, 1814 (misprint).
_Watepaneto_--Drake, Book of Indians, xii, 1848 (misprint).
_Wetahato_--Lewis, Travels, 15, 1809 (misprint).
_Wetapahato_--Lewis and Clark, Expedition, Allen ed., I, 34, map, 1814.
_We-te-pâ-hâ´-to_--Lewis, Report, 1805, in Mess. from the President
Communicating Discoveries by Lewis and Clark, etc, 36, 1806.
(Incorrectly given as distinct from the Kiowa, but allied to them.)
_Wetopahata_--Mallery, in Fourth Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth., 109, 1886.
_Wettaphato_--Morse, Report on Indian Affairs, app., 366, 1882.
_Wi´tăpähät_, _Wităp´ätu_--Cheyenne forms, derived from the Dakota form
_Witapähätu_, or vice versa. The Dakota render the name "island butte."
Attempts have been made to translate it from the Cheyenne language as
people with "cheeks painted red" (_wi´tapa_, red paint; _tu_, cheek
bone), but there is no evidence that this habit was specially
characteristic of the Kiowa. It may possibly be derived from the ancient
name _Te´pdă´_, q.v.
_Wi´-ta-pa-ha_--Riggs-Dorsey, Dakota-English Dictionary, 579, 1890.
TRIBAL SIGN
To make the sign for "Kiowa" in the sign language of the plains tribes,
the right hand is held close to the right cheek, with back down, fingers
touching and slightly curved, and the hand moved in a rotary motion from
the wrist. According to the Kiowa this sign had its origin in an old
custom of their warriors, who formerly cut the hair from the right side
of the head, on a line with the base of the ear, in order better to
display the ear pendants, while allowing it to grow to full length on
the left side, so as to be braided and wrapped with otter skin after the
common fashion of the southern plains tribes. This was in addition to
the ordinary small scalp-lock hanging down behind. This style of wearing
the hair, although now nearly obsolete from long association with tribes
of different habit, is still occasionally seen. It is shown in the
picture of the chief Big-bow, taken in 1870 (figure 43).
Dodge thus correctly explains the sign: "KIOWA--The open palm, held
bowl-shaped, to right of and beside the face, is passed round and round
in a circle. Supposed to indicate the peculiarity of these Indians in
cutting the hair of the right side of the head" (_Dodge, 2_).
The sign has no connection with the idea of "rattle-brain," "crazy
head," "crazy knife," "drinking water," or "prairie people rising up,"
as has been variously stated; neither is the sign ever properly made on
the left side. Such misconceptions have arisen from the careless making
of the sign by persons ignorant of its true meaning. The Cheyenne claim
that it refers to a former Kiowa custom of painting a stripe across the
upper lip and cheeks. This is probably only an attempt to explain the
name _Witapätu_, q.v., without any basis in fact, for, had such a custom
existed, it would have been indicated by drawing the finger across the
face. Moreover, in a series of forty figures painted for the author by
Kiowa Indians to illustrate their ancient styles of war paint, not one
is thus depicted.
LINGUISTIC AFFINITY
[Illustration: Photo by Soule, about 1870
FIG. 43--Zépko-eétte or Big-bow]
The Gâ´igwŭ´ or Kiowa, although originating in the far north, have
been known for the last sixty years as one of the principal and most
predatory tribes of the southern plains. Their linguistic affinity is
still uncertain, the language apparently having no connection with that
of any other tribe. This uncertainty, however, is due largely to the
paucity of the linguistic material thus far collected from them, and to
the fact that philologists have made the comparison with the languages
of the southern tribes, with whom the Kiowa were found most closely
associated, rather than with that of tribes nearer the Canadian border,
whence they have drifted to the south. Another thing which serves to
render comparison difficult is the fact that the Kiowa have the custom
of dropping from the language any word which suggests the name of a
person recently deceased, and substituting for the tabooed word another
which will convey the same idea. The old word may be restored after a
term of years, but it frequently happens that the new one keeps its
place and the original word is entirely forgotten. The change is a new
combination of existing roots, or a new use of an existing word, rather
than the deliberate invention of a new word, although in some instances
words seem to be borrowed for this purpose from existing languages. The
same custom exists to a limited degree among the Comanche, who may have
adopted it in consequence of their association with the Kiowa, and
perhaps among other tribes. With the Kiowa it is carried to such an
extent that old men sometimes remember as many as three names which have
been used in chronologic succession for the same object. Further
linguistic investigation may result in establishing their affinity with
the Athapascan, northern Shoshonean, or Salishan tribes.
TRIBAL NAMES
_Kiowa_, the name by which the tribe is commonly known to the whites, is
from the softened Comanche form of the name by which they call
themselves, Gâ´igwŭ´ (see the glossary). It is claimed by one or two
old men that Gâ´igwŭ´ was not originally their proper name, but a
foreign name adopted by the tribe, and untranslatable in their own
language. However that may be, it is now, in its root form, _Gâi_,
synonymous with Kiowa, whether applied to the individual, language,
territory, or utensils of the tribe. It is also the name of one of their
recognized tribal divisions. Ancient names used to designate themselves
are _Kwú'dă´_ and afterward _Tépdă´_, both names signifying "coming
out," perhaps in allusion to their mystic origin. These two names are
known now only to their oldest men. They sometimes refer to themselves
as _Kómpabíăntă_, or people of the "large tipi flaps," although, so far
as observation goes, their tipis are not peculiar in this respect. Their
name for Indians in general is _Gíăguádaltágâ_, "people of the red
flesh." Among other tribes they are called by various names, the best
known being the Dakota or Cheyenne form _Witapähätu_, of doubtful
translation. The tribal sign, a quick motion of the hand past the right
cheek, they explain as referring to a former custom of cutting the hair
on that side on a level with the ear.
GENESIS AND MIGRATION
According to Kiowa mythology, which has close parallels among other
tribes, their first ancestors emerged from a hollow cottonwood log at
the bidding of a supernatural progenitor. They came out one at a time
as he tapped upon the log until it came to the turn of a pregnant woman,
who stuck fast in the hole and thus blocked the way for those behind her
so that they were unable to follow, which accounts for the small number
of the Kiowa tribe. The same being gave them the sun, made the division
of day and night, exterminated a number of malevolent monsters, and
rendered the most ferocious animals harmless; he also taught them their
simple hunting arts and finally left them to take his place among the
stars. Other wonderful things were done for them by a supernatural boy
hero, whose father was the son of the Sun and whose mother was an
earthly woman. This boy afterward transformed himself into two, and
finally gave himself to the Kiowa in eucharistic form as a tribal
"medicine," which they still retain. Unlike the neighboring Cheyenne and
Arapaho, who yet remember that they once lived east of the Missouri and
cultivated corn, the Kiowa have no tradition of ever having been an
agricultural people or anything but a tribe of hunters.
Leaving the mythic or genesis period, the earliest historic tradition of
the Kiowa locates them in or beyond the mountains at the extreme sources
of the Yellowstone and the Missouri, in what is now western Montana.
They describe it as a region of great cold and deep snows, and say that
they had the Flatheads (_´daltoñ-ká-igihä´go_, "compressed head
people") near them, and that on the other side of the mountains was a
large stream flowing westward, evidently an upper branch of the
Columbia. These mountains they still call _Gá´i K'op_, "Kiowa
mountains." Here, they say, while on a hunting expedition on one
occasion, a dispute occurred between two rival chiefs over the
possession of the udder of a female antelope, a delicacy particularly
prized by Indians. The dispute grew into an angry quarrel, with the
result that the chief who failed to secure the coveted portion left the
party and withdrew with his band toward the northwest, while the rest of
the tribe moved to the southeast, crossed the Yellowstone (_Tsósá P'a_,
"pipe (?) stone river"), and continued onward until they met the Crows
(_Gaă-k'íägo_, "crow people"), with whom they had hitherto been
unacquainted. By permission of the Crows they took up their residence
east of that tribe, with which they made their first alliance. Up to
this time they had no horses, but used only dogs and the travois. For a
while they continued to visit the mountains, but finally drifted out
into the plains, where they first procured horses and became acquainted
with the Arapaho and Cheyenne, and later with the Dakota.
Keim, writing in 1870, says that the Kiowa "claim that their primitive
country was in the far north," from which they were driven out by wars,
moving by the aid of dogs and dog sledges. "From the north they reached
a river, now the south fork of the Platte. Their residence upon this
river is within the recollection of the old men of the tribe. Not
satisfied with the Platte country, they moved on across the Republican
and Smoky Hill rivers until they reached the Arkansas. Thence they
moved upon the headwaters of the Cimarron. Here they permanently located
their council fire, and after much fighting secured control of all the
country south of Arkansas river and north of the Wichita mountains and
headwaters of Red river" (_Keim, 1_).
There can be no doubt as to the correctness of the main points of this
tradition, which is corroborated by the testimony of the northern
Arapaho and other tribes of that region. While to the ordinary reader
the result of the quarrel may seem out of all due proportion to the
cause, it will not appear so to anyone familiar with Indian life and
thought. The savage is intellectually a child, and from the point of
view of civilized man his history is shaped by trivial things, as will
be sufficiently apparent from a study of the calendars. It is said that
a war between the Delaware and Shawano originated in a dispute between
two children concerning a grasshopper. The Crows themselves, according
to their own story, separated from their kinsmen the Hidatsa or Minitari
on the Missouri for a reason precisely like that of the Kiowa
tradition--a quarrel between two chiefs over the proper division of a
buffalo (_Matthews, 1_; _Clark, 2_.) A similar story is related to
account for the origin of one of the bands of the Dakota. Among
wandering hunters disputes in regard to the possession or division of
game have always been the most potent causes of separations and tribal
wars.
In regard to the dissatisfied band that went to the north, the Kiowa
have a fixed belief that their lost kindred, whom they call _Azä´tañhop_
("those who went away dissatisfied on account of the udder"), are still
in existence beyond the mountains somewhere to the north or northwest of
their old home, where they still speak the old Kiowa language. They
assert as positively that they have no relatives in any other quarter,
east, west, or south. Several stories are current in the tribe in
support of this belief. One woman, now about 80 years of age, when a
child was taken by her father with others on a visit to their old
friends, the Crows, and says that while there they met a white trader
from the north, who addressed them in the Kiowa tongue, which he said he
learned from a tribe living farther north, which spoke the Kiowa
language. Again, they say that when the Nez Percés (_´dalkatóigo_,
"people with hair cut round across the forehead"), who had been brought
down as prisoners to Indian Territory, visited them in 1883, they told
the Kiowa that they knew a people who lived in the "white mountains"
west of the old home of the Nez Percés in Idaho, and who spoke a
language similar to Kiowa. Whatever weight we may attach to these
stories, they at least offer a suggestion concerning the direction in
which the linguistic affinity of the Kiowa is to be sought.
Bearing on the subject of the early habitat of the tribe, it may further
be stated that, while making a collection among the Kiowa a few years
ago, the author obtained from them a small cradle which is essentially
different from any now in use among the Kiowa or any other of the
well-known prairie tribes, in that the buckskin covering is attached
directly to a solid board back, which is elaborately carved and painted
in the style characteristic of the tribes of the Columbia and the
northwest coast. On asking the old woman who made it, where she had
obtained the idea, she replied that it was the kind the Kiowa used to
make a very long time ago. On showing it afterward to Dr Washington
Matthews, the distinguished ethnologist and anatomist, he expressed the
opinion that such a cradle would produce a flattened skull. It is now in
the National Museum at Washington.
EARLY ALLIANCE WITH THE CROWS
The leading facts in the traditional history of the Kiowa are those of
their early residence at the extreme head of the Missouri and their
subsequent removal to the east and alliance with the Crows. It is
impossible to assign any definite date to this early migration from the
mountain country, but it was probably about or before 1700. It was
subsequent to the separation of the Crows from the Hidatsa, an event
which probably took place before the end of the seventeenth century
(_Matthews, 2_; _Clark, 3_), and it must have been long before the
discovery of the Black Hills by the Dakota, which, according to a
calendar of that people, occurred in 1775 (_Mallery, 2_). The present
_tai-me_ or sun-dance "medicine" of the Kiowa was obtained from the
Crows while the two tribes were neighbors in the north, at a date
probably very near 1765. It is probable that scarcity of game or
severity of climate had much to do with their original removal from the
head of the Missouri, but it is worthy of note that in all their
wanderings the Kiowa have never, for any long period, entirely abandoned
the mountains. After making friends with the Crows, they established
themselves in the Black Hills until driven out by the invading Dakota
and Cheyenne, and now for seventy years or more they have had their main
headquarters in the Wichita mountains.
The northern Arapaho, now living on a reservation in Wyoming, have
distinct recollection of this former northern residence of the Kiowa,
with whom in the old times they were on terms of intimate friendship.
While visiting them in 1892 they informed the author that when they
first knew the Kiowa that tribe lived about the Three forks of the
Missouri, near where are now Gallatin and Virginia City, Montana. This
information, obtained from old men without the use of leading questions,
and with the aid of good maps, tallies exactly with the earliest
tradition of the Kiowa tribe. They say further that the Kiowa moved down
from the mountains and eastward along the Yellowstone in company with
the Crows, and then turned southeastward to about the present
neighborhood of Fort Robinson, Nebraska, where they parted with the
Crows and continued southward. "Plenty-poles," then nearly ninety years
of age, first met the Kiowa when he was a small boy on the head of the
North Platte, west of the present town of Cheyenne, Wyoming.
The friendship between the Kiowa and the Crows was close and intimate,
in spite of occasional quarrels, and continued after the Kiowa had
entirely removed from the north and established themselves on the
Arkansas. They made common cause against the invading Dakota and
Cheyenne from the east, by whom they were finally dispossessed. As
already stated, the Kiowa obtained their present _tai-me_ or sundance
medicine from the Crows, and the sacred arrow lance of Tängúadal's
family came originally from the same source. For a long time after
removing from the north it was a frequent occurrence for Kiowa fathers
to make visits to the Crows and leave with that tribe their young
children for two or three years in order that they might learn the Crow
language and thus help to preserve the old friendship. There are still
several old people among the Kiowa who have a considerable Crow
vocabulary acquired in this way. Conversely, the northern Arapaho state
that the Crows refer to the Kiowa as their relatives, and that some of
them speak a little of the language acquired during similar visits to
the south.
THE ASSOCIATED KIOWA APACHE
Incorporated with the Kiowa, and forming a component part of their
tribal circle, is a small tribe of Athapascan stock, commonly known as
Apache or Kiowa Apache, but calling themselves _Nadiisha Dena_. They are
not a detached band of the Apache tribe proper of Arizona, as has
commonly been supposed, but came down with the Kiowa from the north, and
neither tribe has any tradition of a time when they were not associated.
They will be spoken of at length later on. This ancient Athapascan
alliance is another link in the chain connecting the Kiowa with the far
north.
THE HISTORICAL PERIOD
POSSESSION OF THE BLACK HILLS
We come now to more definite historic ground. Situated east of the
Crows, the Kiowa took possession of the Black Hills (_Sádalkáñi K`op_,
"stomach-rind, i. e., 'manifold,' mountains"), and having by this time
procured some horses, began to make raids on the Spanish frontiers to
the south, while they established a friendly trade and intercourse with
the Arikara and Mandan on the Missouri. They are mentioned under the
name of Cargua (for Caigua) in a Spanish document of 1732, and again as
Caigua in 1735. In 1748 the Spanish historian Villaseñor mentions the
"Cayguas," in connection with Comanche, Apache, Navaho, and Ute, as
among the hostile tribes of New Mexico (see the synonymy). It will be
remembered that the greater portion of what is now Colorado was
included with New Mexico under Spanish domination. If, as seems
possible, they are identical with the Manrhoat or Manrhout of La Salle,
allies of the Gattacka (Kiowa Apache), our knowledge of the tribe would
go back to 1682. They continued to occupy the Black Hills until about
the close of the last century, when they were driven out by the Dakota
advancing from the east, and by the Cheyenne who crossed the Missouri
from the northeast. The same pressure drove their old allies, the Crows,
farther westward.
The northern Cheyenne informed Grinnell that on first coming into their
present country they had found the region between the Yellowstone and
Cheyenne rivers, including the Black Hills, in possession of the Kiowa
and Comanche (?), whom they drove out and forced to the south. When the
author was among the Dakota some years ago, they informed him that they
had first known the Kiowa in the Black Hills, and had driven them out
from that region. This is admitted by the Kiowa, who continued at war
with the Dakota and Cheyenne until about 1840, when a permanent peace
was made. It does not appear that the Arapaho had anything to do with
this expulsion of the Kiowa, with whom they seem generally to have been
on friendly terms, although at a later period we find them at war with
the Kiowa, being probably drawn into hostilities through their
connection with the Cheyenne. As is well known to ethnologists, the
Dakota are comparatively recent immigrants from east of the Missouri.
They first reached the Black Hills in 1775, as already stated, so that
the final expulsion of the Kiowa must have occurred between that date
and 1805, when Lewis and Clark found the Cheyenne in possession of the
same region, the Cheyenne being then at war with the Dakota. Curiously
enough, there is no note of this war on any of the several Dakota
calendars covering this period, described and illustrated by Mallery,
although we find a reference to the killing of a Kiowa in the winter of
1814-15.
THE EXTINCT K'ÚATO
The Kiowa have a better memory, and one of their old hero stories
relates to the slaughter of an entire band of Kiowa by the Dakota. The
ill-fated band was called the _K'úato_, a name signifying "pulling up,
or pulling out" from the ground or from a hole, being indicated in the
sign language by the motion of "pulling up" with one or both hands.
According to the story the Kiowa, apparently nearly the whole tribe
together, were attacked by an overwhelming body of the Dakota. Finding
resistance hopeless, they fled, but the chief of the K'úato urged his
people not to run, "because if they did their relatives in the other
world would not receive them." Inspired to desperate courage by his
words, the K'úato faced the enemy and were all killed where they stood,
excepting one woman who had fled with the others. According to Te'bodal,
who was born about 1817 and is now the oldest man in the tribe, this
massacre took place when his grandfather was a young man, perhaps about
1770. Te'bodal himself remembered having seen the single woman survivor.
It is said that the K'úato spoke a peculiar dialect of the Kiowa
language, although recognized as a part of the tribe, and were noted for
doing foolish and ridiculous things, a statement borne out by the story
of their extermination.
INTERCOURSE WITH THE ARIKARA, MANDAN, AND HIDATSA.
Next to the Crows, the Kiowa have most to say of their friendship in
these old days with the Arikara (Ree), Mandan, and Hidatsa or Minitari
on Missouri river. For many years these three confederated tribes, now
reduced to about 1,100 souls in all, have occupied jointly a single
village on the northeastern bank of Missouri river, in the vicinity of
old Fort Berthold, about opposite Knife river, in North Dakota. In 1805
the three tribes, with a small subtribe, now extinct, occupied eight
villages, with a total population of nearly 6,000 souls. The Arikara
were then considerably farther down the river, while the others were
nearly in their present position. From the fact that Grand river, South
Dakota, is known to the Dakota as Arikara river it is probable that the
Arikara formerly had their residence there for a long period. In habits
and home life the three tribes are almost identical, being sedentary
agriculturists, living in substantial earth-covered log houses; but in
language they are quite distinct. The Arikara or Ree are a branch, of
the Pawnee and speak a dialect of that language; the Hidatsa,
Grosventres, or Minitari were formerly a part of the Crows and speak a
dialect of that language; while the language of the Mandan is distinct
from either of the others, although remotely cognate with the Hidatsa.
They are mentioned prominently by every traveler in that region during
the last century, the best description of them being given by Matthews
in his work on the Hidatsa.