when horses ate ashes." This winter the Kiowa camped on upper Walnut
creek (_Tsodal-héñte-de P'a_, "No-arm's river"), which enters the
Arkansas at the Great Bend, in Kansas. There was unusually deep snow
upon the ground, so that the horses could not get at the grass, and in
their hunger tried to eat the ashes thrown out from the camp fires.
In the early spring a large war party, accompanied by women, as was
sometimes the custom among the Kiowa, started for Texas, along the trail
which runs south through the Panhandle, crossing the North Canadian near
Kiowa creek and passing on by Fort Elliott. While singing the "travel
song" on a southern head stream of Wolf creek the tree tops returned the
echo. The phenomenon was a mystery to the Indians, who ascribed it to
spirits, but it may have been due to the fact that just south of the
camp was a bluff, from which the sound may have been echoed back. The
figure over the winter mark is intended to indicate the sound above the
tree tops.
When a man wishes to gather a small war party he sends around to invite
those who may desire to join him. On the night before he intends to
start he sits alone in his tipi, having previously bent a long stick,
like a hoop, around the fire hole; then he begins the _Gua-dagya_ or
travel song, beating time upon the hoop with another stick which he
holds in his hand. When those who intend going with him hear the song,
they come in one by one and join in it, beating time in the same way
with sticks. The women also come in and sit behind the men, joining in
the song with them, but without beating time; after some time the leader
invites them to come outside, to a buffalo hide, which the men surround
and each holds it up with one hand while they beat time upon it with the
sticks. The women and those who can not reach the hide stand behind and
all sing together. The song is sung at intervals during the march. It
has words with meaning and is different from all their other songs; the
first singing by the leader is the signal that he intends to start the
next day; the pipe was sent around only for a very large war party.
[Illustration: FIG. 132--Winter 1862-63--Treetop winter.]
A contributor to the Montana Historical Society gives a humorous account
of a rawhide dance by a party of packers on Columbia river, in 1858,
when the tribes of that region had combined against the whites. The
account is of interest as showing that the dance was found from the
Columbia to the Rio Grande:
About dark some seven or eight canoes loaded with Yakima warriors
landed near our camp. They were painted and rigged up in
first-class war style and just spoiling for a fight. Our few Indian
packers and the interpreter took the situation in and suggested
that we bluff them. So we built a large camp fire out of sage brush
and greasewood, and all of us, the Major included, formed a circle,
and with one hand holding a rawhide, with a stick in the other,
batted that rawhide and yelled and danced until we were nearly
exhausted. This act, the interpreter said, was intended to show
these Yakimas that we were not afraid of them and were ready to
give them "the best we had in the shop," and to my utter surprise
when I turned out in the morning not a canoe was to be seen. It was
a complete bluff. They had taken the hint and gone away during the
night. I must confess I felt pleased, and so would anyone, from the
fact that there is less danger in thumping the rawhide as a bluff
than trying to dodge their bullets (_Montana, 2_).
SUMMER 1863
_Tsodalhéñte-de P'a K`ádó_, "No-arm's river sun dance." The figure near
the medicine lodge shows a man with his right arm gone.
This dance was held on the south side of Arkansas river, in Kansas, at
the Great Bend, a short distance below the mouth of upper Walnut creek,
called _Tsodalhéñte-de P'a_, "Armless man's creek," from a trader,
William Allison, who kept a trading store at its mouth, on the east
side, and who had lost his right arm from a bullet received in a fight
with his stepfather, whom he killed in the encounter. From this
circumstance the Kiowa knew him as Tsodalhéñte, or sometimes
Man-héñk'ia, "Armless man" or "No-arm." He had as partners his half
brother, John Adkins, known to the Kiowa as Kábodalte, "Left-handed,"
and another man named Booth. Fort Zarah was built in the immediate
vicinity of Allison's trading post in 1864.
[Illustration: FIG. 133--Summer 1863--No-arm's-river sun dance.]
WINTER 1863-64
_Âdaltoñ-édal Hém-de Sai_, "Winter that Big-head died." The Set-t'an
figure is sufficiently suggestive. Âdaltoñ-edal was the uncle of the
present chief Gomä´te (Comalty), who has taken the same name. He died
while the Kiowa were in their winter camp on the North Canadian, a short
distance below the junction of Wolf creek at Fort Supply.
The Anko calendar begins with this winter, the first event recorded
being the death of Hâ´ñzephó`da, "Kills-with-a-gun." He is represented
below the winter mark, holding a gun to indicate his name, while the
irregular black marking above his head is intended to show that he is
"wiped out" or dead.
[Illustration: FIG. 134--Winter 1863-64--Big-head dies; Hâñzephó`da
dies.]
SUMMER 1864
_Ä´sâhé K`ádó_, "Ragweed sun dance," so called because held at a place
where there was a large quantity of this plant growing, at the junction
of Medicine-lodge creek and the Salt fork of the Arkansas, a short
distance below where the dances had been held in 1858 and 1862. On the
Set-t'an calendar the medicine lodge, instead of being painted black, as
usual, is blue-green, to show the color of the plant (_ä´-sâhé_,
literally "blue or green plant"), and is surmounted by a blue-green
stalk of _ä´-sâhé_ or ragweed.
In this summer the Anko calendar records a fight between the Kiowa tribe
and soldiers, at which Anko himself was present. In the figure the
ragweed is indicated by irregular markings at the base of the medicine
pole, while the fight is represented in the conventional way by means of
bullets at the ends of wavy lines.
The encounter occurred at Port Larned, Kansas, called by the Kiowa "The
soldier place on Dark (i. e., shady)-timber (_ai-koñ_) river." The Kiowa
had camped outside the post and were holding a scalp dance when
Set-ängya and his cousin approached the entrance but were warned away by
the sentry. Not understanding his words, they continued to advance,
whereupon the soldier made a threatening motion with his gun, as if
about to shoot. Upon this Set-ängya discharged two arrows at the
soldier, shooting him through the body, while another Kiowa fired at him
with a pistol. A panic immediately ensued, the Indians mounting their
horses and the garrison hastily preparing to resist an attack. It so
happened that the soldiers' horses were grazing outside the post and the
Indians stampeded and ran them off, abandoning their camp, the soldiers
being unable to follow on foot. The Indians did not risk an attack on
the post, but remained satisfied with the capture of the horses. No one
was hurt excepting the sentry. Whether his wound proved fatal or not the
Kiowa are unable to say. They state that this was their first hostile
encounter with United States troops.
[Illustration: FIG. 135--Summer 1864--Ragweed sun dance; soldier fight.]
At the time of this occurrence there was a general Indian war in
progress on the plains. The encounter is thus referred to by Agent
Colley in a letter to the governor of Colorado, dated July 26, 1864:
When I last wrote you I was in hopes that our Indian troubles were
at an end. Colonel Chivington has just arrived from Larned and
gives a sad account of affairs at that post. They have killed some
ten men from a train and run off all the stock from the post. As
near as they can learn, all the tribes are engaged in it. The
colonel will give you the particulars. There is no dependence to be
put in any of them. I have done everything in my power to keep
peace. I now think a little powder and lead is the best food for
them.
In another place he states that "while the war chief of the Kiowa tribe
was in the commanding officer's quarters at Fort Larned, professing the
greatest friendship, the young men were running off nearly all the
horses, mules, and cattle at the post" (_Report, 87_).
WINTER, 1864-65
_Tsenhó Sai_, "Muddy-traveling winter," so called because the mud caused
by the melting of heavy snows made traveling difficult. The Kiowa and
Apache, with a part of the Comanche, made their winter camp on the South
Canadian at _Gúădal-dóhá_, "Red bluff," on the north side, between Adobe
Walls and Mustang creek, in the Texas panhandle. While here early in the
winter they were attacked by the famous scout Kit Carson, with a
detachment of troops, assisted by a number of the Ute and Jicarilla
Apache. According to the Indian, account, five persons of the allied
tribes, including two women, were killed. The others, after a brave
resistance, finally abandoned their camp, which was burned by the enemy.
One of those killed was a young Apache warrior who wore a war-bonnet. He
was shot from his horse and his war-bonnet was captured by a Ute
warrior. An old Apache warrior, who was left behind in his tipi in the
hurry of flight, was also killed.
In the Set-t'an calendar the attack upon the camp is indicated by
conventional bullets and arrows around two tipis above the winter mark.
In the Anko calendar it is indicated by a picture of the captured
war-bonnet.
[Illustration: FIG. 136--Winter 1864-65--Ute fight.]
According to the Kiowa statement, most of the younger men were away on
the warpath at the time, having left their families in the winter camp
in charge of the old chief Dohásän. Early one morning some of the men
had gone out to look for their ponies, when they discovered the enemy
creeping up to surround them. They dashed back into camp and gave the
alarm, and the women, who were preparing breakfast, hastily gathered up
their children and ran, while the men mounted their horses to repel the
assault. The Ute scouts advanced in Indian fashion, riding about and
keeping up a constant yelling to stampede the Kiowa ponies, while the
soldiers came on behind quietly and in regular order. Stumbling-bear was
one of the leading warriors in the camp at the time and distinguished
himself in the defense, killing one soldier and a Ute, and then killing
or wounding another soldier so that he fell from his horse. Another
warrior named Set-tádal, "Lean-bear," distinguished himself by his
bravery in singing the war song of his order, the _Toñkóñko_, as he
advanced to the charge, according to his military obligation, which
forbade him to save himself until he had killed an enemy. Sét-k`opte,
then a small boy, was there also, and describes vividly how he took his
younger brother by the hand, while his mother carried the baby upon her
back and another child in her arms, and all fled for a place of safety
while Stumbling-bear and the warriors kept off the attacking party. The
Kiowa escaped, excepting the five killed, but the camp was destroyed.
The engagement is thus mentioned in the testimony of an army officer a
few months later:
I understand Kit Carson last winter destroyed an Indian village. He
had about four hundred men with him, but the Indians attacked him
as bravely as any men in the world, charging up to his lines, and
he withdrew his command. They had a regular bugler, who sounded the
calls as well as they are sounded for troops. Carson said if it had
not been for his howitzers few would have been left to tell the
tale. This I learned from an officer who was in the fight
(_Condition, 1_).
The engagement is described in detail by Lieutenant George H. Pettis,
who had charge of the two howitzers during the fight. The expedition,
which consisted of three hundred and thirty-five volunteer soldiers and
seventy-two Ute and Jicarilla Apache Indians, was under command of
Colonel Christopher ("Kit") Carson, the noted scout and Indian fighter,
then holding a commission in the First New Mexico infantry. Starting
from Fort Bascom, New Mexico, they proceeded down the Canadian, the
intention being to disable the Indians by taking them by surprise in
their winter camp, as Custer did on the Washita four years later. The
first village, a Kiowa camp consisting of one hundred and seventy-six
tipis, was discovered on the Canadian at the entrance of a small stream
since known as Kit Carson creek, in what is now Hutchinson county,
Texas, a short distance above Adobe Walls. The attack was made at
daybreak of November 25, 1864. After some resistance the Kiowa retreated
a few miles down the river, where there were other camps of the allied
Kiowa, Apache, and Comanche. Reenforced from these, they returned and
made such a desperate attack upon the invaders that Carson was glad to
retire after burning the upper village, although the other camps against
which the expedition was directed were in plain sight below. The battle
lasted all day, the Indians disputing every foot of his advance and
following up his retreat so closely that only the howitzers saved the
troops from utter destruction.
In the early part of the engagement the soldiers corralled their horses
in an old abandoned adobe building which Pettis calls the Adobe Walls,
but which was probably the ruins of the trading post built by Bent
twenty years before (see winter 1843-44). The Adobe Walls, where Quanah
led his celebrated fight, were not built until 1873 or 1874 and were
some distance down the river. Several white captives, women and
children, were in the hands of the Indians at the time of the attack,
but none of these was rescued. The Kiowa also saved all their horses,
although most of their winter provision and several hundred dressed
buffalo skins in the first village, together with the tipis, were
destroyed by the troops.
Quite a number of the enemy acted as skirmishers, being dismounted
and hid in the tall grass in our front, and made it hot for most of
us by their excellent marksmanship, while quite the larger part of
them, mounted and covered with their war dresses, charged
continually across our front, from right to left and _vice versa_,
about 200 yards from our line of skirmishers, yelling like demons,
and firing from under the necks of their horses at intervals. About
200 yards in rear of their line, all through the fighting at the
Adobe Walls, was stationed one of the enemy, who had a cavalry
bugle, and during the entire day he would blow the opposite call
that was used by the officer in our line of skirmishers; for
instance, when our bugles sounded the "advance," he would blow
"retreat," and when ours sounded the "retreat," he would follow
with the "advance;" ours would signal "halt," he would follow suit.
So he kept it up all the day, blowing as shrill and clearly as our
very best buglers. Carson insisted that it was a white man, but I
have never received any information to corroborate this opinion
(_Pettis_).
It was most probably a Kiowa, possibly Set-t'aiñte himself, who was
famous for a bugle, which instrument he blew as a signal on state
occasions.
Deeming it unsafe to remain longer after destroying the first village,
Carson formed the troops in marching order, with skirmishers in front
and on the flanks and the howitzers bringing up the rear, and began the
return march.
The enemy was not disposed to allow us to return without
molestation, and in a very few minutes was attacking us on every
side. By setting fire to the high, dry grass of the river bottom,
they drove us to the foothills, and by riding in rear of the fire,
as it came burning toward us, they would occasionally get within a
few yards of the column; being enveloped in the smoke, they would
deliver the fire of their rifles and get out of harm's way before
they could be discovered by us.
On the side of the troops, Pettis reports two soldiers killed and
twenty-one wounded, several mortally, together with one Ute killed and
four wounded. He puts the Indian loss at nearly one hundred killed and
between one hundred and one hundred and fifty wounded. The official
report, which he quotes, makes the number of tipis in the village
destroyed about one hundred and fifty and the Indian loss in killed and
wounded together only sixty. Among these were four crippled or decrepit
old Indians, who were killed in the tipis by a couple of Ute squaws
searching for plunder. A buggy and spring wagon belonging to Sierrito or
"Little-mountain" (Dohásän) are also mentioned as having been destroyed.
[Illustration: FIG. 137--Summer 1865--Peninsula sun dance.]
A signal instance of Indian bravery is noted by Pettis:
At one of the discharges the shell passed directly through the body
of a horse on which was a Comanche riding at a full run, and went
some 200 or 300 yards farther on before it exploded. The horse, on
being struck, went head foremost to earth, throwing his rider, as
it seemed, 20 feet into the air, with his hands and feet sprawling
in all directions, and as he struck the earth, apparently
senseless, two other Indians who were near by proceeded to him, one
on each side, and throwing themselves over on the sides of their
horses, seized each an arm and dragged him from the field between
them, amid a shower of rifle balls from our skirmishers. This act
of the Indians in removing their dead and helpless wounded from the
field is always done, and more than a score of times were we
eyewitnesses to this feat during the afternoon (_Pettis_).
SUMMER 1865
_Pihó K`ádó_, "Peninsula sun dance." It is so called because held in the
peninsula or bend of the Washita on the south side, a short distance
below the mouth of Walnut creek (_Zódăltoñ P'a_, "Vomiting-water river")
within the present reservation. The Set-t'an calendar represents the
medicine lodge in the bend, indicated by a curved line. In the Anko
calendar the peninsula is more rudely indicated by a circle around the
base of the medicine pole.
WINTER 1865-66
In this winter the Set-t'an calendar records the death of the noted war
chief, Tä´n-kóñkya, "Black-warbonnet-top," on a southern tributary of
the upper South Canadian. The war-bonnet is made conspicuous in the
figure to call attention to his name.
The Anko calendar notes the death of the celebrated chief Dohásän,
"Little-bluff," the greatest and most noted chief in the history of the
tribe, who died on the Cimarron in this winter. The event is indicated
by the figure of a wagon, he being the only Kiowa who owned a wagon at
that time. For more than thirty years from the massacre by the Osage in
1833, he had been the recognized head chief of the Kiowa. His death left
no one of sufficiently commanding influence to unite the tribe under one
leadership, and thenceforth the councils of the Kiowa were divided under
such rival chieftains as Set-t'aiñte and Kicking-bird until the
unsuccessful outbreak of 1874 finally reduced them to the position of a
reservation tribe and practically put an end to the power of the chiefs.
[Illustration: Fig. 138--Winter 1865-66--Tän-kóñkya died; Dohásän died.]
This winter is notable also for the arrival of a large trading party
from Kansas under the leadership of a man named John Smith. He traded
also among the Cheyenne, whose language he spoke, and was called by them
_Póomûts_, "Gray-blanket," or "Saddle-blanket," these articles forming a
part of his trading stock; this name the Kiowa corrupted into _Pohóme_.
The party visited all the various camps of the Cheyenne and Kiowa,
trading blankets and other goods for buffalo hides. Smith died among the
Cheyenne after having lived more than forty years in the Indian country,
and was buried in the sand hills near the present agency at Darlington,
Oklahoma. His name appears in the official reports as government
interpreter for the Cheyenne, and he rendered valuable assistance at the
Medicine Lodge treaty in 1867.
SUMMER 1866
_Hâñ-kopédal K`ádó_, "Flat metal (i. e. German silver) sun dance," was
held on Medicine-lodge creek, near its mouth, in Oklahoma. It was so
called because a trader brought them at this time a large quantity of
German silver, from which they made headdresses, belts for women,
bracelets, and other ornaments. German silver is known to the Kiowa as
"flat metal," because it is furnished to them in sheets, which they cut
and hammer into the desired shapes. On both calendars the event is
recorded in the same way, by the figure of a head pendent with silver
disks placed near the medicine lodge. Such pendants were attached to the
head of the scalplock, and consisted of a strip of buffalo hide reaching
nearly to the ground and covered along the whole length with a row of
silver, copper, or German-silver disks, gradually decreasing in size
toward the bottom, which was usually finished off with a tuft of
bright-colored horsehair. They were called _góm-â´dal-hâ´ñgya_,
"back-hair-metal," and were highly prized by the warriors. This was not
the first time the Kiowa had obtained German silver. In the old days
these ornaments were made for them, of genuine silver, by Mexican
silversmiths near the present Silver City, New Mexico.
Charles W. Whitacre (or Whittaker), the trader who brought their supply
of metal on this occasion, together with sugar and other goods, had some
knowledge of the Kiowa language, as well as of Comanche and Caddo, and
is familiarly known to the older Kiowa as _Tsâli_, i. e., Charley. He
was present at the Medicine Lodge treaty the next year, and afterward
kept a trading store on the north side of the Washita, near the place
where the Wichita school is now located, a short distance from the
agency at Anadarko. He was killed by accidentally shooting himself about
1882.
[Illustration: FIG. 139--Summer 1866--German-silver sun dance.]
WINTER 1866-67
_Ä´pämâ´dal Ehótal-de Sai_, "Winter that Ä´pämâ'dalte was killed." The
name signifies "Struck-his-head-against-a-tree." The same event is
recorded on both calendars, the figures being sufficiently suggestive.
He was a Mexican captive among the Kiowa, and was killed, in an
encounter with troops or Texans, while with a party led by the present
Big-bow, at a small creek on the main emigrant road to California (_Hóan
T'a`ká-i_, "White-man's road") in southwestern Texas. When killed he was
trying to stampede the horses which the Texans had left a short distance
away. There is no official notice of this encounter in the reports,
beyond general references to continual Kiowa raids into Texas.
In this winter, also, Andres Martinez, the most influential captive
among the Kiowa, was bought by them from the Mescalero Apache, who had
captured him a few months previously near Las Vegas, New Mexico. He was
then seven years of age, and was adopted by the Kiowa, and at once taken
by them on a raid into Mexico. His purchaser was Set-dayá-ite,
"Many-bears," who was killed by the Ute in 1868.
[Illustration: FIG. 140--Winter 1866-67--Äpämâ'dalte killed.]
SUMMER 1867
_T'á-kóñ Ä´semtse-de K`ádó_, "Sun dance when Black-ear was stolen. This
dance was held on the north bank of the Washita, near the western line
of Oklahoma. The Cheyenne also attended. While the dance was in progress
a party of Navaho stole a herd of Kiowa ponies, including a fine white
racer with black ears, the kind most highly prized by the Indians. The
Kiowa had no idea that the horses had been stolen by lurking enemies,
but supposed that they had simply strayed, until after the dance was
over, when the three tribes organized an expedition against the Navaho,
at that time upon a reservation in eastern New Mexico, and there
captured a number of horses, including the stolen herd. The event is
recorded on the Set-t'an calendar by means of the figure of a white
horse with black ears above the medicine lodge.
[Illustration: FIG. 141--Summer 1867--Black-ear stolen; the Kâ´itseñko.]
This dance is also designated as _Kâ´itséñko Edópäñ-de K`ádó_, "Sun
dance when the _Kâitseñko_ were initiated" (and further distinguished
from similar occasions by describing it as _"Ä´guntä P'a-gya_, "on
Washita river"), from the fact that on this occasion the members of this
order made new sashes for themselves. Some who had acted in a cowardly
manner were degraded at the same time, their sashes stripped from them
and given to others more worthy (see summer 1846). The event is
indicated on the Anko calendar by means of a figure above the medicine
lodge representing a man with the _Kâitseñko_ headdress and sash.
WINTER 1867-68