The Pénätĕka Comanche lived in Texas, near the settlements, and associated more with the Caddo, Wichita, and whites than with their western kinsmen, the Kwáhadi Comanche, against whom and their allies, the Kiowa and Apache, they several times aided the whites.
There is no direct notice of this engagement in the Indian Report, but the Commissioner states that peace had prevailed among the treaty tribes during the year, with the conspicuous exception of the Kiowa, whose increasing turbulence would seem to render military operations against them advisable. In another place he states that both the Kiowa and Comanche were known to be hostile, and that the army had been ordered to chastise them, as the only way to make them respect their engagements and to stay their murderous hands. In going to Bent's fort, he says:
Citizens of the United States in advance of me as I went out, and also on my return, were brutally murdered and scalped upon the road. It is a fact also worthy of remark that the murders were committed almost within range of the guns at Fort Larned. The Indian mode of warfare, however, is such that it is almost impossible to detect them in their designs. They cautiously approach the Santa Fé road, commit the most atrocious deeds, and flee to the plains (Report, 85).
This winter is known as ´dálká-i Dóha Sai, "Crazy-bluff winter." While the Kiowa were encamped on the south side of the Arkansas, near the western line of Kansas, a man named Gaá-bohónte, "Crow-bonnet," the brother of the man who had been killed by the Caddo the preceding summer, raised a party for revenge. They went to the Caddo camp on the head of Sugar creek, in the present Caddo and Wichita reservation, where they encountered a Caddo looking for his horses. They killed and scalped him, and brought back with them the scalp over which the Kiowa held a scalp dance at a bluff on the south side of Bear creek (T'á-zótă´ P'a, "Antelope-corral river"), near its head, between the Cimarron and the Arkansas, near the western line of Kansas. From the rejoicing on this occasion the place took the name of Foolish, or Crazy bluff.
The picture represents a man with a scalp on a pole, while the projection at the upper end of the winter mark indicates the bluff.
About the same time a war party went into Texas, but lost three men.
The zótă´ or driveway for catching antelope was an open corral of upright logs, stripped of their branches, with an entrance, from which diverged two lines of posts set at short distances from one another and covered with blankets to resemble men. The antelope were surrounded on the prairie and driven toward the corral until they came between the converging lines of posts, when it was an easy matter to force them into the closed circle, where they were slaughtered. The zótă´ was used for catching antelope at any season of the year. It was not used for deer, as the deer could jump over an ordinary corral.
For a description of another method, the ät'ákagúa, or "antelope medicine," see Winter 1848—49. Antelope make regular trails from their shelter places to their grazing grounds, and the Indians sometimes caught them by digging a large pitfall along such a trail—an entire band assisting in the work—and carrying the excavated earth a long distance away, so as to leave no trace on the trail, after which the pitfall was loosely covered with bushes and grass. The hunters then concealed themselves until the herd approached, when they closed in behind and drove the frightened animals forward until they fell into the pit.
Wild horses also were sometimes taken in driveways called t'á-tséñ-zótă´ ("wild-horse driveway"), which were set up near the water holes in the Staked plain, usually in summer, when the streams were dry and the animals were obliged to resort to these places for water. A steep cliff was sometimes utilized to form one side of the corral or driveway. In hunting buffalo the Indians sometimes built converging leadways to the edge of a cliff and then drove the animals over the precipice.
T'óigúăt Äpäñ´tsep-de K`ádó, "Sun dance when they left the spotted horse tied." The picture shows the spotted or pinto horse tied to the medicine lodge.
This dance was held near a canyon, on the south bank of upper Walnut creek, entering the Arkansas at the Great Bend in Kansas. The event recorded throws another curious light on Indian belief. At the sun dance no one but the taíme priest must attempt any "medicine," but on this occasion a man called Dogúatal-edal, "Big-young-man," became "crazy" and committed sacrilegious acts, tearing off his feather headdress and throwing it upon the taíme image, and afterward, when they were smoking to the sun, taking the pipe and throwing it away. No reason is given for these strange actions, except that he was temporarily crazy, as he had never acted strangely before, but the Indians believe that, as his conscience troubled him after he came to his senses, he gave this horse to the taíme as an atonement. At the close of the dance he tied a spotted horse to one of the poles inside the medicine lodge and left it there, where it probably died. Such a thing as tying a horse to the medicine lodge had never before been heard of, although a horse was sometimes sacrificed to the sun by tying it to a tree out upon the hills and leaving it there to perish. The old war chief Gaápiatañ twice sacrificed a horse in this manner, once during the cholera of 1849, when he offered a gray horse as a propitiatory sacrifice for himself, his parents, and brothers and sisters; also again, in the smallpox epidemic of 1861—62 (see next year), he offered a fine black-eared horse, hobbling it and tying it to a tree, with a prayer to the spirit of the disease to take his horse and spare himself and his children and friends. On both occasions his faith appears to have been rewarded, as none of his relatives died. The horse offered on this last occasion was of the kind called t'á-kóñ, "black-eared," considered by the Kiowa to be the finest of all horses.
Dogúatal-édal afterward led a small war party, seven in number, including one woman, into Mexico. None of them ever returned, all the warriors having been killed, probably by Ute warriors, among whom the woman was found living by Big-bow and his companions when they visited that tribe in 1894. It was on this occasion that the Kiowa tribe gained the first intimation concerning the fate of the party. The woman was then the wife of a Ute and the mother of three of his children. Big-bow wanted her to return home with them, especially as her son by her Kiowa husband was still living, but her Ute husband was unwilling to come, and she refused to leave him and her three other children.
Tä´dalkop Sai, "Smallpox winter." The smallpox, like the measles, is indicated by a human figure covered with red spots (see 1839—40 and 1892). The Kiowa were camped for the winter about the Arkansas, in the vicinity of Âdalka-i Doha, in southwestern Kansas, and a party went into New Mexico to trade. They stopped at a town in the mountains at the head of the South Canadian, where smallpox was prevalent at the time, and the people warned them of the danger; they therefore left, but one Kiowa had already bought a blanket, which he refused to throw away, although requested to do so. On returning to their home camp, about New Year, he was attacked by the disease and died, and the epidemic spread through the tribe; many died, and the others scattered in various directions to escape the pestilence. The Cheyenne, Arapaho, Dakota, and other tribes also suffered greatly at the same time, as appears from the official report (Report, 86). It was in consequence of this epidemic that the Arikara abandoned their village lower down the Missouri and removed to their present location near Fort Berthold, North Dakota.
It will be noticed that for several years the Kiowa appear to have been drifting eastward from their former haunts on the upper Arkansas. Although no definite reason is assigned for this movement, it may have been due to the influx of white men into Colorado, consequent upon the discovery of gold at Pike's peak in 1858, which would have a tendency to drive away the buffalo as well as to disquiet the Indians.
Tä´dalkop Kyäkán K'ádó, "sun dance after the smallpox," or sometimes simply Tä´dalkop K'ádó, "smallpox sun dance." It was held a short distance west of where the sun dance had been held in 1858, on Mule creek, near the junction of Medicine-lodge creek with the Salt fork of the Arkansas. No event of importance marked this summer, which is indicated only by the medicine lodge.
Ä´pätsä´t Sai, "Treetop winter," or Tséñko Sápän Étpata Sai, "Winter 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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ä´yä´daldä Sai, "Timber-hill winter," so-called on account of the famous treaty made this winter with the confederated tribes on Medicine-lodge creek, Kansas, known to the Kiowa as "Ä´yä´daldä P'a, Timber-hill river." The picture on the Set-t'an calendar is highly suggestive. It represents a white man, who appears to be a soldier, grasping the hand of an Indian, the locality being shown by the figure of a tree-covered hill above the winter-mark.
The Anko calendar has no reference to this treaty, which is the leading event in Kiowa history of the last thirty years, but records instead a minor occurrence, the killing by the Kiowa of a Navaho, indicated below the winter mark by the figure of a man with his hair bunched in Navaho fashion, wearing the characteristic black leggings and moccasins and carrying a quiver. He was killed near Gúădal Dóhá, on the upper South Canadian, by a party under White-horse, of which Anko was a member. On examining the body of the dead man they found that he had no ears, having probably been so born. For this reason the winter is sometimes known as T'á-bódal Ehótal-de Sai, "Winter that Spoiled-ear was killed." Several parties went against the Navaho on the Pecos this year (that tribe being still at the Bosque Redondo), particularly a large expedition, including nearly all the Comanche and about half of the Kiowa and Apache, which started immediately after the sun dance, defeated the Navaho in an important engagement, and returned in time for the treaty.
The treaty of Medicine Lodge has already been discussed at length in another place. According to the statement of the Kiowa they were camped on the creek where they had held their sun dance, when they were summoned to Fort Larned. Set-t'aiñte, Set-ängya, Set-ĭmkía, and the other chiefs, with all their people, at once moved to that point, where they met an officer who, they say, was called Gánúän, "General" by the whites, and whom the Indians called Pasót-kyä'tó, "Old-man-of-the-thunder," because he wore upon his shoulders the eagle or thunderbird. This was General Winfield S. Hancock, then in command in that section. By his direction they camped on the river near the post, where they were supplied with rations for some days until the purpose of the government was explained to them. They then returned to Medicine-lodge creek and prepared a council house among the trees, ready for the arrival of the commissioners. The medicine lodge and Kiowa camp were on the south (west) side of the creek, while the council house in which the treaty was made was on the opposite (northeast) side, 12 miles above, or about 3 miles above the junction of Elm creek and near the present site of Medicine Lodge, Barber county, Kansas. It is described in the treaty itself as "the council camp on Medicine Lodge creek, 70 miles south of Fort Larned, in the State of Kansas." The low, timbered hill, from which the stream takes its Kiowa name of Ä'yä'daldä P'a, "Timber-hill river," is on the east side, opposite the medicine lodge of the last preceding dance, from which the stream derives its present name. It was a favorite dance headquarters, as several other dances had already been held in the same vicinity.
The Kiowa say that the white man, Philip McCusker, who interpreted the treaty to the three confederated tribes, spoke only Comanche, and his words were translated into Kiowa by Bä'o ("Cat"), alias Guñsádalte, "Having-horns," who is still living. They sum up the provisions of the treaty by saying that the commissioners promised to give them "a place to go," to give them schools, and to feed them for thirty years, and hoped that they would then know how to take care of themselves. Only a part of the Comanche were represented, most of the Kwáhadi band being then on an expedition against the Navaho. According to contemporary notices, there were present at the treaty over eight hundred and fifty tipis, or about five thousand souls, of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, together with about six hundred whites, including the commissioners and attachés, a large detachment of the Seventh infantry, and miscellaneous camp followers, the various groups and bands being scattered for a distance of several miles along the stream, forming probably the largest Indian gathering that had ever been held on the plains.
Íătä'go Dahótal-de K'ádó, "Sun dance when the Ute killed us," or Ä'yädaldä P'a K'ádó, "Timber-hill river (Medicine-lodge creek) sun dance." The dance this summer was held on Medicine-lodge creek, near where the treaty had been made, this, as has been said, being a favorite place for the purpose. The Cheyenne and Arapaho also frequently held their sun dance in the same neighborhood, but not in connection with the Kiowa, although they always attended the Kiowa dance in large numbers. The Comanche had no sun dance of their own, but sometimes joined with the Kiowa. On one occasion they tried to get up such a dance, but the attempt was a failure.
This summer was signalized by a disastrous encounter with the Ute, in which two of the three taímes of the Kiowa were captured. On the Set-t'an calendar this battle is indicated by the figure, above the medicine lodge, of a man holding out the red stone war-pipe, which was sent around as an invitation to the warriors to join the expedition. On the Anko calendar it is indicated by flying bullets about the medicine lodge.
This battle was the most disastrous in the history of the Kiowa tribe since the memorable massacre by the Osage in 1833. The impression made was perhaps even greater, for the reason that their sacred palladium captured on this occasion has never since been recovered.
In the previous winter Pá-tadal, "Lean-bull" (alias Poor-buffalo), who is still living, had led a small party against the Navaho beyond the head of the South Canadian. On reaching the salt beds on that river, near the line between Texas and New Mexico, they met some Navaho coming on foot to steal Kiowa horses. A fight ensued, resulting in the death of one Navaho and one Kiowa, the latter being Pá-tadal's stepson. The father thirsted for revenge, and at the next sun dance he sent around the pipe to all the warriors of the tribe to enlist them for a great expedition against the Navaho. A large number responded, perhaps two hundred, including some of the Comanche, and placed themselves under his leadership. Among these was Set-dayá-ite, "Many-bears," the son (nephew?) of Ansó'te, the medicine keeper. To render victory more certain and complete, he asked and obtained permission from his father to carry with the expedition the two smaller taíme images, viz, the small "man" figure and the "bear kidney." These were sometimes carried to the field, but the larger one, the "woman," which the tribe still retains, was never allowed to leave the home camp. Set-dayá-ite carried one and intrusted the other to his friend Pá-guñhéñte, "Hornless-bull." According to another story, Pá-guñhéñte's medicine was one which belonged to himself and had no connection with the taíme, although it was a smaller image of similar appearance. However, Pá-guñhéñte was killed and his medicine captured, together with the other.
They set out for the Navaho country, but the omens were unpropitious from the start. Among the numerous things tabooed to the taíme are bears, skunks, rabbits, and looking-glasses, none of which must be permitted to come near the sacred image or be touched by the taíme keeper. Almost at the start the warriors were alarmed by seeing a skunk cross their path, and soon afterward it was discovered that the Comanche had brought with them their looking-glasses, which they refused to break or throw away, but wrapped them up and concealed them at one of the camping places to await their return. Farther on, at a place where the warriors had halted for the night to prepare supper, the wind carried to the nostrils of the Kiowa the smell of burning grease. On investigating the cause they found that their sacrilegious allies had killed a bear and were broiling the flesh over their fire. Realizing that nothing but defeat could now be in store for them, many of the warriors turned back, but Set-dayá-ite, trusting to his medicine, persisted in going forward, while Pá-tadal, although he foresaw disaster, as the organizer and leader of the expedition felt bound in honor to proceed.
They went up the north bank of the South Canadian until they reached the salt beds in the vicinity of Red-river spring, near where they had encountered the Navaho the preceding winter. Here they met a much smaller party of Ute, said to have numbered only thirty or forty, and the battle at once began. For some reason, perhaps because the Kiowa felt that their gods had deserted them, they did not fight with their accustomed dash, and the battle soon became a flight, the Ute pursuing them for some miles down the river and killing seven, including Set-dayá-ite and his adopted son, a Mexican captive. Set-dayá-ite on this occasion rode a balky horse, which became unmanageable, so that he dismounted and met his fate on foot, telling his comrades that there was his place to die. His adopted son might have saved himself, but on seeing his father's plight he returned and was killed with him. Pá-guñhéñte, who carried the other medicine, was also among the slain.
Set-dayá-ite had the taíme bag tied upon his back, where it was found by the Ute after the fight. They readily recognized it as some great "medicine," a conjecture which was made certain if it be true, as some say, that the dead man had cut (painted?) upon his body sacred emblems similar to those painted upon the image itself, viz, a crescent upon each breast, the sun in the center, and upon his forehead another crescent. Stumbling-bear, who was in the fight, as was also Anko, went back shortly afterward to bury his remains. He found a beaten circle around the skeleton of Set-dayá-ite, as though the Ute had danced around his dead body.
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: