Portraits TOC
KIOWA:
AN EMERGENT PEOPLE
Nancy P. Hickerson
…this is how it was: The Kiowas came one by one into the
world through a hollow log. There were many more than now,
but not all of them got out. There was a woman whose body
was swollen up with child, and she got stuck in the log. After
that, no one could get through, and that is why the Kiowas are
a small tribe in number….1
I
n midsummer of the year 1805, the expedition led by Captain
Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark made camp on
the Missouri River some miles above its junction with the Platte.
Nearby were the villages of the Otoes and Pawnees. Farther to the
west, near the headwaters of the Platte, they learned of a number of
nomadic tribes including the “Kiawa.”2 This was the first official
notice given to a people who would, in future decades, become
familiar to the soldiers, trappers, and settlers of the American frontier as the Kiowa.
Like the neighboring Arapahoes, Crows, and Cheyennes, the
Kiowas were equestrian (horse-riding) hunters who followed the
great herds of buffalo. Their needs in food, containers, clothing, and
housing were, in large part, supplied directly from the hunt. Horses,
which had been introduced by Spanish colonizers, were essential to
the life of the Plains Indians, and the Kiowas were famous for the size
of their herds. They counted their wealth in horses, and also traded
them to other groups, both Indian and non-Indian, even the invading
Americans.
Within a few decades of the Lewis and Clark expedition, aggressive white hunters all but exterminated the buffaloes, and the U.S.
cavalry forced the surrender of the Kiowa and other Plains tribes. The
Indians were reduced to an impoverished existence on reservations.
In the Great Plains, the reservation period began around 1870. This
marked a sudden change from autonomy to dependence, which
meant a forced compromise with the laws and values of the dominant
power, the United States of America. Much of the early ethnographic
research on Plains tribes began during this period. The focus of interest, for many anthropologists, was the salvaging of information on
cultures which, it was assumed, were doomed to extinction.
Traditional Plains cultures have long held a special fascination
for non-Indian observers. This fascination was stimulated, at first,
by the color and excitement that outsiders saw in Indian life.
American and European anthropologists were inspired early to collect tribal traditions and customs, to study languages, record folklore, and document religious rituals (many of which were banned
by U.S. authorities). Even today, it is possible to add to the documentation of traditional cultures, through the collection of family
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PORTRAITS OF CULTURE
lore and individual life histories and by documentary research.
Contemporary Kiowas and other Native Americans generally
encourage this type of study, since they realize the importance of
documenting and preserving their cultural heritage. Moreover,
these groups have proved to be more resilient than the early anthropologists expected. Today, they are a growing segment of the
United States population.
In what follows, I describe: (1) the origin and evolution (ethnogenesis) of the Kiowa nation; (2) Kiowa life prior to the reservation
period; and (3) cultural changes and innovations that followed the
forced incorporation of the Kiowas into the larger American society.
THE PROBLEM
OF KIOWA ETHNOGENESIS
In late prehistoric times, the only significant populations in the
grasslands of the Great Plains could be found in farming villages situated along the banks of certain rivers. There, the Kansa, Pawnee,
and Wichita can point to a continuity in cultural heritage extending
unbroken from prehistoric to historic times. By contrast, outside of
the agricultural areas there was, at the most, a thin scattering of foraging bands. Seasonal hunting parties entered the open grasslands
on foot, to kill buffalo and other big game and to carry away the
meat and skins. On a permanent basis, these vast areas were virtually unpopulated. Much remains to be discovered concerning the origin, identity, and historical background of the thirty or more tribal
peoples whose territories can be mapped in the Great Plains. One
thing, however, is evident: the historic tribes, with few exceptions,
are recent and complex in origin. Most of these groups appear to
derive from outside of the Plains area itself. Migrations, divisions,
mergings, and separations of groups and subgroups occurred many
times during the peopling of the Plains. The stories of the individual
nations can be approached through oral traditions, though these are
often highly symbolic and may be vague as to place, time, and circumstances of events. Tradition can, at times, be amplified by
records of explorers, traders, and other outsiders, documenting contacts and the locations of bands and tribes. In some cases, also,
archaeological sites can be attributed to particular historic tribes.
KIOWA
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When modern Kiowas recall their own past, they begin with a
myth of their ancestors’ emergence out of an underworld onto the
earth’s surface. The scene is a cold land, in the far north. This is
thought to be the Yellowstone River valley, which lies in the Rocky
Mountains but borders on the Great Plains. There are Kiowa placenames for mountains and other features in this region, and there is a
tradition of contacts and marriages with northern peoples such as
the Crow and Sarsi.
It was in the Rocky Mountains, not far from the mythic place of
emergence, that Lewis and Clark first learned of the Kiowas. Lewis’s
map pinpoints the location of a Kiowa encampment on the upper
Platte River, close to the headwaters of the Yellowstone. Two years
earlier, in 1803, a Kiowa party visited Santa Fe; they were accompanied by a fur company agent, James Purseley, who acted as their
spokesman in requesting permission to trade in New Mexico.3 Thus,
at the turn of the century, the Kiowas were to be found over a vast
range, north to south. They were active players in the economic life
of the Great Plains, and were not strangers to white traders—
Purseley, like many other agents, may have spent years living with
his Indian clients.
Although the Kiowa presence is well attested near the beginning
of the nineteenth century, their earlier existence as a nation cannot
be traced with any certainty. Who were the ancestral Kiowas?
Where did they come from, and when and how did the Kiowa people arrive in their historical homeland in the South Plains? These
questions were of little interest to an earlier generation of scholars,
many of whom believed that traditional peoples such as the Native
Americans were virtually changeless. It was even assumed that the
way of life of the Plains Indians had remained stable since prehistoric times, despite the introduction of the horse.
In the present century, with advances in ethnohistory and
archaeology, the naivete of such earlier views has become apparent.
In addition, approaches such as cultural ecology and the application
of systems theory to cultural studies have revealed the potential
impact of changes in subsistence economy (such as the shift from
pedestrian to equestrian hunting) on territoriality, demography, and
the entire texture of social and political life.
In a groundbreaking study of Cheyenne history, John Moore
reveals the rapidity with which such changes can occur. Around
1680, three independent Algonkian villages began a series of westward moves from the vicinity of Lake Superior. Over the next century, these groups gradually switched from mostly sedentary farming
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PORTRAITS OF CULTURE
to fully nomadic hunting, and became the nucleus of the Cheyenne
people. Increments were also drawn from the Sioux, Kiowa,
Arapaho, and other tribes with which the early Cheyennes traded
and intermarried. Adoption of a common language—that of the
Algonkian majority—is one aspect of ethnogenesis, the formation of
a new cultural identity. From their neighbors, the Cheyennes adopted a new type of political organization: they became a tribal nation.
This innovation transformed a group of culturally related,
autonomous bands (comprising a tribe in the usual anthropological
sense) into a more unified political entity. Throughout the Great
Plains, tribal nationhood was expressed in the performance of a
great annual ceremonial, the Sun Dance (a composite of rituals
which was, in certain details and meanings, unique to each tribe in
which it was performed). The complex of pan-tribal political and
ceremonial forms evidently had its beginnings in the northern
Plains experience. It was adopted by the Cheyennes as they entered
into alliances and trade relations with already established Plains
tribes such as the Sioux and Crow. 4 The Kiowas were, like the
Cheyennes, friends and trading partners of these northern tribes.
PROLOGUE TO KIOWA HISTORY:
1100–1700 A.D.
As for the Kiowas—how closely does their history approximate that
of the Cheyennes? A similarity in overall outlines may be anticipated, but the particulars appear to be quite different. One important
clue, language, appears to contradict Kiowa traditional history. Just
as the Cheyenne language indicates an affiliation with the
Algonkian language family of eastern North America, the Kiowa
language belongs to a southwestern family, Tanoan. The other living Tanoan languages, in three divisions, are spoken by Pueblo
groups (including Jemez and Taos) along the upper Rio Grande. The
Tanoan family developed and diversified in the deserts of western
North America. Kiowa is, thus, an outlying splinter group of this
southwestern family.
When language groups fragment or splinter, the causes may be
twofold. Segments may simply break away and move into alien territory, as was the case with the Cheyennes. On the other hand, the
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speech community may be divided and/or displaced by the arrival
of immigrants, speakers of alien languages. The event that led to the
dispersal of the aboriginal Tanoan population was the entry into the
Southwest and South Plains of Athabascan people, ancestral to the
Apaches and Navajos. This was not a sudden event, but one that
transpired over several centuries. The time of the initial migration of
the southern Athabascans has been variously estimated at 1100 to
1300 A . D . ; their movement into the South Plains was completed
around 1700. This process accelerated after the Spanish came to
New Mexico in the 1600s, and the introduction of the horse
increased the range of the Apache hunters and warriors.
Although the Apache invasion of the South Plains was gradual,
it was not uniformly peaceful. There were many battles between the
Apache “Vaqueros” and the earlier residents, who were known to
the Spaniards as “Jumanos.”5 Some of the earlier group were killed,
and some were incorporated into the Apache population. Others
took refuge in Spanish missions in New Mexico and on the Lower
Rio Grande. Still others moved eastward, ahead of the advancing
Apache frontier—a fact related to the appearance, a century later, of
the people known as Kiowas.
Something of the character of the earlier pre-Apachean population can be seen in the scattered traces of the late prehistoric Jornada
culture. This was an eastern extension of Mogollon, a major archaeological tradition of the Southwest. Along the Rio Grande, the
Mogollon tradition can be traced over two millennia, from the
beginnings of agriculture to the irrigated farming of the historic
Pueblos. The related Jornada people, who spread into the drier
regions to the east, were less successful farmers. In the Pecos River
valley, for example, they originally tilled small farms and made seasonal trips into the Plains for hunting. Around 1300, however, they
abandoned their farms entirely, to become fullscale pedestrian
hunters.6 At the same time, they maintained ties with their kin in the
eastern Pueblos, no doubt exchanging meat and buffalo hides for
corn, blankets, and other goods. Throughout the South Plains, there
is evidence of the presence of similar pedestrian nomadic groups,
who carried with them not only the products of their hunting but
also trade goods from the Pueblos and also from eastern farming
peoples such as the Caddo and Wichita.
A continuation of this way of life is seen in Spanish accounts of
the now equestrian Jumanos in the South Plains. As late as 1690, a
Jumano chief, Juan Sabeata, led annual expeditions of one thousand
miles or more, between the Rio Grande valley and the Caddo of
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PORTRAITS OF CULTURE
eastern Texas. The home territory of Sabeata’s people lay between
the Pecos and the upper Colorado River of Texas, where they pastured their horse herds; other Jumano bands may have lived as far
north as the Brazos and Red Rivers. The Jumanos were hunters, and
traded buffalo skins to both Indian and Spanish clients along the Rio
Grande. They were also suppliers of horses and Spanish trade goods
to the Caddo, Wichita, and other eastern tribes.7
The Texas Jumanos of the late 1600s may seem unlikely ancestors of the Kiowas of the early 1800s. However, these two groups of
Plains Tanoans, earlier and later, had much in common: a nomadic
way of life, a focus on buffalo hunting, horse pastoralism, and trade.
Historians have generally assumed that the Jumanos became extinct
around 1700. It now seems more likely that it was the name
“Jumano” that fell out of use, when remnants of the group moved
out of the Spanish sphere of influence.
At the same time that the Apaches were challenging the
Jumanos for possession of the southern plains, a new European
power, France, entered the region from the east. A French post was
built at the mouth of the Arkansas River in 1687, and traders came
to the Wichitas soon thereafter. A letter written by the explorer La
Salle, in 1682, speaks of the “Pana” (Wichita) villages on the
Arkansas, and also mentions two tribes of nomads, the “Manrhoat”
and “Gattacka.”8 These were located some distance to the south, and
supplied the Wichitas with horses. In view of the date and location,
it seems certain that these horsetraders must have been Jumanos.
The name “Gattacka,” however, identifies a small Athabascanspeaking group (also called “Kiowa Apaches”) who have been
closely associated with Kiowas throughout their modern history.
Based, in part, on this clue, it seems likely that “Manrhoat” is an
early reference to the Kiowas themselves.9 La Salle’s letter thus provides evidence confirming a common ancestry and identity for the
Jumanos and Kiowas.
THE KIOWA TRANSITION: 1700–1800
Between this reference and the Kiowas of 1805, there lies a century
of mystery. The Kiowas next appear not only in a different time, but
in a new setting. Like the Cheyennes, they surely experienced a long
history of migration, mergings, separations, and alliances before
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reaching the point, more than five hundred miles north of Jumano
country, where they were found by Lewis and Clark. Much of this
history can never be recovered. One of the few constants may be the
role of the Wichita people (La Salle’s “Pana”), who were the northernmost of the Jumanos’ allies and have always been friends and
allies of the Kiowas.
Until shortly after 1700, the Wichita villages on the Arkansas
were at the northern limit of the trade in horses. By the mid-1700s,
horses were known throughout the northern Plains, at least as far as
the Sarsi and Blackfoot. In the interval, the ex-Jumanos—whom we
may now call Kiowas—together with their Gattacka allies evidently
shifted location and extended their trade routes toward the north. A
likely impetus for the Kiowas’ move was the growing presence of a
new and highly aggressive people in the South Plains, the
Comanches. For the following century, the Comanches and Apaches
were in a state of war, with the Comanches eventually becoming the
dominant power.
As they gravitated north, beyond the Comanche-Apache frontier, the Kiowas spread through the country between the Arkansas
and Platte. This was a region ideally suited for the pursuit of a pastoral way of life. They pastured their herds north and west of the
villages of their Wichita allies, who were relocating for better contact with French trading posts in Louisiana. The Kiowas and
Gattackas were now in position to become middlemen between the
French-Wichita trade and the northern Plains tribes. They capitalized on this position and became know as a hunting and trading
people, moving between the Arkansas and the villages of the
Arikara and Mandan. Northern and southern Kiowa divisions
developed, as some bands established links with the northern tribes
and others remained father south in good horse-raising country. The
pattern of their movements probably resembled that of the old
Jumanos, who gravitated between rancherias in the Plains and camps
in the territories of their trading partners.
By or before 1800, the Kiowas adopted a type of political and
ceremonial organization that was already current among some of
their northern neighbors, including the Crows and Arapahos. In so
doing, a loosely organized aggregate of independent bands was
transformed into a more centralized, formally structured political
entity. This event marks the real birth of the Kiowa nation. It is this
beginning, in the northern Plains, which is recalled in the Kiowa
emergence myth. In effect, the Kiowas had emerged into a new level
of political reality, as a nation among nations.
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THE KIOWA NATION
By the 1830s, the territory of the Kiowas lay within an area circumscribed by the Arkansas and Red Rivers and, roughly, the 98th and
99th meridians of longitude.10 This was an area shared peacefully
with their close allies, the Kiowa Apaches. Certain features within
this homeland, such as the Wichita Mountains of central Oklahoma,
still hold great cultural importance for the Kiowa people.
THE PATTERN OF KIOWA SUBSISTENCE
Prior to the reservation period, the Kiowa bands were nomadic,
their movements influenced by the movements of game and by the
needs of their horses for water and pasture. They competed for
access to these resources with tribes such as the Arapahos,
Cheyennes, and Comanches. Other interests—warfare, trade, and
access to distant resources—often took Kiowa parties father afield;
their travels are noted as far north as Canada and as far south as the
Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.
As seen by outsiders, the Kiowas were one of several tribes
whose lives seemed to center around the great herds of buffalo.
Their efforts focused on hunting, and buffalo meat was preferred
above all others (including the cattle introduced by American settlers). Other game, such as deer, rabbit, and porcupine, was taken
for specific purposes: Deer skins were desired for clothing, soft rabbit skins were used to line infant cradles, and porcupine quills had
decorative uses. Such animals were used for food only in times of
scarcity.
During a buffalo hunt, some of the meat was eaten fresh, especially delicacies such as the tongue and liver. However, most of the
animal was cut into thin strips and hung to dry in the sun. This
“jerked” meat could be stored without spoiling, and was easily
portable. It was sometimes pounded into a powder that was added
to stews, or mixed with fat and berries to make a high-energy trail
ration. Among the resources available to the Kiowas were vegetable
foods such as pomme blanche, or wild potato, and the mesquite bean,
which provided both food and drink. In addition, they obtained a
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PORTRAITS OF CULTURE
variety of foods through trade with other groups. Bread, corn, and
dried pumpkins came from both Indian and Mexican villages in
New Mexico, and from Plains farming tribes such as the Wichitas.
Preparation and storage of foodstuffs, like other aspects of Kiowa
life, was geared to the nomadic way of life. Meat might be roasted over
an open fire. At times, it was cooked in a kind of stew, with herbs and
vegetables. A buffalo stomach might serve as the cook-pot; stones,
heated in the campfire, brought the contents to a boil. Although the
Kiowas received some pottery in trade, clay pots were little used, being
heavy and fragile. Brass kettles were more durable, and became popular in later years, when the Kiowas were settled on the reservation.
The most versatile materials were the animals skins used for
clothing, footwear, tipi covers, bedding, and a variety of containers.
Much of the leatherwork was ornamented. Some of the designs were
geometrical, like those painted on the folding leather cases, or
parfleches, in which clothing was stored. The more pictorial figures
drawn on tipi covers, shields, drums and other objects used in ceremonies and rituals had symbolic significance and were often the
property of individuals or families. This can be characterized as a
kind of heraldic art, closely tied to the rights to religious offices,
songs, and other types of incorporeal property.
Although the Kiowas have traditionally been classified as a tribe
of hunter-gatherers, modern anthropologists would argue that pastoralism was more basic to their economy. Many accounts testify to
Kiowa wealth in horses. It was not unusual for an individual to
have twenty animals (horses and mules) available for riding, hunting, and transport; a wealthy chief might have a herd of fifty or
more. On a per capita basis, the Kiowas were one of the wealthiest
of the Plains tribes prior to their defeat by the U.S. cavalry, when
most of their herds were destroyed.
Livestock was obtained through barter, theft, the capture of wild
horses, and natural increase. Of these, the last was the most important. Kiowa success in horse pastoralism is due, in part, to the character of their home area, which had abundant water and natural
pasturage and a moderate climate. There was a ready market for
Kiowa horses among groups such as the Mandans, Arikaras and
Crows, who lived in northern regions where conditions were less
favorable for the survival and reproduction of livestock. The trade
in horses was just an extension of the Kiowas’ involvement in an
intricate trade network, dating back to before contact with
Europeans. This network encompassed both local exchanges of
foodstuffs between hunting and farming groups, and long-distance
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trade in more exotic and valuable goods. Certain native resources
such as pipestone, obsidian, decorative shells, and mineral pigments
might pass through many hands; shells, for example, could come
from the Pacific or Gulf of Mexico.
The Kiowas may have begun to trade over long distances because
they were horse traders. Indeed, it is quite possible that they were the
first to introduce the use of horses to the northern Plains. However,
the tribe was also an important link in the circulation of many other
types of goods. At various times, the Kiowas were in contact with
trappers and traders from Mexico, New Mexico, Canada, Louisiana,
and the eastern United States. They also received foreign goods indirectly, through allies such as the Mandans and Wichitas, who had
representatives of European trading companies in their villages.
Because of their central location in the Plains and their mobility, the
Kiowas were middlemen par excellence.
KIOWA SOCIAL LIFE
Their predilection for travel and trade was reflected in the diversity
of the Kiowa population and the variety of languages represented
within the tribe. Bands that dealt with one another frequently intermarried, and many Kiowas recall Arapaho, Cheyenne or Crow
ancestors. According to Mooney, the oldtime Kiowa were accustomed to leave their children with the Crows for periods of time, in
order to maintain a knowledge of that language. Mexican captives of
the tribe were also useful as translators when Kiowa parties travelled into Hispanic areas. Further, it was not unusual for French- or
English-speaking fur-traders to live and travel with the Kiowa and
other Indian tribes; these men frequently took Indian wives. One
cultural feature that simplified the assimilation of foreigners was the
universal sign language of the Plains Indians. Until they learned
Kiowa, newcomers could usually communicate by signing.
Adoption was a frequent source of new recruits to the camps of
the Kiowas. Children were taken in raids, or they might be ransomed from other tribes. These children were usually taken into
Kiowa families. One of the most famous, Andres Martinez, or
“Andele,” was obtained from his Mescalero Apache captor by the
Kiowa chief Many Bears. The boy was adopted by Many Bears, and
lived the rest of his life as a Kiowa. When the U.S. Army attempted
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PORTRAITS OF CULTURE
to repatriate the captives, Martinez paid a brief visit to his childhood home in Las Vegas, New Mexico; however, he returned to the
Kiowa reservation in Oklahoma, where he later became a Methodist
minister and teacher.11
Kiowa society was unstratified, and could be called classless. It
was, however, not totally egalitarian. The Kiowa language has terms
that name three loosely defined status groups: the elite families, represented by many notable chiefs; the rank and file of good families; and
the less successful families and individuals of poor reputation. An
individual’s status depended, in part, on his or her family background
and was also influenced by personal accomplishment. Persons with
prominent Kiowa ancestors tended to consider themselves a kind of
nobility, as compared with those whose foreign origins were known.
The status of captives was somewhat ambiguous. Even though a captive might earn high honors, such an individual could not attain the
status of one with a distinguished Kiowa pedigree.
Gender roles were—at least on the surface—clearly defined.
Men’s usual concerns centered around hunting and the acquisition,
care, and exchange of horses. Men’s lives were usually active, and
sometimes dangerous. They built careers through successes in warfare and horsemanship, or performance as curers and ritual specialists. Beyond this, a good reputation was earned through honesty,
good judgment, and generosity. Curers and ritual specialists, though
much respected, did not generally receive the acclaim paid to heroes
of military encounters. However, some of the greatest Kiowa leaders—men such as chief Sitting Bear and the famous medicine man
Mamanti—were known for both secular and spiritual power.
Women’s routine work was focused on the household and
camp. It was they who gathered edible plants, milled seeds and
grains, and butchered and prepared the meat of the buffalo and
other animals. Women spent much of their time in processing buffalo hides and making and repairing leather goods, from clothing to
tipis. They worked cooperatively at tanning, tipi-making, and other
time-consuming tasks. Women were responsible for setting up, taking down, and moving the tipis (the inverted cone-shaped tents of
the Plains), tasks which usually had to be done several times in a
year. They helped take care of livestock, and were in charge of the
pack animals when traveling. And they always had the primary
responsibility for watching over the infants and young children. A
number of Kiowa women have owned and traded in horses, and
have held religious offices which are, in theory, reserved for men. It
is also evident that women play prominent roles in mythic and his-
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torical traditions. For example, the Buffalo medicine cult—a men’s
curing society—is said to have originated with the visionary experience of a Kiowa woman named Buffalo Woman.
By all accounts, Kiowa social life has always been characterized
by flexibility. Ideally, closely related men—fathers, brothers, and
sons—formed the core of the bands; wives joined the camps of their
husbands (patrilocal residence). Kiowa kinship is classified as bilateral.
That is, the father’s and mother’s sides counted equally in tracing
kinship connections. Marriage was forbidden to first cousins, all of
whom were called “brothers” and “sisters” (in what is known as a
Hawaiian kinship system). Furthermore, kinship terms were extended to apply to all members of a band, however they might (or might
not) be biologically related. Thus, the people with whom one lived
would be addressed as mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter,
grandmother, and so on, depending on their sex and relative age.
The most important social unit was the band (topadoga). The
chiefs of bands (topadok’i) were influential men who had earned reputations as warriors and leaders. They were the heads of extended
families, which included the households of their brothers and, in
some cases, their brothers-in-law as well. Other families, less closely
related or even unrelated, were attracted to join wealthy and successful chiefs, who thus expanded the numbers of their followers.
Band membership was fluid, changing with the fortunes of the chief
and/or the inclinations of the member households.
Important men, especially those who were topadok’i, often had
two wives, and some had three or four. A first marriage would likely
be arranged, planned by the elders of the families, and validated by
the groom’s gift of horses to the family of the bride. Subsequent wives
were usually sisters (or classificatory [“called”] sisters) of the first, a
practice called sororal polygyny. If they were compatible, co-wives
could share the same tipi and cooperate in their tasks. Under some
circumstances, however, they had separate households. Thus, the
camp of Sitting Bear, an important topadok’i, included separate tipis
for each of four wives. There was another for the chief himself—a
place for relaxing, receiving visitors, and conferring with advisors. In
addition, there was a special tipi for Sitting Bear’s favorite (odei) son,
who was, even before marriage, an important warrior.12
Hospitality and gift-giving were an important part of Kiowa life.
Any family might give away food on an occasion such as a son’s first
successful hunt or war party. Wealthy families, like that of Sitting
Bear, carried this idea to the extreme with the institution of the odei
or “favorite child.” These sons or daughters were given the finest in
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PORTRAITS OF CULTURE
food and clothing, special tipis, and whatever luxuries might be available. This custom, according to anthropologist B. Mishkin, “can only
be understood as part of the battle for prestige.”13 Horses and other
gifts were distributed lavishly, to celebrate an odei son’s riding a
horse or joining a warrior society, or a daughter’s first scalp dance.
The events thus contributed to the family’s standing, and the recurrent giveaways became a factor in attracting members to the band.
Ties between siblings were strong, and usually remained so
throughout life. Brothers hunted and camped together, as members
of the same band; sisters might stay together as co-wives. Even
though a brother and sister might he separated by marriage, their
relationship endured, counterbalancing that between husband and
wife. A woman’s brothers could intervene if she were mistreated by
her husband, and a widow was likely to return, at least temporarily,
to her brother’s camp.
Another practice that ran counter to the overall rule of patrilocal
residence was that of “giving away” a daughter. In this case, a promising young man without the resources for brideprice (a substantial gift
to the bride’s kin) was invited to marry and join the camp of his fatherin-law. A chief with few or no sons could build a following in this
way. In other cases, young people eloped and attached themselves,
temporarily or permanently, to bands in which they had no close kin.
Changes in economic circumstances, frequent absence of family members, and the facts of warfare, raiding, and a high death rate all conspired to dictate flexibility in social ties and living arrangements.
At the death of a chief, his place would normally be filled by a
successor from his paternal line—a younger brother or adult son or
nephew. If there was no clear replacement, the members might split
up to join other bands. Bands also became fragmented if members
lost confidence in the topadok’i’s leadership.
Such changes were most easily made following the spring or
autumn periods when families or small groups scattered to hunt and
camp independently. Thereafter, they might join a different band
rather than return to the earlier situation. Despite this flexibility, the
chief had virtually absolute authority, and demanded loyalty of his
followers. Their only recourse, in case of disagreement, was to take
their leave.
The topadoga was united for only part of the year. If the fall
hunting had provided enough food, band members remained close
throughout the winter, pitching their tipis in the same general
area—perhaps scattered along the course of a stream or in a mountain valley. Winter was a season in which social life flourished;
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friends and relatives visited, games were played and stories told.
Winter was also the time when groups of men would gather to share
a pipe and recall the tribe’s past history. A few Kiowa men kept pictorial calendars, painted on buffalo hide; these were mnemonic aids
that helped them recall the events of previous years. One of the calendars was kept by Little Bear, a famous chief. It covered the years
1833–1893, with separate drawings for summer and winter, each
commemorating a milestone in Kiowa history
Some hunting was done near the winter camp, to add fresh meat
to the menu. If supplies ran low, a communal antelope hunt could
be held. This was ritually initiated by an Antelope Medicine man.
After an all-night ceremony, the people scattered to form a great circle, driving the animals toward the center, where they were killed.
Even in winter, groups of men periodically departed on raids for
horses or other travels. Raids were typically small-scale affairs. A
man who wished to organize a raid advertised the fact by singing
and drumming, and usually recruited the party from his kin or from
within his own band. These expeditions often departed on foot; if
successful, the men would return triumphantly, on horseback.
Some individuals chose to spend time alone in an isolated spot,
fasting and waiting for a tutelary spirit to manifest itself in a vision.
For example, late in his life, Chief Sitting Bear fasted and, at the end
of four days, was visited by a “big lizard from heaven.” He asked
the lizard to help him in a war party to avenge his brother’s death.14
The vision experience gave a man (or, at times, a woman) special
powers. In her vision, mentioned earlier, Buffalo Woman is said to
have received a medicine bag, along with the designs for the shield,
buffalo-tail wand, hoof rattles, and crow-feather headdress of the
Buffalo Medicine Men.15 Not everyone had such an experience, but
those who did were highly honored. Young men most often sought
visions, but the experience could come to anyone at any stage of life.
The early spring was usually a time of scarcity. A large winter
camp would begin to break up as single families or small groups
departed to search for food. The separation did not last for many
months, however. The bands regrouped in time for the move to the
site of the tribal assembly, early in the summer. By this time, they
hoped to have a good supply of dried meat and other food laid by.
Summer was the peak of the Kiowa year. The tribe was united,
with all members gathered in a single location. The flexibility and
relaxed interaction which characterized life for most of the year was
out of place at this time. There were more rules and restrictions, and
discipline was strictly maintained. A formal political structure was
18
PORTRAITS OF CULTURE
instituted, which overrode and largely replaced the more informal
kinship-based organization on which life in the topadoga was
based. The bands, as such, did not function in the summer village.
However, the chiefs retained their importance as leaders; they were
prominent in the warrior societies, which were active only during
the summer season. Membership in these societies cut across band
affiliation, promoting tribal solidarity.
The societies were, in part, age-graded. All boys entered the
Rabbit society at around the age of six, under the supervision of
older warriors. The Rabbits had their own small tipis in the summer
village, danced as a group, and took part in processions during the
ceremonies. At around sixteen, a boy would be invited to join one of
the adult societies; he might accept, or could choose to join the one
to which his father belonged.
The names of the warrior societies are difficult to translate;
roughly, they were the Sheep, Horse Headdresses, Black Legs,
Crazy Horses, and Real Dogs. Though not formally ranked, the last
two had highest prestige, and were not ordinarily open to young,
inexperienced warriors. The Koitsenko, or Real Dogs, was a small
and elite company, limited to ten men who were pledged to fight
without retreat. Each society had its own colors, regalia, and dance
steps; the Tsaetaenma, or Horse Headdresses, used yellow body
paint with stripes of various colors.16 Each of the societies owned one
or more of the sacred Sun Dance shields (described below); the
painted designs, which had power, were renewed annually, by
painters who were subject to certain taboos (forbidden to see their
images in a looking glass, for example).
Like other Plains tribes, the Kiowas had an elaborate system of
counting honors (or coups) earned in battle. In their society lodges the
warriors recited their past accomplishments: Touching an enemy, or
stealing a horse, for example, brought honor to the warrior and his
society.
The Summer Assembly
and the K’aado (Sun Dance)
The assembly site, or at least its general location, may have been
agreed on during the previous summer, since the bands began slowly converging well ahead of time. However, the K’aado itself was
KIOWA
19
held as the fulfillment of a vow, a pledge made by a Kiowa warrior.
After being informed of such a vow, the tribal priest set the time and
place for the assembly. He then dispatched messengers to inform
the various bands of the Kiowa tribe and their allies the Kiowa
Apaches, who were always participants in the Kiowa ceremony.
The priest was the guardian of the taime, a sacred object of great
importance. He was the tribal leader during the summer season. His
position was hereditary; it could only be held by descendants of the
original owner, who is said to have brought the taime to the tribe.
As a religious leader, the priest was highly respected. In practical
affairs, however, he was guided by the principal chiefs, who formed
a tribal council.
During the summer assembly, the warrior societies had special
functions Each year, the priest appointed one society to police the
tribal buffalo hunts and keep order in the camp. The societies
worked as teams in clearing the grounds, bringing in the lodge
poles, and building the medicine lodge before the dance began.
They competed in mock battles, and their songs, dances, and processions were featured events. The Old Women’s society also had a
prominent role; they dug the postholes for the dance lodge, covered
the floor with clean sand, and danced and sang at various points
throughout the ceremonies.
The gathering of the bands was a gradual process—some groups
arrived earlier, others later. The interval was a time for hunting,
socializing, and practicing songs and dances for the great ceremony.
This was also a favorite time for making sacrifices that had been
promised to the ten medicine bundles (described below), which
were brought together at the site. Warriors purified themselves with
sweatbaths, and offered gifts of scalps which were added to those
already covering the surfaces of the bundles.
As the assemblage moved to the dance site, the scenario for the
central events began to unfold. The climax came with the performance of the K’aado, the great Kiowa tribal ceremony This was an
intense shared experience for the dancers, and was a powerful
pageant of tribal unity for participants and observers alike.
Although the dance itself lasted only four days, there was, roughly,
a week of preparation.
On the first day. the priest selected a tall cottonwood tree to be
the centerpole of the medicine lodge, and the circle was laid out.
Around the circle, the tipis were pitched in an order prescribed by
tradition, leading an opening at the east. In the following days, a
buffalo was killed in a ceremonial manner, and its head and skin
20
PORTRAITS OF CULTURE
removed. The cottonwood tree was taken in a mock battle, and carried to the site. After the lodge was built, and before the dance
began, the pelt was placed on a fork high on the centerpole and
arranged to resemble a buffalo. Besides this buffalo effigy, the most
important object in the medicine lodge was the taime, a humanlike
figure around two feet tall, which the priest put on view only at this
time. This image was dressed in a mantle of white eagle feathers
and given a position of honor at the east side of the lodge, surrounded by the sacred Sun Dance shields. The taime was the focus of the
dancers’ attention throughout the ceremony.
With brief interruptions, the dancing continued for four days,
ending at sundown. As many as fifty men might dance on the first
day, though not all of them had the stamina to continue to the end.
As the final event, just before sundown on the fourth day, everyone
joined in the dance. Afterwards, when the priest had packed away
the taime and other sacred objects, people were permitted to take
leaves and twigs from the lodge, as medicine to protect them
through the year.17
In the normal course of events, the camp broke up at the end of
the tribal ceremonies This, however, was contingent on plans made
by the chiefs. In the summer of 1854, for example, a large war party
was organized to join the Comanche, Cheyenne, and other tribes in
an attack on the Pawnees, as revenge for the death of the Kiowa
chief Pushing Bear.18 In such a case, with many men absent, the rest
of the tribe would likely remain together, for general safety.
Kiowa Religion
Several aspects of Kiowa spiritual life have been touched on, ranging from personal rituals to tribal ceremonies. All of these, in one
way or another, can be related to an underlying concept of dae, a
kind of innate power in nature. Power could be manifested in a
vision, establishing a special tie between an individual and a species
of animals or class of objects. Alice Marriot describes a typical vision
quest: After fasting for seven days and nights, Eagle Plume was visited by the mountain boomer, a species of lizard. The lizard made
itself large, and spoke to Eagle Plume, promising him the power to
run and hide (like the lizard), and to become wise. It told him how
to paint his face, and gave him a talisman—a little black arrowhead—to tie in his scalplock.19
KIOWA
21
After such an experience, a man might anticipate future visits
from his tutelary spirit, perhaps bringing additional powers. On this
level, the religious experience was personal and individual. It could
remain so, or the knowledge could be shared with others. The
visionary experience ascribed to Buffalo Woman was similar to that
of Eagle Plume. However, in her case the rituals of the buffalo medicine were passed on to others, and eventually became the property
of the curing society. The origins of a number of dances and cult
practices can be traced to such mystical or visionary experiences of
individuals.
Doctors usually had animal helpers, though some simply relied
on practical knowledge. The owl was a powerful medicine.The
famous medicine man Sky Walker (Mamanti) had curing power
from the screech owl. As an aid, he used an owl’s skin that fitted
over his hand. Supplicants could ask questions and bring gifts to
this owl and in return received advice and prophecies (probably
through ventriloquism). As recalled by an elderly Kiowa, Mamanti’s
owl, with painted button eyes, was so lifelike that many people
believed it to be real.20
Public rites and ceremonies also focused on powerful objects or
collections of objects. Among the most revered, and evidently the
most ancient, were the ten medicine bundles. These leather bags
were the property of certain families. They were passed from one
generation to the next, to be cared for by individuals who were, in
effect, priests. The pattern of inheritance was patrilineal, but was
qualified by the requirement that the bundle priest must have
supernatural power, obtained in a vision. In addition, the position
was demanding. Each bundle was kept in its own tipi, protected
from rain or moisture, and was cleaned and repaired periodically
(this might be done in the dark, since the powerful medicines could
not be viewed directly). The exact nature of the bundle’s contents is
unknown; its outer fringe of scalps was renewed at the time of the
Sun Dance. The special tipi was a place of sanctuary—an important
counterforce to the violence in some phases of Kiowa life.
Like the ten medicine bundles, the taime image has power that
can be transmitted to individuals, or to the tribe as a whole. By contrast to the bundles, however, the taime has a fairly shallow history,
extending back through eight known priests.21 The image is said to
have been given by the Crows to an Arapaho man, who brought it
to the Kiowas when he married a Kiowa woman. This tradition may
offer a clue to the history of the K’aado itself. The plan for the ceremony evidently originated in the northern Plains. It may have
22
PORTRAITS OF CULTURE
passed from the Sioux to the Crows, and thence to the Arapahos and
Kiowas. It could have been adopted by the Kiowas as early as 1780
or as late as 1805. In any case, the seventy Kiowa tents, which Lewis
and Clark reported in the summer of 1805, may have been gathered
for a Sun Dance—perhaps under the sponsorship of their friends,
the Crows.
In part, the K’aado is addressed to the sun; but this is a minor
part—a brief performance by a single dancer who directs his gaze
toward the sun. The buffalo could be considered a more important
motif than the sun. The ritual killing of the buffalo, and its elevation
to the highest point in the lodge, reflect the cultural importance of
the animal, which was venerated by all Plains tribes, including the
Kiowa. However, it is the taime that dominates the ceremony. This
sacred figure—the symbol of the Kiowa nation itself—is the source
of power which suffuses the lodge, giving health and good fortune
both to the dancers and to observers of the ceremony.
CONQUEST AND ITS AFTERMATH
Once Lewis and Clark had opened the way, American companies
were quick to begin operations on the Missouri and other arteries
into the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. The southward drift of
the Kiowas during this period was, in part, influenced by their dealings with traders based in St. Louis, who set up posts on the
Arkansas River and its tributaries. In addition, alliance with the
Comanches had opened the way for the Kiowas to hunt and trade in
the South Plains; this marks the return of a Tanoan people to the
region earlier occupied by their kin, the Jumanos.
Beginning in 1832, a record of significant tribal events can be
followed in the calendars of Little Bear and other Kiowa leaders.
One of the first events, in the winter of 1832–1833, was the death of
Chief Grey Wolf in an attack on a wagon train in northern Texas.22
The interests of the Plains Indians and the white settlers were
already in conflict. Texans became a special target of raids, since
their farms and ranches were built on lands the Kiowas considered
as rightfully their own. Long distance raiding for horses and captives also brought the Kiowas into conflict with federal troops, especially after the annexation of Texas in 1845 and the Gadsden
KIOWA
23
Purchase in 1853 (which made New Mexico a territory of the United
States).
The Kiowa calendars frequently depict the effects of introduced
epidemic diseases such as smallpox and cholera, which ravaged the
Indians repeatedly in the nineteenth century. Government doctors
began vaccinating the Indians against smallpox in the 1860s, a period of great upheaval for the Plains tribes.
During the American Civil War, the troops assigned to the
Indian territories were often reserve forces drawn from frontier
regions. Anti-Indian prejudices were common in these regions, and
were reflected in brutal campaigns and unprovoked attacks on
Indian populations. For example, in the winter of 1864 a Kiowa winter camp on the South Canadian River was attacked by troops led by
Col. Kit Carson, assisted by Ute and Apache scouts. Many Kiowa
men were absent from the camp at the time, but Chief Stumbling
Bear and other warriors fought bravely and most of the Kiowas
escaped. As the sign for this winter, Little Bear’s calendar shows
Kiowa tipis, flying arrows, and bullets.23
In 1867, representatives of the Kiowas, Comanches, and Kiowa
Apaches signed the Medicine Lodge treaty with the U.S. government. This treaty established a reservation to which the Kiowas
were to be confined, and marks the transition from tribal autonomy
to the status of a conquered and dependent people. Not all of the
chiefs agreed to the treaty. The tribe became polarized between progressives such as Chief Kicking Bird, who favored accommodation
to governmental policies of education and assimilation of the
Indians into mainstream U.S. society, and conservatives who
refused to comply. Chiefs White Bear (Satanta), Pushing Bear
(Satank) and others led a resistance movement, and continued guerrilla warfare against white settlers over the next decade. In 1875,
twenty-six rebel Kiowas were part of a group of seventy Indian men
sent by train to prison at Fort Marion, Florida. On their release, eight
of the younger Kiowas attended school in Hampton, Virginia, before
returning to the Kiowa reservation in 1878.24
The Kiowas made an uneasy transition to reservation life, marked
by problems in the allotment of food supplies, housing, and other
necessities, and by government policies that enforced Christianity
and banned the observance of native rituals such as the Sun Dance.
Through the early reservation years, members of the tribe participated in a series of movements which, like the Sun Dance of earlier
years, gave religious expression to underlying political and economic
24
PORTRAITS OF CULTURE
forces. Three of these movements stand out as alternative, though
often intertwined, paths followed by the Kiowas in this transition
period: the Ghost Dance, Christianity, and the Peyote Cult.
The Ghost Dance (Kiowa Feather Dance)
The Ghost Dance movement that spread through many tribes in the
1890s involved a number of nativistic cults. Originating in different
tribes, all of these cults predicted the resurgence of the Indian people and their way of life. The most famous, which gave its name to
the entire movement, was led by the Shoshoni prophet Wovoka,
who preached the coming of an apocalypse in which the white men
would die, Indian ancestors would revive, and the buffalo would
return. At least two Kiowa visionaries had made similar predictions.
The second of these, Pa-Angya (In the Middle) foretold the coming
of whirlwinds and prairie fires that would destroy both white people and Indians who had adopted white ways. His teachings initially caused great excitement; however, the dates in the prophecies
passed without incident.
When they learned of Wovoka’s message, many Kiowas were
inclined to be skeptical. However, some of Pa-Angya’s followers
revived his teachings, blending older Kiowa beliefs with elements of
the new Ghost Dance. This syncretic Kiowa cult was known as the
Feather Dance, after the single upright eagle feather worn by the
worshippers. Under the leadership of Afraid of Bears and other
priests, its regimen employed trance (possibly induced by peyote),
spirit journeys to the afterworld, and communication with the dead.
Since the cult developed during a period, 1890–1892, in which
almost four hundred Kiowa infants died of whooping cough,
measles, and similar diseases, it may in part have reflected the
desires of parents for contact with their dead children.25
The Feather Dance movement endured into the 1920s. In its later
years it was organized around public performances on July 4 and
Christmas, and came to incorporate many patriotic and Christian
symbols, as well as traditional secular dancing and gift-giving.
However, its proponents identified themselves as Kiowa conservatives, advocating traditional styles in dress and diet, and rejecting
government-sponsored housing and education.
Although the Feather Dance no longer exists as a religious
KIOWA
25
movement, it gave rise to the July 4 powwow, which is now a central event for the Kiowa people and an occasion for intertribal visiting and celebration.
Kiowa Christianity
Through their early contacts with white explorers, traders, and captives, Kiowas must have been acquainted with Christian concepts
long before they encountered Protestant missionaries. The polytheistic character of their belief system enabled the Kiowas to identify
the Judeo-Christian deity with their own traditional belief in a pervasive supernatural power, dae. They adopted Christian symbols
such as the cross, while Jesus and other figures were welcomed as
powerful guardian spirits.
Direct proselytizing by the major denominations began in 1872.
U.S. government policy aimed at assimilation of the Indians to the
standards of Anglo-American culture, in which Protestant
Christianity prevailed. With this in mind, President Grant delegated the responsibility for nominating reservation agents to church
authorities. Laurie Tatum, the first agent assigned to the Kiowas
and Comanches, was a Quaker, as were many of the early missionaries. These were joined by representatives of Episcopalian,
Methodist, and other churches. Many of these men and women
were idealistic reformers, who undertook the cause of “uplifting”
the Indians with a fervor reminiscent of pre–Civil War abolitionism.26 There was a close link between the agency and the missions,
as Tatum and later administrators gave preferential treatment to
Indian converts, and enforced attendance of Indian children at mission schools.
Individual Kiowas had strong motivations to ally themselves
with the new religion. Church workers were at the forefront in
introducing new technology. They taught the Indians to use the
unfamiliar foods, clothing, and other goods that were distributed as
agency allotments. Some older leaders such as Kicking Bird and
Apiatan (a strong opponent of the Ghost Dance) found it advantageous to welcome, rather than to oppose, the churches and the
reservation agency. These men were prominent allies and recipients
of federal policy, while Afraid of Bears and other Ghost Dance leaders sometimes suffered the loss of their annuity payments.
26
PORTRAITS OF CULTURE
In church-operated boarding schools, Indian children were separated from their parents, and were forbidden the use of their own
languages. On enrollment, they received new clothes and were
given “Christian” names. The students were indoctrinated in
“American” values at the same time as they became fluent in
English. Thus, the first generation of Kiowa schoolchildren began a
wholesale transition from paganism to Christianity. By the time
these children reached adulthood, the majority of the Kiowa population were affiliated with Christian denominations. Because the
denominations established churches and schools in different parts of
the reservation, local clusters of Episcopalian, Methodist, and other
denominations sprang up. Today, the Methodist and Baptist churches claim the largest followings.
However, education was the surest route to large-scale cultural
assimilation. The Methvin Institute, a school founded by an early
Methodist missionary, was an important influence on the formation
of the next generation of Kiowa leaders. One of the early graduates,
Guy Quoetone, later attended the University of Oklahoma and
Baylor University. He eventually became a government surveyor,
an Indian agent, an educator, and an organizer of the Kiowa
Historical Society.27 Quoetone is representative of many individuals
who have worked both to preserve Kiowa traditional culture and to
give their people an important place in the spectrum of American
society.
The Peyote Cult
Like the Ghost Dance, the Peyote Cult arose at the end of the nineteenth century and came into prominence with the decline of the
Sun Dance. Although the history of the cult can be traced, the beginnings of peyote use by the Kiowas cannot. It appears that the substance has long been known for its medicinal properties. It was used
by the Buffalo Medicine Society, and may have been routinely
employed by vision-seekers. Peyote, the fruit of the hallucinogenic
cactus Lagophora, grows in a limited area in northern Mexico, along
and south of the Rio Grande. The Kiowas were familiar with this
region at least as early as the 1830s. They may have learned of peyote there, or it may have been introduced by some of the many
Mexicans who became part of the tribe.28
KIOWA
27
The Peyote Cult, as developed by the Kiowas and their neighbors, was later to spread throughout the continent under the aegis
of the Native American Church. An all-night service is conducted
inside a white tipi, with as many as twenty to twenty-five men participating under the leadership of the peyote priest. Distinctive
forms in the design of the lodge and its artifacts are associated with
peyotism. The building of a crescent-shaped altar, and the use of
eagle-feather fans and eagle-bone whistles, are features that can be
linked to older Sun Dance practices. The priest offers prayers to
Father Peyote (a perfect large peyote button resting on the altar) and
distributes tobacco and four peyote buttons to each man. The
remainder of the ceremony consists largely of songs, prayers, and
meditation. The most powerful experiences, for the early participants, were undoubtedly the peyote-induced visions and sense of
wellbeing and power; in this aspect, the cult is a continuation of the
earlier vision quest. According to one account, each celebrant “is on
a quest for his own submerged identity; each seeks to establish contact with his individual guardian spirit.”29
In its origins, the Peyote Cult was not as closely associated with
the revival of native culture as the Ghost Dance was. The Peyote
Cult absorbed Christian elements, including the prominent use of
the cross as a motif, and worshippers (who were often baptized
Christians) freely introduced Biblical references into their prayers
and songs. The ritual eating of peyote buttons is seen as analogous
to the sacraments of Euro-American churches. Kiowa members have
been active supporters of the Native American Church since its
incorporation in Oklahoma in 1918.
For the Kiowas, three decades of reservation life came to an end
in 1892, with the Jerome Agreement. Land was to be distributed to
individuals, and the remainder opened to the public for sale. This
plan was not immediately put into effect; in the interim, a program
of housing construction and other improvements began, with
money raised through the leasing of Kiowa grasslands as pasturage.
Private ownership of land began when 160-acre allotments were distributed, following Congressional approval in 1900. In addition, a
cash settlement to the tribe was paid out in installments.
Like other American Indians, the Kiowas became United States
citizens in 1924. Many still reside in Oklahoma (which became a
state in 1908), centering around the towns of Carnegie and
Anadarko. The tribal registry lists over six thousand members, most
of part-Kiowa ancestry.
28
PORTRAITS OF CULTURE
NOTES
1. N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain (Albuquerque, NM:
University of New Mexico Press, 1969).
2. Elliott Coues, ed., History of the Expedition under the Command of
Lewis and Clark (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1965), vol. I,
pp. 58–60.
3. David J. Weber, The Taos Trappers: The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest,
1540–1846 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970).
4. John H. Moore, The Cheyenne Nation: A Social and Demographic
History (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987).
5. In the Spanish sources, the name actually occurs in a variety of
forms, including Jumanes, Humanas, Sumanas, and Xumanas;
“Jumano” is the spelling used by most recent scholars. See Nancy P.
Hickerson, “The Linguistic Position of Jumano,” Journal of
Anthropological Research 44 (1988): 311–326.
6. Arthur L. Jelinek, A Prehistoric Sequence in the Middle Pecos Valley,
New Mexico (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Museum of
Anthropology, Anthropological Papers 31, 1967).
7. J. Charles Kelley, “Juan Sabeata and Diffusion in Aboriginal Texas,”
American Anthropologist 57 (1955): 981–995; for an extended discussion of Jumano identity, see Nancy P. Hickerson, The Jumanos:
Hunters and Traders of the South Plains (Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1994).
8. Pierre Margry, Decouvertes et etablisements des Francais dans l’Ouest et
dans le Sud de l’Amerique Septentrionale (Paris, 1875–1883), vol. II, pp.
168, 201–202.
9. James Mooney, Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians (Washington,
DC: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1979), p. 157.
10. Alice Marriott, The Ten Grandmothers (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1945), map, p. 15.
11. Joseph Methvin, Andele, or the Mexican-Kiowa Captive: A Story of Real
Life among the Indians (Anadarko, OK: Plummer Publishing
Company, 1927).
12. Marriott, The Ten Grandmothers, p. 51.
13. Bernard Mishkin, Rank and Warfare among the Plains Indians (New
York: American Ethnological Society, Monograph 3, 1940), p. 51.
14. Elsie Clews Parsons, Kiowa Tales (New York: American Folklore
Society (Memoir 22, 1929), p. 113.
KIOWA
29
15. Wilbur S. Nye, Bad Medicine and Good: Tales of the Kiowas (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1962), p. 47.
16. Parsons, Kiowa Tales, p. 93.
17. For more complete descriptions of the Kiowa Sun Dance, see
Maurice Boyd, ed., Kiowa Voices (Forth Worth: Texas Christian
University Press, 1981), vol. I, pp. 35–59; and Nye, Bad Medicine and
Good, pp. 57–76.
18. Mooney, Calendar History, p. 297.
19. Marriott, The Ten Grandmothers, pp. 41–49.
20. Nye, Bad Medicine and Good, pp. 187–90, 223.
21. Ibid., p. 54.
22. Mooney, Calendar History, pp. 25–257.
23. Ibid., pp. 314–317.
24. Ibid., pp. 214–315.
25. Benjamin J. Kracht, “The Kiowa Ghost Dance, 1894–1916: An
Unheralded Revitalization Movement,” Ethnohistory 39 (1992): pp.
459–460.
26. Rebecca Jane Herring, Failed Assimilation: Anglo Women on the KiowaComanche Reservation, 1867–1906 (M.A. thesis, Texas Tech
University, 1983), pp. 80–82.
27. Boyd, Kiowa Voices, vol. II, pp. 290–292.
28. Daniel A. Hickerson, The Origin of the Kiowa Peyote Religion (M.A.
thesis, Texas Tech University, 1991), pp. 49–80.
29. Boyd, Kiowa Voices, vol. II, p. 105.
SUGGESTED READINGS
Boyd, Maurice, ed. Kiowa Voices, vols. I & II. Fort Worth: Texas
Christian University Press. Folktales and reminiscences, plus works
by Kiowa artists and historic photos.
Marriott, Alice. The Ten Grandmothers. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1945. Fictionalized account, roughly based on Mooney and
the Sett’an calendar.
Mooney, James. Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians. Washington, DC:
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979. The classic study, based on the
Sett’an (Little Bear) calendar.
30
PORTRAITS OF CULTURE
Nye, Wilbur, S. Bad Medicine and Good: Tales of the Kiowa. Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1962. Fascinating collection of
Kiowa lore, from earliest to recent times.
Parsons, Elsie Clews. Kiowa Tales. New York: The American Folklore
Society, 1929. Scholarly folklore collection; includes genealogical
information on the Kiowa informants.
Portraits TOC