Kiowa
Recorded and Edited by Willard Rhodes
The broad, open plains of western Oklahoma, southern Kansas, and the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles provided a congenial homeland for this nomadic people after their migration from the north. Tribal tradition as well as the accounts of early explorers places the Kiowa as far north as the Yellowstone River in the late seventeenth century. After leaving the mountains of western Montana before the beginning of the eighteenth century, they came in contact with the Crow, with whom they have maintained friendly relations through the years. Later they drifted into the Black Hills, only to be driven out by the incoming Sioux and Cheyenne. The call of the mountains seems to have been strong with the Kiowa for they finally established themselves in and around the Wichita Mountains of southwestern Oklahoma.
The Kiowa was probably one of the first tribes of the southern Plains to acquire the horse, sometime in the seventeenth century. One can hardly exaggerate the importance of this acquisition to the Indian, for it wrought social, economic, and political changes which can only be compared with those resulting from the Industrial Revolution in Western European and American society. Up to this time, land travel for the Indian had been limited to the short distances that he could cover on foot with the help of the dog travois for the transportation of his few possessions and camp equipment. Now he could travel great distances with speed and comfort and move his camp with ease. His nomadism was definitely accelerated. The cultural exchange that resulted from the frequent and repeated contacts of tribes roaming the Great Plains gave rise eventually to a fairly homogeneous culture for this geographic area. The Kiowa soon became one of the wealthiest tribes of the Plains. The buffalo hunt, facilitated by the use of the horse, now provided a more abundant food supply, larger tipis, and better clothing - in short, some of the luxuries that raised the living standard well above the subsistence level. The horse became the medium of exchange in economic manipulations, both within and without the tribe, and a man's wealth was reckoned in terms of the number of horses he owned. According to a report of the Commissioner of Indians Affairs in 1869, the Kiowa, with about fifteen hundred people, had six thousand horses, and this number by no means represents the size of their herd during the years when Kiowa economic life was flourishing, unhampered by conflict with white settlers.
More important than material wealth, though inextricably linked to it, were social rank and status. Noble personality traits and virtues were socially recognized and respected, but the highest honors were reserved for those who distinguished themselves in warfare. Raids for horses and captives among the neighboring tribes, and among the white settlements of Texas and Mexico, offered opportunities for the ambitious young warrior to advance socially while acquiring the necessary wealth with which to demonstrate his generosity and validate his rank by the dirstibution of property. This activity brought the Kiowa into direct conflict with the United States government in its efforts to maintain peace and provide protection to white settlers and travelers in the Southwest.
The pressure of the westward movement in the mid-nineteenth century, the building of the railroads, and the large-scale operations of the fur and hide companies proved disastrous to the Kiowa and to most Indian tribes in this area. Suddenly the bottom dropped out of the economy and social organization of the tribe. The once abundant herds of buffalo, the basic source of food, shelter, and clothing, were decimated by the unregulated hunting by both Indians and whites. The Kiowa found themselves confined to a government reservation administered by an Indian agent with the support of the military. They were no longer free to acquire wealth and prestige by raiding. In view of the socially approved patterns of behavior developing out of the history of the tribe, one can feel only sympathy for the Kiowa in their difficult adjustment to the culture of the white man which encircled them, and to which they were forced to conform. Today the Kiowa are first-class, patriotic citizens, industrious, cooperative, progressive, and happily adjusted to their modern life.
Before the Kiowa were settled on the reservation and given individual land allotments, the tribe had been divided into twelve to fifteen bands, each under the leadership of a headman, or topotok'i. Consisting of an extended family group to which a few families of friends and hangers-on might attach themselves, the band, or topotoga, operated as a self-contained unit, economically, socially, and politically. Likewise in matters religious, the topotoga was more or less self-sufficient; ordinarily each band held one of the ten sacred medicine bundles of the tribe known as the Ten Grandmothers. Each bundle was in the keeping of a priest who inherited his office. Among the functions of the ten medicine priests were the mediation of disputes and the bearing of the peace pipes. The bundles were held in the highest veneration by the tribesmen who made vows, sacrifices, and petitions before them with regular frequency as well as at times of Coss.
In mid-summer the bands assembled in one large camp for the tribal Sun Dance ceremony. This was an occasion of great importance, for in addition to the celebration of the religious rites, it provided an opportunity for social intercourse on the tribal scale. Old friendships were renewed, courtships were consummated in elopement, and the men's societies met to select and accept new members from among the eligible young warriors. In the dedication ceremony at the opening of the Sun Dance, warriors who had at best four heroic acts to their credit, had participated in all types of warfare, and had "counted coup" on Indian enemies, recited their deeds before the assembled tribe. Buffalo dances before and after the Sun Dance were occasions for the honoring of these distinguished warriors. Feasts and give-aways honoring favorite sons and daughters validated the rank and prestige of the wealthy families while furnishing pleasant social events for their friends.
The Sun Dance ceremony was under the direc-
tion of the keeper of the taime, "a small image, less than two feet in length, representing a human figure dressed in a robe of white feathers, with a headdress consisting of a single upright feather and pendants of ermine skin, with numerous strands of blue beads around its neck, and painted upon the face, breast and back with designs symbolic of the sun and moon."* Ceremonial preparations for the dance included the building of sweat lodges for the purification of the dancers, scouting for a tree to serve as center pole of the dance lodge, charging the tree in sham combat before it was chopped down by a captive Mexican woman, moving it to the dance ground, and the building of the dance lodge. The dance began after sunset and continued for four nights and days. The taime keeper was joined in the dance by his four associates, the taime shield keepers, and any tribesmen who might wish to participate. Men vowed to dance a certain number of days in order to obtain various benefits for themselves and their families. It was believed that the fulfillment of a Sun Dance vow "warded off sickness, caused happiness, prosperity, many children, success in war, and plenty of buffalo for all the people. It was frequently vowed by persons in danger from sickness or the enemy."** Self-torture or self-mortification, which was an essential element of the Sun Dance complex as practiced by so many of the Plains tribes, was not present among the Kiowa. The last Kiowa Sun Dance was held in 1887.
From late summer to December the Kiowa were busily occupied making preparations for the long, cold winter months. The men went out on daily hunts for buffalo, while the women worked hard preserving the meat and tanning the hides. The accumulation of a sufficient food supply to carry them through the winter was of the utmost importance. Winters were spent in small camps located along streams sheltered by adjoining woodlands. In these periods of little organized activity there was plenty of time for social intercourse. On long winter evenings grandparents and parents entertained the children with legends and songs. The adventures of Sende, the Kiowa trickster, were a never ending source of delight to both young and old. And the hand game, which is a guessing game played to the accompaniment of songs, afforded opportunity for gambling in a lively and exciting social setting.
The clothing which the women made of deerskin, though simple, was of fine design. For the men, there were moccasins, breechclout, and shirts; for the women, boot-moccasins and a one-piece, slip-over dress, Children's clothing was patterned after that of adults, but reduced to size. The Kiowa obtained metal early; of it, the men made jewelry, decorative ornaments, and horse trappings. By the middle of the nineteenth century, earrings, finger-rings, hair-plates, belts, bracelets, and necklaces had become distinguishing features of the tribal costume.
Today work in metal craft is little practiced. Many women, however, are active in the Southern Plains Indian Crafts Center, a cooperative organization devoted to the adaptation of old tribal arts and crafts to contemporary living, Dresses, scarfs, moccasins, hand bags, bead work, all inspired by traditional designs and techniques, are but a few of the many objects that may be purchased from the Southern Plains Indian Crafts Center, which has its headquarters in Anadarko, Oklahoma.
In the Field of painting, the Kiowa have demonstrated their artistic genius through the works of a number of distinguished artists, Kiowa artists have been successful not only in the delicate and sensitive medium of watercolor, but also in bold murals of panoramic dimensions.
Some of their best works have found permanent homes in the Department of the Interior Building, Washington, D.C., the Federal Building in Anadarko, the Federal Building in Muskogee, the University of Oklahoma at Norman, and numerous museums and private collections both here and abroad.
*James Mooney, Calendar History of the Kiowa, p, 240.
**Hugh Lenox Scott, Notes on the Kaddo, p. 347.
The Kiowa was probably one of the first tribes of the southern Plains to acquire the horse, sometime in the seventeenth century. One can hardly exaggerate the importance of this acquisition to the Indian, for it wrought social, economic, and political changes which can only be compared with those resulting from the Industrial Revolution in Western European and American society. Up to this time, land travel for the Indian had been limited to the short distances that he could cover on foot with the help of the dog travois for the transportation of his few possessions and camp equipment. Now he could travel great distances with speed and comfort and move his camp with ease. His nomadism was definitely accelerated. The cultural exchange that resulted from the frequent and repeated contacts of tribes roaming the Great Plains gave rise eventually to a fairly homogeneous culture for this geographic area. The Kiowa soon became one of the wealthiest tribes of the Plains. The buffalo hunt, facilitated by the use of the horse, now provided a more abundant food supply, larger tipis, and better clothing - in short, some of the luxuries that raised the living standard well above the subsistence level. The horse became the medium of exchange in economic manipulations, both within and without the tribe, and a man's wealth was reckoned in terms of the number of horses he owned. According to a report of the Commissioner of Indians Affairs in 1869, the Kiowa, with about fifteen hundred people, had six thousand horses, and this number by no means represents the size of their herd during the years when Kiowa economic life was flourishing, unhampered by conflict with white settlers.
More important than material wealth, though inextricably linked to it, were social rank and status. Noble personality traits and virtues were socially recognized and respected, but the highest honors were reserved for those who distinguished themselves in warfare. Raids for horses and captives among the neighboring tribes, and among the white settlements of Texas and Mexico, offered opportunities for the ambitious young warrior to advance socially while acquiring the necessary wealth with which to demonstrate his generosity and validate his rank by the dirstibution of property. This activity brought the Kiowa into direct conflict with the United States government in its efforts to maintain peace and provide protection to white settlers and travelers in the Southwest.
The pressure of the westward movement in the mid-nineteenth century, the building of the railroads, and the large-scale operations of the fur and hide companies proved disastrous to the Kiowa and to most Indian tribes in this area. Suddenly the bottom dropped out of the economy and social organization of the tribe. The once abundant herds of buffalo, the basic source of food, shelter, and clothing, were decimated by the unregulated hunting by both Indians and whites. The Kiowa found themselves confined to a government reservation administered by an Indian agent with the support of the military. They were no longer free to acquire wealth and prestige by raiding. In view of the socially approved patterns of behavior developing out of the history of the tribe, one can feel only sympathy for the Kiowa in their difficult adjustment to the culture of the white man which encircled them, and to which they were forced to conform. Today the Kiowa are first-class, patriotic citizens, industrious, cooperative, progressive, and happily adjusted to their modern life.
Before the Kiowa were settled on the reservation and given individual land allotments, the tribe had been divided into twelve to fifteen bands, each under the leadership of a headman, or topotok'i. Consisting of an extended family group to which a few families of friends and hangers-on might attach themselves, the band, or topotoga, operated as a self-contained unit, economically, socially, and politically. Likewise in matters religious, the topotoga was more or less self-sufficient; ordinarily each band held one of the ten sacred medicine bundles of the tribe known as the Ten Grandmothers. Each bundle was in the keeping of a priest who inherited his office. Among the functions of the ten medicine priests were the mediation of disputes and the bearing of the peace pipes. The bundles were held in the highest veneration by the tribesmen who made vows, sacrifices, and petitions before them with regular frequency as well as at times of Coss.
In mid-summer the bands assembled in one large camp for the tribal Sun Dance ceremony. This was an occasion of great importance, for in addition to the celebration of the religious rites, it provided an opportunity for social intercourse on the tribal scale. Old friendships were renewed, courtships were consummated in elopement, and the men's societies met to select and accept new members from among the eligible young warriors. In the dedication ceremony at the opening of the Sun Dance, warriors who had at best four heroic acts to their credit, had participated in all types of warfare, and had "counted coup" on Indian enemies, recited their deeds before the assembled tribe. Buffalo dances before and after the Sun Dance were occasions for the honoring of these distinguished warriors. Feasts and give-aways honoring favorite sons and daughters validated the rank and prestige of the wealthy families while furnishing pleasant social events for their friends.
The Sun Dance ceremony was under the direc-
tion of the keeper of the taime, "a small image, less than two feet in length, representing a human figure dressed in a robe of white feathers, with a headdress consisting of a single upright feather and pendants of ermine skin, with numerous strands of blue beads around its neck, and painted upon the face, breast and back with designs symbolic of the sun and moon."* Ceremonial preparations for the dance included the building of sweat lodges for the purification of the dancers, scouting for a tree to serve as center pole of the dance lodge, charging the tree in sham combat before it was chopped down by a captive Mexican woman, moving it to the dance ground, and the building of the dance lodge. The dance began after sunset and continued for four nights and days. The taime keeper was joined in the dance by his four associates, the taime shield keepers, and any tribesmen who might wish to participate. Men vowed to dance a certain number of days in order to obtain various benefits for themselves and their families. It was believed that the fulfillment of a Sun Dance vow "warded off sickness, caused happiness, prosperity, many children, success in war, and plenty of buffalo for all the people. It was frequently vowed by persons in danger from sickness or the enemy."** Self-torture or self-mortification, which was an essential element of the Sun Dance complex as practiced by so many of the Plains tribes, was not present among the Kiowa. The last Kiowa Sun Dance was held in 1887.
From late summer to December the Kiowa were busily occupied making preparations for the long, cold winter months. The men went out on daily hunts for buffalo, while the women worked hard preserving the meat and tanning the hides. The accumulation of a sufficient food supply to carry them through the winter was of the utmost importance. Winters were spent in small camps located along streams sheltered by adjoining woodlands. In these periods of little organized activity there was plenty of time for social intercourse. On long winter evenings grandparents and parents entertained the children with legends and songs. The adventures of Sende, the Kiowa trickster, were a never ending source of delight to both young and old. And the hand game, which is a guessing game played to the accompaniment of songs, afforded opportunity for gambling in a lively and exciting social setting.
The clothing which the women made of deerskin, though simple, was of fine design. For the men, there were moccasins, breechclout, and shirts; for the women, boot-moccasins and a one-piece, slip-over dress, Children's clothing was patterned after that of adults, but reduced to size. The Kiowa obtained metal early; of it, the men made jewelry, decorative ornaments, and horse trappings. By the middle of the nineteenth century, earrings, finger-rings, hair-plates, belts, bracelets, and necklaces had become distinguishing features of the tribal costume.
Today work in metal craft is little practiced. Many women, however, are active in the Southern Plains Indian Crafts Center, a cooperative organization devoted to the adaptation of old tribal arts and crafts to contemporary living, Dresses, scarfs, moccasins, hand bags, bead work, all inspired by traditional designs and techniques, are but a few of the many objects that may be purchased from the Southern Plains Indian Crafts Center, which has its headquarters in Anadarko, Oklahoma.
In the Field of painting, the Kiowa have demonstrated their artistic genius through the works of a number of distinguished artists, Kiowa artists have been successful not only in the delicate and sensitive medium of watercolor, but also in bold murals of panoramic dimensions.
Some of their best works have found permanent homes in the Department of the Interior Building, Washington, D.C., the Federal Building in Anadarko, the Federal Building in Muskogee, the University of Oklahoma at Norman, and numerous museums and private collections both here and abroad.
*James Mooney, Calendar History of the Kiowa, p, 240.
**Hugh Lenox Scott, Notes on the Kaddo, p. 347.