Calendar history of the Kiowa Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 129-444))Mooney, James
History
Calendar history of the Kiowa Indians. (1898 N 17 / 1895-1896 (pages 129-444))
Mooney, James
Kiowa Indians; Kiowa language -- Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
At home the Yä`pähe acted as camp police and leaders in the tribal
ceremonies; abroad they were the warriors and conductors of the hunt.
Battey gives an illustration of the system as he once saw it in
practical operation:
Being determined that none of their thoughtless young men should go
raiding in Texas and thereby bring trouble upon the tribe, the
Kiowas, immediately after the whole tribe got together on Pecon
creek, organized a military system, under the control of the war
chiefs, which was immediately put into operation. By this a strong
guard of their soldiers were continually watching day and night
while in camp to prevent any such enterprise from being undertaken.
In moving from place to place these soldiers marched on each side
of the main body, while a front guard went before and a rear guard
behind, thus preventing any from straggling.
Their buffalo hunts were conducted in the same military order. The
soldiers, going out first, surrounded a tract of country in which
were a large herd of buffalo, and no one might chase a buffalo past
this ring guard on pain of having his horse shot by the soldiers.
Within the ring hundreds of men on horseback were chasing and
shooting the huge creatures with revolvers or bows and arrows until
each had killed as many as his female attendants could skin and
take care of (_Battey, 14_).
HERALDIC SYSTEM
In connection with their military and social organization the Kiowa and
Apache have a system of heraldry, which finds tangible expression in
the painting and ornamentation of their shields and tipis. There were
formerly about fifty shield patterns used in the two tribes, and all the
warriors carrying shields of the same pattern constituted a close
brotherhood, with similar war cries, body paint, and ceremonial taboos
and regulations. Every prominent family also had its heraldic tipi,
which occupied its fixed place in the tribal camp circle. Special taboos
and rules belonged to the tipi as to the shield, and the right of
hereditary descent was as nicely regulated as property ownership among
the whites. This system of heraldry will form the subject of a future
monograph.
NAME SYSTEM
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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