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.
Early in the morning, almost before it was yet light, a young man (whose
grandson was present during T'ébodal's narration) went to look for his
ponies, when he saw the Osage creeping up on foot. He hastily ran back
with the news, but all the camp was still sleeping, except the wife
A`dáte, who was outside preparing to scrape a hide. Entering the tipi,
he roused the chief, who ran out shouting to his people, "_Tsó bätsó!
Tsó bätsó!_"--To the rocks! To the rocks! Thus rudely awakened, the
Kiowa sprang up and fled to the mountain, the mothers seizing their
children and the old men hurrying as best they could, with their
bloodthirsty enemies close behind. The chief himself was pursued and
slightly wounded, but got away; his wife, Sémätmä, "Apache-woman," was
taken, but soon afterward made her escape. One woman fled with a baby
girl on her back and dragging a larger girl by the hand; an Osage
pursuing caught the older girl and was drawing his knife across her
throat when the mother rushed to her aid and succeeded in beating him
off and rescued the child with only a slight gash upon her head. A boy
named Äyä, "Sitting-on-a-tree" (?), was saved by his father in about the
same way, and is still alive, an old man, to tell it. His father, it is
said, seized and held him in his teeth, putting him down while shooting
arrows to keep off the pursuers, and taking him up again to run. A party
of women was saved by a brave Pawnee living in the camp, who succeeded
in fighting off the pursuers long enough to enable the women to reach a
place of safety.
The warriors-being absent, the Kiowa made no attempt at a stand; it was
simply a surprise and flight of panic-stricken, women, children, and
old men, in which everyone caught was butchered on the spot. Two
children were taken prisoners, a brother and sister--about 10 and 12
years of age, respectively--of whom more hereafter. The Kiowa lost five
men killed and a large number of women and children; none of the Osage
were killed, as no fight was made. When the massacre was ended, the
enemy cut the heads from all the dead bodies, without scalping them, and
placed them in brass buckets, one head in each bucket, all over the camp
ground, after which they set fire to the tipis and left the place. When
the scattered Kiowa returned to look for their friends, they found the
camp destroyed, the decapitated bodies lying where they had fallen, and
the heads in the buckets as the Osage had left them. The buckets had
been obtained by the Kiowa from the Pawnee, who procured them on the
Missouri and traded them to the southern tribes. For allowing the camp
to be thus surprised the chief, A`dáte, was deposed, and was superseded
by Dohá, or Doháte, "Bluff," better known as Dohásän, who thenceforth
ruled the tribe until his death, thirty-three years later.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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