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 the time of the fight the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache were camped
upon a small tributary of Scott creek (_Pohón-ä P'a_, "Walnut creek"),
an upper branch of the North fork of Red river, southward from the
present Port Elliott in the panhandle of Texas. It was in early summer,
and they were preparing for the sun dance; a young man was out alone
straightening arrows when he saw two men creeping up, with grass over
their faces. Thinking they were Kiowa deer hunters, he advanced to meet
them, when they fired and wounded him and his horse; he fled back to
camp and gave the alarm, and Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache rushed out in
pursuit. They soon came up with a small party of the enemy, who proved
to be Cheyenne. The Kiowa and their allies killed three of them there,
and following the fugitives killed several others; continuing along the
trail down the north side of the creek to a short distance below its
junction with Sweetwater, they came upon the main camp of the Cheyenne,
who dug holes in the sand and made a good defense, but were at last all
killed except one, who strangled himself with a rope to avoid capture.
The bodies of the dead Cheyenne, 48 in number, were scalped, stripped,
and laid along the ground in a row by the victors. Six Kiowa were
killed, including the grandfather of the present Lone-wolf. T'ébodal,
the oldest man now in the tribe, was engaged in this encounter.
[Illustration: FIG. 75--Battle pictures (from the Dakota calendars)]
Set-t´an states that one Cheyenne wearing a war bonnet was killed as he
came out of a tipi (see figure 271). Other informants do not remember
this, but say that the Kiowa captured a fine medicine lance in a
feathered case, and also a _pabón_ or Dog-soldier staff, of the kind
carried by those who were pledged to die at their post. The stream where
the battle took place is since, called _Sä´k`ota Ä´otón-de P'a_, "Creek
where the Cheyennes were massacred." The summer of the occurrence is
sometimes called _Á'k`ádá Pai_, "Wailing sun-dance summer," because,
although the Kiowa wailed for their dead, the sun dance was not on that
account abandoned.
WINTER 1837-38
_A´daltem Etkúegán-de Sai_, "Winter that they dragged the head." The
figure above the winter mark shows a horseman carrying a bloody scalp
upon a lance and dragging a bloody head at the end of a reata.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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