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.
Ä´to-t'aíñ was the brother of the chief Sun-boy, and on account of his
relationship and the dignity conferred upon him by Set-t'aiñte,
if not for his personal merits, was a prominent man in the tribe.
On account of having this lance he was also known as Zébä-dó-k`ía,
"Man-who-has-the-arrows," i. e., "Arrowman." He was killed by Texans
while with a party who had gone, by permission of the agent and
accompanied by an escort of troops, to hunt buffalo on upper Red river
in what is now Greer county, Oklahoma; the Texans shot him through the
body and both arms, scalped him, and cut off a finger upon which was a
ring. The hunt occurred in the winter season, but the buffalo were now
so nearly exterminated that it was practically a failure and the
Indians suffered much in consequence. The killing with its sequel is
thus noted in the official report:
Captain Nolan, commanding the company of troops who were escorting
the Indians while on the hunt, had, in view of the scarcity of
buffalo, allowed parties, each accompanied by a squad of soldiers,
to go off from the main camp to points where it was said straggling
droves of buffalo could be found. While a Kiowa man was one day a
short distance from the camp of one of these parties and alone he
was run onto by a company of Texas state troops, shot down, killed,
and scalped. A few moments after this grand military feat was
performed the little Indian camp was discovered, and they were just
in the act of covering themselves with additional glory by charging
it and butchering the squaws and pappooses when the squad of
colored troops presented themselves, mounted on the bare backs of
their horses, having had no time to saddle them, and the warlike
band disappeared. Upon the return of the Indians to the agency a
request was made that the Texans who murdered the Kiowa should be
arrested and punished by the authorities, expressing at the same
time no intention of avenging his death themselves. It seems that
after waiting some time and concluding that nothing could or would
be done by the authorities, a party of young Kiowas, headed by the
brother of the murdered man, quietly left their different camps,
dashed hurriedly across the line into Texas, killed and scalped a
white man they met in the road, and returned as secretly to their
camps, apparently feeling that they had avenged the death of their
brother and friend by this taking of one scalp.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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