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.
The Set-t'an calendar notes the excitement caused by the efforts of
Dátekâñ, or Pa-tepte, to bring back the buffalo, also noted by Anko in
the preceding winter season. The figure represents the medicine-man
seated in his sacred lodge, wearing his ceremonial red blanket trimmed
with eagle feathers, and with a buffalo beside him.
[Illustration: FIG. 172--Summer 1882--Buffalo medicine; Pätso`gáte
died.]
The buffalo had now disappeared, and with it the old Indian life, the
sacred sun dance, and all else that they most cherished threatened also
to pass away. According to Kiowa mythology, the buffalo originally lived
in a cave underground, from which they had been released by their great
hero _Sinti_ and scattered over the prairies for the benefit of his
children, the Indians. Somewhat similar beliefs are entertained by other
tribes. As the buffalo had disappeared with the coming of the white man,
who, by reason of his superior knowledge, was rapidly dispossessing the
Indian, the native tribes almost universally believed, not that the
buffalo had been exterminated--a calamity too terrible for their
comprehension--but that it had been shut up again underground by their
enemy, the white man, in order more easily to accomplish their
subjection. It was believed that by prayer and sacred ceremonial the
buffalo might again be released to furnish food and life for the Indian,
and in every tribe there sprang up medicine-men who undertook to effect
the restoration.
Among the Kiowa this task was adventured by a young man named Dátekâñ,
"Keeps-his-name-always," who announced early in 1882 that he had had a
vision in which he received a mission to bring back the buffalo.
Accordingly, he began to make medicine and assumed the name of Pá-tépté,
"Buffalo-bull-coming-out," in token of his new powers. He was already
noted in other directions as a medicine-man, and had been the winner in
the great _dó-á_ contest mentioned in the calendar of the preceding
winter. It is possible that his success on that occasion encouraged him
to this attempt, as he began his buffalo medicine immediately afterward.
He erected a medicine tipi, in front of which he set up a pole with a
buffalo skin upon it, and prepared for himself a medicine shirt
ornamented with blue beads, over which he threw a red blanket trimmed
with eagle feathers. Thus attired, and carrying a sacred pipe in his
hand, he began his mystic ceremonies within the tipi, and from time to
time announced the results to the people, most of whom believed all he
said and manifested their faith by gifts of blankets, money, and other
property; they were further commanded to obey him implicitly, on pain of
failure of the medicine in case of disobedience. His pretensions were
opposed by the younger men among the returned prisoners from the east,
who used all their influence against him, but with little effect. After
nearly a year of medicine-making, being unsuccessful, he announced that
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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