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.
Pá-iñgya, "In-the-middle," had commenced preaching during the previous
winter, reviving the doctrine of the return of the buffalo, which had
been taught by Pa-tepte several years before (see summer 1882). He
continued to preach and make medicine for several months, adding to his
predecessor's prophecies another of the invulnerability of his followers
and the speedy destruction of the whites, so that for a while the
excitement assumed a dangerous form. In the official report for 1887 the
agent briefly notes that--
The Kiowas were troublesome in the early spring, owing to the bad
advice of their medicine-men and chief Lone-wolf, and refused to
plant their seed and took their children from school. Later on they
went to work, but would have made a much better showing in their
crops had they planted earlier (_Report, 111_).
According to Pá-iñgya's pretensions, he was the legitimate successor of
Pa-tepte, with all of his predecessor's powers and considerably more of
his own. He predicted the near approach of a mighty whirlwind, which
would blow away the whites and all Indians living among them or
following their customs. After the whirlwind would come a great prairie
fire, which would burn for four days and consume the agency buildings,
schools, and all that the white man had established in the country,
together with any whites left by the whirlwind. Having thus cleared the
way, he would then restore the buffalo and game, with all the old Indian
life. His followers were commanded to resume at once their aboriginal
dress and weapons, with all the old habits. He made a sacred new fire
with the block and stick, according to the primitive Indian method, and
gave the fire thus made to all his disciples to be used instead of that
procured from matches or flint and steel; he refused to give any of this
sacred fire to those chiefs and others who were regarded as being on the
white man's side, including Stumbling-bear and Sun-boy. He established
his headquarters on upper Elk creek, near Lone-wolf's camp, in the
western part of the reservation, to which he commanded all the faithful
to repair in order to escape the destruction which was to come upon the
whites and their renegade supporters, and appointed ten assistant
priests, to whom he delegated a share of his powers and duties. To quiet
any fear of interference by the authorities, he claimed to have a
medicine which would render his followers invulnerable, while he himself
was not only invulnerable but could kill soldiers or other enemies by
his mere glance, as by a lightning stroke, as far as he could see them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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