The northern Arapaho, now living on a reservation in Wyoming, have distinct recollection of this former northern residence of the Kiowa, with whom in the old times they were on terms of intimate friendship. While visiting them in 1892 they informed the author that when they first knew the Kiowa that tribe lived about the Three forks of the Missouri, near where are now Gallatin and Virginia City, Montana. This information, obtained from old men without the use of leading questions, and with the aid of good maps, tallies exactly with the earliest tradition of the Kiowa tribe. They say further that the Kiowa moved down from the mountains and eastward along the Yellowstone in company with the Crows, and then turned southeastward to about the present neighborhood of Fort Robinson, Nebraska, where they parted with the Crows and continued southward. "Plenty-poles," then nearly ninety years of age, first met the Kiowa when he was a small boy on the head of the North Platte, west of the present town of Cheyenne, Wyoming. The friendship between the Kiowa and the Crows was close and intimate, in spite of occasional quarrels, and continued after the Kiowa had entirely removed from the north and established themselves on the Arkansas. They made common cause against the invading Dakota and Cheyenne from the east, by whom they were finally dispossessed. As already stated, the Kiowa obtained their present _tai-me_ or sundance medicine from the Crows, and the sacred arrow lance of Tängúadal's family came originally from the same source. For a long time after removing from the north it was a frequent occurrence for Kiowa fathers to make visits to the Crows and leave with that tribe their young children for two or three years in order that they might learn the Crow language and thus help to preserve the old friendship. There are still several old people among the Kiowa who have a considerable Crow vocabulary acquired in this way. Conversely, the northern Arapaho state that the Crows refer to the Kiowa as their relatives, and that some of them speak a little of the language acquired during similar visits to the south. THE ASSOCIATED KIOWA APACHE Incorporated with the Kiowa, and forming a component part of their tribal circle, is a small tribe of Athapascan stock, commonly known as Apache or Kiowa Apache, but calling themselves _Nadiisha Dena_. They are not a detached band of the Apache tribe proper of Arizona, as has commonly been supposed, but came down with the Kiowa from the north, and neither tribe has any tradition of a time when they were not associated. They will be spoken of at length later on. This ancient Athapascan alliance is another link in the chain connecting the Kiowa with the far north. THE HISTORICAL PERIOD POSSESSION OF THE BLACK HILLS