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 peace thus made between the two tribes has never been broken, in
which fact there may be a sermon for those who regard the Indian as
faithless, when we consider how few European alliances have endured as
long. The Pénätĕka Comanche, who lived far down in Texas, were not
included in this compact and had very little connection even with the
northern bands of their own people until brought together under the
reservation system. Immediately after the treaty the Kiowa began to move
down and make their camps along and south of the Arkansas, which, until
that time, had been considered the northern boundary of the Comanche
country and the southern limit of the Kiowa range. In the territory
which they thenceforth held in common the Kiowa usually made their home
camps more to the northwest, about the Arkansas, while the Comanche kept
near to the Staked plains and the Texas frontier. Strengthened by their
alliance for war and defense, the confederated tribes were now able to
make a successful stand behind the Arkansas against further invasion
from the north. The raids of the Kiowa on the Mexican settlements,
hitherto desultory and ineffective, now became constant and destructive
and continued until both tribes were finally subjugated and confined to
their reservation after the outbreak of 1874. In these raiding
expeditions they frequently made headquarters in the Sierra Madre,
whence they descended upon the lower country on each side. Old men are
still living in the tribe who have raided as far south as the city of
Durango (which they know by this name) and southwest through Sonora and
Sinaloa to the Gulf of California. These war parties would sometimes be
absent two years. To the west they reached the great Colorado river and
tell of killing some Havasupai in their canyon home. In the east they
made captives on Matagorda bay, Texas.
NEUTRAL ATTITUDE OF NEW MEXICANS
According to the Kiowa and Comanche, whose statements are confirmed by
abundant testimony from other sources, the inhabitants of New Mexico,
from mercenary motives, usually held themselves neutral in this war on
their brethren to the south. New Mexican _Comancheros_ and domesticated
Pueblo Indians carried on a lucrative trade among these tribes at the
same time that Kiowa or Comanche war parties were ravaging the southern
provinces or selling horses and mules, taken in these raids, to the
inhabitants of Las Vegas and neighboring towns. The lances and tomahawks
used by their warriors were of Mexican manufacture, more slender and
graceful in design than those supplied to the northern tribes by English
and American traders. It was only by such tacit connivance or active aid
from the people of New Mexico that these tribes were able to carry on an
unceasing warfare of extermination as far south as Tamaulipas and
Durango in Mexico.
RELATIONS WITH OTHER SOUTHERN TRIBES
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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