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.
Although they had been compelled to settle on a reservation, the Kiowa
continued their raids into Texas, destroying property, killing white
people, and carrying away captives. On one occasion they even attacked
the agency at Fort Sill, killed and wounded several men, stampeded the
agency cattle and the quartermaster's mules, and defiantly challenged
the soldiers to come out and fight. Civil and military officials alike
agree that there was not the slightest excuse for these outrages, to
which they were encouraged by the Kwáhadi Comanche, who had never yet
come in from the Staked plain and who never ceased to ridicule those
Indians who had submitted. To put an end to this state of affairs, the
Commissioner in 1870 recommended the establishment of a line of posts
along the southern boundary of the reservation, and that the Kiowa and
Comanche should all be placed under military control until they had
learned to behave properly (_Report, 27_).
Affairs went on from bad to worse. In 1871 a large raiding party killed
seven men in Texas, torturing one over a fire, and capturing a number of
mules. The leaders had the hardihood to boast of their deed in the
presence of the agent and General Sherman, who promptly arrested the
three most prominent, Set-t'aiñte, Setängya, and Ä´do-eétte or
"Big-tree." Setängya (Satank) resisted and was killed. The other two
were sent to Texas for trial and punishment (see the calendar).
In 1872 another Commissioner declared that the point had been reached
where forbearance had ceased to be a virtue, and again recommended that
the three tribes be turned over to the military for punishment. He
states that a wholesome example is absolutely necessary to command
obedience, asserting that "so long as four-fifths of these tribes take
turns at raiding into Texas, openly and boastfully bringing back scalps
and spoils to their reservation, efforts to inspire very high ideas of
social and industrial life among the communities of which the raiders
form so large a part will presumably result in failure." At the same
time their agent reports that, although they had come regularly for
their rations during the preceding winter and spring, giving repeated
assurance of amity and peace, yet so soon as their horses were in
condition in summer the Kiowa had gone on the warpath, taking with them
a large number of the Comanche and Apache, and within a few months
had stolen hundreds of horses and mules, carried off several captive
women and children, and killed over twenty persons in Texas, besides
others in New Mexico and elsewhere. By withholding rations for three
months, he had compelled them to bring in two captives without ransom,
and states that he would continue to withhold supplies from them until
the other was surrendered. He declared, finally, that the Kiowa and some
bands of the Comanche were beyond control by him (_Report, 28_). The
calendar for this year (q. v.) also takes note of these raids.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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