The Calendar History of Kiowa Indians (Illustrated Edition). James Mooney

such materials as make up the chronicles of the highland clans of Scotland or the annals of a medieval barony.

      It must be remembered, however, that an Indian tribe is simply a large family, all the members being interrelated; this is particularly true of the Kiowa, who number only about 1,100. An event which concerns one becomes a matter of gossip and general knowledge in all the camps and is thus exalted into a subject of tribal importance. Moreover, an event, if it be of common note in the tribe, may be recorded rather for its value as a tally date than for its intrinsic importance.

      On this point Mallery says, speaking of the Lone-dog calendar, that it "was not intended to be a continuous history, or even to record the most important event of each year, but to exhibit some one of special peculiarity.... It would indeed have been impossible to have graphically distinguished the many battles, treaties, horse stealings, big hunts, etc, so most of them were omitted and other events of greater individuality and better adapted for portrayal were taken for the year count, the criterion being not that they were of historic moment, but that they were of general notoriety, or perhaps of special interest to the recorders" (Mallery, 1).

      A brief interpretation of the calendars here described was obtained from the original owners in 1892. To this was added, in the winter of 1894—95, all that could be procured from T'ébodal, Gaápiatañ, ´dalpepte, Set-ĭmkía, and other prominent old men of the tribe, together with Captain Scott's notes and the statements of pioneer frontiersmen, and all available printed sources of information, including the annual reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for more than sixty years. The Dohásän calendar is still in possession of Captain Scott. The Sett'an and Anko calendars are now deposited in the Bureau of American Ethnology.

      Method of Fixing Dates

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      A few examples will show how the Kiowa keep track of their tribal and family affairs by means of these calendars. Sett'an was born in "cut-throat summer" (1833), and his earliest recollection is of the "head-dragging winter" (1837—38). Set-ĭmkía, better known as Stumbling-bear, was about a year old in "cut-throat summer" (1833). He was married in "dusty medicine dance" summer (1851). His daughter Virginia was born in the summer of "No-arm's river medicine dance" (1863), and her husband was born a little earlier, in "tree-top winter" (1862—63). Gruñsádalte, commonly known as Cat, was born in the "winter that Buffalo-tail was killed" (1835—36); his son Angópte was born in "muddy traveling winter" (1864—65), and his younger son Másép was born in "bugle scare winter" (1869—70). Paul Setk'opte first saw light among the Cheyenne the winter after the "showery medicine dance" (1853), and joined the Kiowa in the autumn after the "smallpox medicine dance" (1862).

      Scope of the Memoir

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      As the Kiowa and associated Apache are two typical and extremely interesting plains tribes, about which little is known and almost nothing has been printed, the introductory tribal sketch has been made more extended than would otherwise have been the case. As they ranged within the historic period from Canada to central Mexico and from Arkansas to the borders of California, they came in contact with nearly all the tribes on this side of the Columbia river region and were visitors in peace or war at most of the military and trading posts within the same limits. For this reason whatever seemed to have important bearing on the Indian subject has been incorporated in the maps with the purpose that the work might serve as a substantial basis for any future historical study of the plains tribes.

      Acknowledgments

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      Acknowledgments are due to Captain H. L. Scott, Seventh cavalry, U. S. A., Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for much valuable material and friendly assistance; to ex-agent Lawrie Tatum, Springdale, Iowa, for photographs and manuscript information; to Thomas C. Battey, Mosk, Ohio, former Kiowa teacher, and to Mrs Elizabeth Haworth, Olathe, Kansas, widow of former agent J. M. Haworth, for photographs; to Caroline M. Brooke, Washington Grove, Maryland, for assistance in correspondence; to Philip Walker, esquire, Washington, D. C., for translations; to De Lancey W. Gill and assistants of the division of illustrations in the United States Geological Survey; to Andres Martinez and Father Isidore Ricklin, of Anadarko, Oklahoma, for efficient aid in many directions; to Timothy Peet, Anadarko, Oklahoma, to L. A. Whatley, Huntsville, Texas, and to my Kiowa assistants, Setk'opte, Setĭmkía, ´dalpepte, Tébodal, Gaápiatañ, Sett'an, Anko, and others.

      Sketch of the Kiowa Tribe

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Tribal Synonymy

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      Be´shĭltcha—Na-isha Apache name.

      Datŭmpa´ta—Hidatsa name, according to old T'ebodal. Perhaps another form of Witapähätu or Witapätu, q. v.

      Gâ´-i-gwŭ—The proper name as used by the tribe, and also the name of one of the tribal divisions. The name may indicate a people having two halves or parts of the body or face painted in different colors (see the glossary). From this come all the various forms of Caygua and Kiowa.

      Cahiaguas—Escudero, Noticias Nuevo Mexico, 87, 1849.

      Cahiguas—Ibid., 83.

      Caiawas—H. R. Rept., 44th Cong., 1st sess., I, 299, 1876.

      Caigua—Spanish document of 1735, title in Rept. Columbian Hist. Exposition, Madrid, 323, 1895.

      Caihuas—Document of 1828, in Soc. Geogr. Mex., 265, 1870. This form occurs also in Mayer, Mexico, II, 123, 1853.

      Caiwas—American Pioneer, I, 257, 1842.

      Cargua—Spanish document of 1732, title in Rept. Columbian Hist. Exp., Madrid, 323, 1895 (for Caigua).

      Cayanwa—Lewis, Travels, 15, 1809 (for Cayauwa).

      Caycuas—Barreiro, Ojeada Sobre Nuevo Mexico, app., 10, 1832.

      Cayguas—Villaseñor, Teatro Americano, pt. 2, 413, 1748. This is the common Spanish form, written also Caygüa, and is nearly identical with the proper tribal name.

      Cayugas—Bent, 1846, in California Mess. and Corresp., 193, 1850 (for Cayguas).

      Ciawis—H. R. Rept., 44th Cong., 1st sess., I, 299, 1876.

      Gahe´wă—Wichita name.

      Gai´wa—Omaha and Ponka name, according to Francis La Flesche.

      Kaiawas—Gallatin, in Trans. Am. Eth. Soc., II, 20, 1848.

      Kaí-ó-wás—Whipple, Pacific Railroad Report, pt. I, 31, 1856.

      Kaiowan—Hodge, MS. Pueblo notes, 1895, in Bur. Am. Eth. (Sandia name).

      Kaiowe´—Powell fide Gatschet, Sixth Ann. Rept. Bur. Eth., XXXIV, 1888.

      Kaî-wa—Comanche name, from the proper form Gâ´-i-gŭa. As the Comanche is the trade language of the southern plains, this form, with slight variations, has been adopted by most of the neighboring tribes