Kiowa
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| Kiowa | |
|---|---|
| Dohausan, a Kiowa chief who ruled the Kiowa over 30 years, early 1800's | |
| Total population | 12,000[1] |
| Regions with significant populations | United States (Oklahoma) |
| Language | English, Kiowa |
| Religion | Traditional and Christianity, other |
| Related ethnic groups | other Tanoan peoples |
The Kiowa are a nation of Native Americans who lived mostly in the plains of west Texas, Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico at the time of the arrival of Europeans. Today the Kiowa Tribe is federally recognized, with about 12,000 members living in southwestern Oklahoma.
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[edit] History of the tribe
The Kiowas originated in the northern basin of the Missouri River, but migrated south to the Black Hills around 1650 and lived there with the Crow. Pushed southward by the invading Cheyennes and Sioux who were being pushed out of their lands in the great lakes regions by the Ojibwa tribes, the Kiowas moved down the Platte River basin to the Arkansas River area. There they fought with the Comanches, who already occupied the land.
In the early spring of 1790, at the place that would become Las Vegas, Nevada, a Kiowa party lead by war chief Guikate made an offer of peace to a Comanche party while both were visiting the home of a friend of both tribes. This lead to a later meeting between Guikate and the head chief of the Nokoni Comanches. The two groups made an alliance to share the same lands, and entered into a mutual defense pact. From that time on, the Comanches and Kiowas formed a deep bond; the peoples hunted, traveled, and made war together. An additional group, the Plains Apache (also called Kiowa-Apache), affiliated with the Kiowas at this time.
The Kiowas lived a typical Plains Indian lifestyle. Mostly nomadic, they survived on buffalo meat and gathered vegetables, lived in tipis, and depended on their horses for hunting and military uses. The Kiowa were notorious for long-distance raids as far north as Canada and south into Mexico. Even though the winters in their homeland were harsh, the Kiowa tended to enjoy this climate and did not spend much time south of their land.
Famous Kiowa chiefs were Tohausan, Dohausan, Guipahgah (Old Chief Lonewolf); subchiefs Satanta and Satank. Satanta and Satank participated in the Warren Wagon Train Raid.
[edit] The Indian Wars
After 1840 the Kiowas joined forces with their former enemies, the Cheyennes, as well as their allies the Comanches and the Apaches, to fight and raid the Eastern natives then moving into the Indian Territory. The United States military intervened, and in the Treaty of Medicine Lodge of 1867 the Kiowa agreed to settle on a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma. Some bands of Kiowas remained at large until 1875 (see Palo Duro Canyon).
On August 6, 1901 Kiowa land in Oklahoma was opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation. While each Kiowa head of household was allotted 80 acres (320,000 m²), the only land remaining in Kiowa tribal ownership today is what was the scattered parcels of 'grass land' which had been leased to the white settlers for grazing before the reservation was opened for settlement.
[edit] Kiowa art
Kiowa artists are well known for a pictographic art form that is now referred to as "Plains Indian ledger art", and its contribution to the development of contemporary Native American art. The earliest of these Kiowa artists were those held in captivity by the US Army at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida at the conclusion of the Southern Plains Indian war. Traditionally the artist's medium for their pictographic images were natural objects and animal skins, but for the Kiowa in captivity the lined pages of the white man's record keeping books became a popular substitute, thus the name "ledger art".
Twentieth century Kiowa artists include the Kiowa Five, a group of artists whom studied at the University of Oklahoma. The "Five" referred to are the male members of the group. The pictographic art form known as "ledger art" was an indian art form which had historically been dominated by the male members of the plains culture. However, the "Five" actually had a sixth member, a woman named Lois Smokey. Well known Kiowa artists of the later twentieth century include Bobby Hill (White Buffalo), Robert Redbird, Roland N. Whitehorse, and T. C. Cannon. The pictographic art of contemporary and traditional artist Sherman Chaddlesone has revived the ledger art form that was absent in most of the art of the Second Generation Modernists that had developed since the Kiowa Five. Chaddlesone studied under Native American masters Allan Houser and Fritz Scholder and is considered a versatile and widely respected artist.
The influence of Kiowa art and the revival of the plains ledger art is also illustrated in the early work of Cherokee-Creek female artist Virginia Stroud and Spokane artist George Flett. While Stroud is of Cherokee-Creek descent, she was raised by a Kiowa family and the traditions of that culture, and the influence of the Kiowa tradition is evident in her early pictographic images.
Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for his novel House Made of Dawn. Other Kiowa authors include playwright Hanay Geiogamah, poet and film maker Gus Palmer, Jr., Alyce Sadongei, and Tocakut.
Kiowa music is often noted for its hymns that were traditionally accompanied by dance or played on the flute. Traditional performers include Cornel Pewewardy and Phillip "Yogi" Bread. Modern Kiowa musicians such as Tom Mauchahty-Ware[2], lead singer for the all Indian band "Tom Ware & Blues Nation", are traditional flautists and dancers as well as performers of contemporary music. One of the most highly acclaimed Native American blues guitarists is Kiowa Jesse Ed Davis.
[edit] Miscellaneous Facts
- The historic Kiowa also ranged through southwest Colorado and southwest Kansas. The Spanish in Santa Fe mediated a peace treaty between the Kiowa and Comanche in 1807. (Elizabeth Johns)
- Ethnographic studies place the historic Kiowa in western Montana in the early 17th century, then migrating easterly until they reached the Black Hills. (Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians-James Mooney)
- The Kiowa are the originators of the Kiowa Gourd Dancing.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Boyd, Maurice (1983). Kiowa Voices: Myths, Legends and Folktales. Texas Christian University Press. ISBN 0-912646-76-4
- Corwin, Hugh. The Kiowa Indians, their history and life stories.
- Hoig, Stan (2000). The Kiowas and the Legend of Kicking Bird. Boulder: The University Press of Colorado. ISBN 0-87081-564-4
- Mishkin, Bernard (1988). Rank and Warfare Among The Plains Indians. AMS Press. ISBN 0-404-62903-2
- Richardson, Jane (1988). Law & Status Among the Kiowa Indians (American Ethnological Society Monographs; No 1). AMS Press. ISBN 0-404-62901-6
- Nye, Colonel W.S. (1983). Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1856-3
- Momaday, N. Scott (1977). The Way to Rainy Mountain. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-0436-2
[edit] External links
- Kiowa Collection: Selections from the Papers of Hugh Lenox Scott
- Photographs of Kiowa Indians hosted by the Portal to Texas History
- The Handbook of Texas Online: Kiowa Indians
- Sketch of a Chief of the Kiowas from A pictorial history of Texas, from the earliest visits of European adventurers, to A.D. 1879, hosted by the Portal to Texas History.
- Kiowa ledger drawing in the Smithsonian.
- The Kiowa Five.
