Difference between revisions of "Kiowa" - New World Encyclopedia
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==References== | ==References== | ||
*Berlo, Jane Catherine. 1996. ''Plains Indian Drawings 1865-1935.'' Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0810937420 | *Berlo, Jane Catherine. 1996. ''Plains Indian Drawings 1865-1935.'' Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0810937420 | ||
| − | *Boyd, Maurice. 1983. ''Kiowa Voices: Myths, Legends and Folktales.'' Texas Christian University Press. ISBN | + | *Boyd, Maurice. 1981. ''Kiowa Voices: Ceremonial Dance, Ritual, and Song, Vol. 1.'' Texas Christian University Press. ISBN 978-0912646671 |
| + | *———. 1983. ''Kiowa Voices: Myths, Legends and Folktales.'' Texas Christian University Press. ISBN 978-0912646763 | ||
*Corwin, Hugh. 1958. ''The Kiowa Indians, Their History and Life Stories.'' | *Corwin, Hugh. 1958. ''The Kiowa Indians, Their History and Life Stories.'' | ||
*Greene, Candace S. 2002. ''Silver Horn: Master Illustrator of the Kiowas.'' University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0806133072 | *Greene, Candace S. 2002. ''Silver Horn: Master Illustrator of the Kiowas.'' University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0806133072 | ||
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*Lookingbill, Brad D. 2006. ''War Dance at Fort Marion: Plains Indian War Prisoners.'' Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0806137391 | *Lookingbill, Brad D. 2006. ''War Dance at Fort Marion: Plains Indian War Prisoners.'' Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0806137391 | ||
*Mishkin, Bernard. 1988. ''Rank and Warfare Among The Plains Indians.'' AMS Press. ISBN 0404629032 | *Mishkin, Bernard. 1988. ''Rank and Warfare Among The Plains Indians.'' AMS Press. ISBN 0404629032 | ||
| + | *Momaday, N. Scott. 1977. ''The Way to Rainy Mountain.'' University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0826304362 | ||
| + | *Mooney, James. 2007. ''Calender History of the Kiowa Indians.'' Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-0548136461 | ||
*Nye, Colonel W.S. 1983. ''Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill.'' Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806118563 | *Nye, Colonel W.S. 1983. ''Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill.'' Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806118563 | ||
| − | |||
*Richardson, Jane. 1988. ''Law & Status Among the Kiowa Indians American Ethnological Society Monographs; No 1.'' AMS Press. ISBN 0404629016 | *Richardson, Jane. 1988. ''Law & Status Among the Kiowa Indians American Ethnological Society Monographs; No 1.'' AMS Press. ISBN 0404629016 | ||
*Waldman, Carl. 2006. ''Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes.'' New York, NY: Checkmark Books. ISBN 978-0816062744 | *Waldman, Carl. 2006. ''Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes.'' New York, NY: Checkmark Books. ISBN 978-0816062744 | ||
Revision as of 16:44, 23 April 2008
| Kiowa |
|---|
| Guipago, a Kiowa Chief |
| Total population |
| 12,000[1] |
| Regions with significant populations |
| United States (Oklahoma) |
| Languages |
| English, Kiowa |
| Religions |
| Traditional |
| Related ethnic groups |
| other Tanoan peoples |
The Kiowa are a nation of Native Americans who lived mostly in north Texas, Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico at the time of the arrival of Europeans. Kiowa means "principal people" in their tribal language. Today the Kiowa Tribe is federally recognized, with about 12,000 members living in southwestern Oklahoma.
History
According to historic accounts the Kiowa resided in the northern basin of the Missouri River where the migrating Crow Nation first met them in the Pryor Mountains. The Kiowa then migrated easterly to the Black Hills around 1650. Pushed southward by the invading Cheyenne and Sioux, who were being pushed out of their lands in the great lakes regions by the Ojibwa tribes, the Kiowa moved down the Platte River basin to the Arkansas River area. There they fought with the Comanche, who already occupied the land.
In the early spring of 1790, at the place that would become Las Vegas, New Mexico, a Kiowa party lead by war leader Guikate made an offer of peace to a Comanche party while both were visiting the home of a friend of both tribes. This led to a later meeting between Guikate and the head chief of the Nokoni Comanches. The two groups made an alliance to share the same hunting grounds, and entered into a mutual defense pact. From that time on, the Comanches and Kiowa hunted, traveled, and made war together. An additional group, the Plains Apache (also called Kiowa-Apache), affiliated with the Kiowa at this time.
The Kiowa lived a typical Plains Indian lifestyle. Mostly nomadic, they survived on buffalo meat and gathered vegetables, lived in lodges, and depended on their horses for hunting and military uses. From their hunting grounds south of the Arkansas River the Kiowa were notorious for long-distance raids as far west as the Grand Canyon region, south into Mexico and Central America, and north into Canada.
In 1871 Kiowa leaders Satanta (White Bear), Satank (Sitting Bear) and Big Tree were accused, arrested, transported, and confined at Fort Richardson, Texas, after being convicted by a "cowboy jury" in Jacksboro, Texas for participating in the Warren Wagon Train Raid. During the transport to Fort Richardson, Texas, Satank was shot by accompanying cavalry troops in an escape attempt near Fort Sill, Indian Territory.
The Indian Wars
After 1840 the Kiowa, with their former enemies the Cheyenne, as well as their allies the Comanche and the Apache, fought and raided 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. However, some bands of Kiowa and others remained at large until 1875.
In 1874 war parties made up of young Cheyennes, Arapahos, Comanches, and Kiowas who refused to live on the reservations, frustrated and angered by the greatly diminished buffalo herd, attacked white hunters and settlers. Defeated by the cavalry in 1875, seventy-three of those considered most dangerous were rounded up and taken from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to Fort Marion in Florida.
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 160 acres (320,000 m²), the only land remaining in Kiowa tribal ownership today is what was the scattered parcels of "grass land" that had been leased to the white settlers for grazing before the reservation was opened for settlement.
Famous Kiowa leaders were Dohasan (Tauhawsin, BIA), Over-Hanging Butte, alias Little Mountain, alias Little Bluff; Guipahgah (Old Chief Lonewolf), alias Guibayhawgu (Rescued From Wolves); sub-leaders Satanta and Satank.
Culture
Art
Kiowa artists are well known for a pictographic art form that is now referred to as "Plains Indian ledger art."
Ledger art derives from a historical tradition that used traditional pictographs to keep historical records and serve as mnemonic reminders for storytelling. A traditional male art form, Plains Indian warriors drew pictographic representations of heroic deeds and sacred visions, which served to designate their positions in the tribe. Traditionally the artist's medium for their pictographic images were rocks and animal skins, but for the Kiowa in captivity the lined pages of the white man's record keeping books (ledgers) became a popular substitute, hence the name "ledger art."
The earliest of these Kiowa artists were held in captivity by the US Army at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida at the conclusion of the Southern Plains Indian war. Captain Richard Henry Pratt was sympathetic and very liberal for his time, wanting to educate his captives and make them self-sufficient. At Fort Marion he initiated an educational experiment as an alternative to standard imprisonment, culminating in his founding of the Carlisle Indian School in 1879. Throughout their incarceration, the Plains Indian leaders followed Pratt's rules and met his educational demands even as they remained true to their own identities, practicing traditional dances and ceremonies (Lookingbill 2006). In addition to regular studies Pratt encouraged them to pursue their native arts and to sell the products, keeping the profits for themselves. As a result, many of the Kiowa achieved self-sufficiency, as well as developing their art form into the now famous ledger art. For these former warriors their art was not just a way of making money but a form of resistance. The warrior-artists of Fort Marion preserved their history in their traditional pictographic representations, drawn on the the very records, the ledgers, that recorded the expansion of the Euro-American lifestyle. This can be seen as a significant transition between the old traditional identity and finding a place in the new culture. The warrior-artist drawing pictographic representations of his tribal history in a ledger book may "be seen as a personal treaty—an attempt to negotiate between one’s individual/tribal identity and a new dominant culture” (Wong 1992).
After the return of the Fort Marion warriors to the reservation there was a general withering of this artistic flowering. The most significant ledger book artist was a Kiowa named Haungooah (Silver Horn), whose brother, Ohettoit, was one of the captives in Fort Marion. Silver Horn worked with his brother decorating traditional tipis and then to produce ledger book art work. Silver Horn reputedly influenced both James Auchiah and Stephen Mopope in their work before they became a part of the Kiowa Five, whose artistic style is generally recognized as the beginning of the modern Native American Art Movement.
The Kiowa Five were a group of artists who studied at the University of Oklahoma. The "Five" referred to are the male members of the group, although there was a sixth member, a woman named Lois Smokey.
The influence of Kiowa art and the revival of ledger art is 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. 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 Silverhorn and the Kiowa Five.
Calendars
Pictorial art was used by the Kiowa as well as other Plains Indians to maintain formal calendar records as well as to illustrate stories. Such calendars had pictures that helped calendar keepers remember the name of each year. The Kiowa had a particularly complex calendar system with events recorded for both summer and winter of each year.
A particularly complex calendar produced by Silver Horn (or Haungooah) in 1904, was more richly illustrated. Silver Horn was one of the artists employed by James Mooney, an anthropologist with the Smithsonian's Bureau of American Ethnology who worked on the Kiowa Reservation for many years. Silver Horn's calendar begins with the year 1828 and ends in 1904, with summer and winter pictures for most years. Summers are indicated by a green, forked pole, representing the center pole of the Sun Dance, and winters by a bare tree. The calendar contains many interpretive notes made by Mooney, as he employed the artists to produce illustrations for field notes, not works of art for display. Nevertheless, many have been retained and are considered fine works of art in their own right.
Music
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.
Contemporary life
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.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Berlo, Jane Catherine. 1996. Plains Indian Drawings 1865-1935. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0810937420
- Boyd, Maurice. 1981. Kiowa Voices: Ceremonial Dance, Ritual, and Song, Vol. 1. Texas Christian University Press. ISBN 978-0912646671
- ———. 1983. Kiowa Voices: Myths, Legends and Folktales. Texas Christian University Press. ISBN 978-0912646763
- Corwin, Hugh. 1958. The Kiowa Indians, Their History and Life Stories.
- Greene, Candace S. 2002. Silver Horn: Master Illustrator of the Kiowas. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0806133072
- Hoig, Stan. 2000. The Kiowas and the Legend of Kicking Bird. Boulder: The University Press of Colorado. ISBN 0870815644
- Lookingbill, Brad D. 2006. War Dance at Fort Marion: Plains Indian War Prisoners. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0806137391
- Mishkin, Bernard. 1988. Rank and Warfare Among The Plains Indians. AMS Press. ISBN 0404629032
- Momaday, N. Scott. 1977. The Way to Rainy Mountain. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0826304362
- Mooney, James. 2007. Calender History of the Kiowa Indians. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-0548136461
- Nye, Colonel W.S. 1983. Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806118563
- Richardson, Jane. 1988. Law & Status Among the Kiowa Indians American Ethnological Society Monographs; No 1. AMS Press. ISBN 0404629016
- Waldman, Carl. 2006. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. New York, NY: Checkmark Books. ISBN 978-0816062744
- Wong, Hertha Dawn. 1992. Sending My Heart Back Across the Years: Tradition and Innovation in Native American Autobiography. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195069129
External links
- Kiowa Collection: Selections from the Papers of Hugh Lenox Scott
- Kiowa Comanche Apache Indian Territory Project
- Kiowa ledger drawing in the Smithsonian.
- Photographs of Kiowa Indians hosted by the Portal to Texas History
- The Handbook of Texas Online: Kiowa Indians
- The Kiowa Five.
- Sketch of a Chief of the Kiowas from A pictorial history of Texas, from the earliest visits of European adventurers, to AD 1879, hosted by the Portal to Texas History.
- The Kiowa Five, Kiowa Indian Art Collection Western History Collections University of Oklahoma Libraries.
- Silver Horn Pictorial Calendar
- Ledger Art
- Virginia Stroud Artist Profile
- About The Kiowa Five
- Kiowa Nation
- SKAW-TOW The Last Kiowa Sun Dance
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