Kiowa
The Kiowa are a Native American tribe originally from western Montana, whose name means "main people." They established villages in the early 1600s and later migrated to the Yellowstone River and the Black Hills of South Dakota, where they became skilled horsemen and bison hunters. The Kiowa are known for their unique cultural practices, including their Sun Dance ceremony, which differed from other Plains tribes by forbidding self-mutilation. They engaged in numerous conflicts with neighboring tribes and formed a prestigious warrior society called the "Principal Dogs," which was highly esteemed within their community.
In the 1780s, the Sioux forced the Kiowa to relocate further south, eventually leading them to settle in present-day Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The arrival of American settlers in the 19th century brought new challenges, culminating in the Kiowa wars against encroaching pioneers. Following a series of conflicts, the Kiowa were ultimately placed on a reservation in southeastern Oklahoma by 1878. Today, the tribe continues to thrive through agriculture and oil leasing, and they promote their cultural heritage through artistic expressions displayed at the Southern Plains Indian Museum. Notably, Kiowa novelist N. Scott Momaday has garnered recognition for his literary contributions, exploring the balance between traditional and contemporary life.
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Kiowa
- CATEGORY: Tribe
- CULTURE AREA: Plains
- LANGUAGE GROUP: Kiowa-Tanoan (Uto-Aztecan)
- PRIMARY LOCATION: Oklahoma
- POPULATION SIZE: 7,089 (2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates American Indian and Alaska Native Detailed Tables: Kiowa Tribal Grouping Alone)
The Kiowa, whose language is related to that of the Rio Grande Puebloan peoples, originally lived in western Montana. The earliest Kiowa villages in this area date to the early 1600s. The Kiowa (Kiowa means “main people”) moved a century later to the Yellowstone River region in eastern Montana and eventually settled in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where they traded with the Mandan, learned how to use horses, and began hunting bison. They also became noted for their military exploits and organized into military societies. As nomadic hunters, they followed bison herds, lived in tepees, worshiped a sun god (Taimay), and performed the Sun Dance. Unlike other Plains Indigenous Americans, however, the Kiowa did not allow violence or self-torture during the performance of the eight-day Sun Dance ceremony. Kiowa warriors fasted, prayed, exchanged sacred medicine bundles, and did penance, but they did not mutilate their bodies with knives or spears, as did the Mandan.
The Kiowa frequently fought wars against the Caddo, Ute, Apache, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and other Plains Indigenous Americans. Among the Kiowa, membership in the warrior society called the “Principal Dogs,” or “Ten Bravest,” was highly sought after and esteemed. Only the ten warriors who had repeatedly demonstrated the greatest bravery in battle could belong. The leader of the Principal Dogs wore a long sash over his shoulder when going into battle. When the fighting began, he got off his horse, anchored his sash to the ground with his spear, and stood at that spot, shouting encouragement to his comrades. He could not leave his post until another Principal Dog pulled his sash from the ground.
In the 1780s, the Sioux drove the Kiowa from the Black Hills, and they moved farther south into Nebraska, Kansas, and northern Oklahoma. The American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reported meeting the Kiowa along the North Platte River in 1805. The Comanche living in the areas originally fought off the Kiowa, but the two groups eventually formed an alliance that lasted into the twentieth century.
In their new homeland, the Kiowa continued to hunt buffalo and raid their enemies, chiefly the Apache and the Cheyenne, taking horses and territory. Peace accords were reached in the 1830s when new enemies appeared: American pioneers and traders on the Santa Fe and Butterfield trails. In the Kiowa wars of the 1830s and 1840s, Plains Indians fought together against White settlers moving through the region on wagon trains or cattle drives. The Great Plains were not yet the destination of these migrants because many saw the region as too empty, hot, and dry to support any type of agriculture and called it the Great American Desert. They simply moved through the Plains, heading for California and Oregon, which had more hospitable climates.
This changed after the Civil War, however, when the Plains were considered ready for settlement because of the introduction of railroads. This postwar movement of White settlers into the center of Indigenous American territory led to another series of wars in the 1870s. The Kiowa debated how to deal with this new intrusion. Kicking Bird and Little Mountain, two principal chiefs, wanted peace, but Satank (Sitting Bear) and Satanta (White Bear), leader of the Principal Dogs, called for war. Satanta led several raids into Texas, and the Red River War of 1874–75 began. The war faction killed Kicking Bird when he continued to oppose violent conflict. Satanta became chief but was captured by General George Armstrong Custer’s forces and sentenced to prison. In 1878, he took his own life, jumping from a prison hospital window in Huntsville, Texas. Other Kiowa leaders suffered similar violent deaths; Satank was shot while trying to escape from the Fort Sill, Oklahoma, prison, and Sky Walker, the Kiowa religious leader, died in a Florida prison. Most of these Kiowa warriors were buried at Fort Sill in a cemetery referred to as the “Indian Arlington.”
By 1878, most of the Kiowa had submitted to living on a reservation in southeastern Oklahoma. In the twenty-first century, the Kiowa has its headquarters in Caddo County and survives by raising cattle, farming, and leasing oil rights to their land. Kiowa artworks are on display at the Southern Plains Indian Museum in Anadarko, Oklahoma. Perhaps the most famous living Kiowa is novelist and professor of comparative literature N. Scott Momaday, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for his novel House Made of Dawn (1968), a sensitive portrayal of an Indigenous American’s conflict between traditional ways of life and modern culture.
Members of the Kiowa are actively involved in preserving their culture and language and expanding their economic opportunities through casino operations and other businesses. The Kiowa also engage in various community events, such as annual Gourd Celebrations, and work on legislation to enhance their governance and welfare.
Bibliography
"About Us." Kiowa Tribe, www.kiowatribe.org/about-us. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.
Broom, John Thomas. "Kiowas." The Encyclopedia of the North American Indian Wars, 1607–1890: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by Spencer C. Tucker, vol. 1, ABC-CLIO, 2011, pp. 424-25.
Kracht, Benjamin R. “Kiowa - The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.” Oklahoma Historical Society, www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=KI017. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.
Meadows, William C. Kiowa Military Societies: Ethnohistory and Ritual. University of Oklahoma Press, 2022.
“2021: ACS 5-Year Estimates American Indian and Alaska Native Detailed Tables: Kiowa Tribal Grouping Alone.” US Census Bureau, data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5YAIAN2021.B01003?q=kiowa. Accessed 10 Jan. 2025.
Waldman, Carl. "Kiowa." Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, 3rd ed., Checkmark, 2006, pp. 132-34.