Kiowa

Information about the Kiowa

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. Currently the Kiowa Nation is a registered tribe, with about 12,000 members living in southwestern Oklahoma.

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 lake regions by the Objiwe 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. Around 1790, the two groups made an alliance and agreed to share the area. From that time on, the Comanches and Kiowas formed a deep bond; the peoples hunted, travelled, and made war together. An additional group, the Plains Apache (also called Kiowa-Apache), also 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, living 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.

The Indian Wars

After 1840 the Kiowas joined forces with their former enemies, the Cheyennes, as well as 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 alloted 80 acres (320,000 m�), 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.

Quick Facts

The historic Kiowa also ranged through southwest Colorado and southwest Kansas. The Spanish in Sante 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 migrated easterly until reaching the Black Hills.(Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians-James Mooney) References

Boyd,Maurice (1983).Kiowa Voices: Myths, Legends and Folktales.Texas Christian University Press. ISBN 0912646764
Corwin, Hugh.The Kiowa Indians, their history and life stories.
Mishkin, Bernard (1988).Rank and Warfare Among The Plains Indians.AMS Press. ISBN 0404629032
Richardson, Jane (1988).Law & Status Among the Kiowa Indians (American Ethnological Society Monographs ; No 1).AMS Press. ISBN 0404629016
Nye, Colonel W.S. (1983).Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill.University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806118563
Momaday, N. Scott (1977).The Way to Rainy Mountain.University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0826304362