Societies of the Kiowas

NEW YORK PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES 1916



It is obvious that several days' work, however intensive, cannot exhaust such a topic as the military and related organizations of a Plains tribe: all I attempted was to shed some light on the problems treated in this series of papers.
February, 1916.


From Battey we learn that in the seventies of the last century the Kiowa had a police organization designed to prevent the young men from going on raids that might bring trouble upon the tribe.
... a strong guard of their soldiers were continually watching, day and night, while in camp, to prevent any such enterprise from being undertaken. In moving from place to place, these soldiers marched on each side of the main body, while a front guard went before, and a rear guard behind, thus preventing any from straggling away.
A corresponding body regulated the buffalo hunt.
The older literature cited above does not in any way contradict the general results I obtained independently, which may be summarized as follows.