SUMMER 1846
Pá-guñhéñté Äópäñ-de K`ádó, "Sun dance when Hornless-bull was made a Kâ´itséñi-k`ia." The figure beside the medicine lodge represents a man with the feather headdress and paint of the Kâ´itséñko, the chief order of the warrior society. There is nothing to indicate the name of the individual, which is carried in the memory of the artist. This dance was held on a small tributary of the North Canadian, a short distance above Kiowa Medicine-lodge creek.
The Yä´`pähe or military organization of the Kiowa has been already noted. The highest order was the Kâ´itséñko, or "Real dogs (?)," a select body of ten of the bravest warriors, who were pledged to lead every desperate charge and to keep their place in the front of battle until they won victory or death. With this purpose in view, their leader carried a ceremonial arrow, with which he anchored himself to the ground by means of a broad sash of elk-skin, which encircled his neck like a collar and hung down at his right side to the earth; at the lower end, where it trailed upon the ground, there was a hole, and when forming line for the charge it was his duty to dismount in front of his warriors, and, by thrusting the arrow through this hole, to fix himself in this position, there to remain until his party was victorious, or until, seeing that all was lost, they gave him liberty to retreat by pulling out the arrow from the ground. Should they forget this in the hurry of their flight, he must remain and die at his post. During the action, also, he was obliged to remain stationary, without endeavoring in any way to avoid the danger.
Fig. 95—Summer 1846—Hornless-bull initiated.
Whenever a leader died or was killed another was selected from among the Kâ´itséñko to carry the arrow. As the regulations governing it were adhered to very strictly, it can readily be understood that on the occasion of an election the office usually sought the man. As the Kiowa or other tribes, however, had no desire to sacrifice their bravest men needlessly, the ceremonial arrow or its equivalent was carried only when the expedition meant war to the bitter end against the enemy. In the absence of this emblem of his rank the owner took his place as an ordinary warrior. He might even lend it to a warrior who wished to distinguish himself in a war party while the owner remained at home; but should he do this when any serious expedition was in preparation, he was considered to be a coward and was degraded from his rank. The leaders of the Tóñkóñko, "Black legs," another warrior order, carried a lance somewhat resembling a shepherd's crook and called a pabón, which had nearly the same purpose as the arrow of the Kâ´itséñko. The noted chief Set-ängya, who was killed at Fort Sill in 1871, was the leader of the Kâ´itséñko at that time, and deliberately invited death in accordance with the obligation of his office.
The Kâ´itséñko initiations took place only on the occasion of a sun dance and were not of frequent occurrence, so that the event was always a matter of considerable importance. The membership was always kept up to the requisite number of ten. The prominent feature of the ceremony was the investiture of the new members with the ópäm-yaípo, or collar sash of the order; hence the verb äópä, "to initiate into the Kâ´itséñko," which is derived from the verb äópäñ, "to tie with a rope around the neck." This ceremony evidently explains the picture from the Dakota calendar ([figure 96]) which Mallery translates "they made bands of strips of blankets in the winter," and goes on to say: "These bands were of mixed colors and reached from the shoulders to the heels. They also made rattles of deer-hoofs by tying them to sticks with bead-covered strings. The man has a sash over his shoulders and a rattle in his hand." The rattle was also a part of the ceremonial equipment of the Dog-soldiers, and as the Dakota calendar does not distinguish between seasons, the ceremony may as easily have taken place in the summer, the ordinary season for Indian celebrations on the plains.
Fig. 96—Dog-Soldier initiated(?) (from the Dakota calendars).
Of the ten ópäm-yaípo, the principal one, called the yaípo-kóñkya, "black rope," was made of elk-skin colored black and was worn by the leader, the most noted of whom in recent memory was Set-ängya. Three were made of red cloth and were called yaípo-gúădal, "red ropes," while the remaining six were made of elk-skin dyed red and were called simply ópäm-yaípo. Any of the Kâ´itséñko was at liberty, if he did not choose to go on a particular expedition, to lend his sash to another for the occasion; but if cowardice was suspected to be his motive for this action he was degraded from his rank and the sash taken from him and given to a braver man. Usually each one had a younger partner (tsä), whom he allowed to wear his sash while in camp or even on less important expeditions, but when any great war party was on foot, he must wear it and go himself or run the risk of being considered a coward. When a wearer became too old to go to war, he formally resigned his sash to some younger man whom he deemed worthy to wear it, the recipient acknowledging the honor with presents of blankets or other property. Sometimes the sash was publicly taken from a warrior grown too old to wear it in battle, but this was not necessarily regarded as a degradation when there was no implication of cowardice.