SUMMER 1879
Tséñ-píä K`ádó, "Horse-eating sun dance." It is indicated on the Set-t'an calendar by the figure of a horse's head above the medicine lodge. This dance was held on Elm fork of Red river, and was so called because the buffalo had now become so scarce that the Kiowa, who had gone on their regular hunt the preceding winter, had found so few that they were obliged to kill and eat their ponies during the summer to save themselves from starving. This may be recorded as the date of the disappearance of the buffalo from the Kiowa country. Thenceforth the appearance of even a single animal was a rare event. The official report says:
In the month of June last a portion of each band was permitted to go to the western part of the reservation to subsist themselves awhile on buffalo, deer, etc, as the supplies for the year had been so nearly expended it was not seen how they could all be fed until those for the next year were received. But again they failed to find game sufficient to feed themselves, and the Kiowa, who while out were engaged in their annual medicine dance, suffered some with hunger. I think their failures in finding buffalo the past year, and their consequent suffering while out, will have a good effect in causing them to abandon their idea of subsisting in this way and to look to their crops and stock for a support. It is a fact worthy of note that the reports of the agents show the value of the robes and furs sold by the Indians now belonging to the Kiowa, Comanche, and Wichita agency for the year 1876 amounted to $70,400; for 1877, $64,500; for 1878, $26,375; while in 1879 only $5,068 was received, showing that buffalo hunting is not a thing of profit as it once was; and, besides, the most serious drawback to the Indians is the lack of the buffalo meat which at one time helped to subsist them, and which, added to the insufficient rations furnished by the government, kept them partly comfortable. As that supply is cut off, the Indian must go to work and help himself or remain hungry on the rations furnished (Report, 100).
The Anko calendar records the fact that while the Kiowa were driving away their issue of beef cattle some mischievous boys, shooting at the cattle with their arrows, accidentally shot another boy in the shoulder, but not fatally. In giving this explanation it was evident that Anko did not want to mention the boy's name, probably because he was now dead.
Fig. 167—Winter 1879—80—Eye-triumph winter.