They went up the north bank of the South Canadian until they reached the salt beds in the vicinity of Red-river spring, near where they had encountered the Navaho the preceding winter. Here they met a much smaller party of Ute, said to have numbered only thirty or forty, and the battle at once began. For some reason, perhaps because the Kiowa felt that their gods had deserted them, they did not fight with their accustomed dash, and the battle soon became a flight, the Ute pursuing them for some miles down the river and killing seven, including Set-dayá-ite and his adopted son, a Mexican captive. Set-dayá-ite on this occasion rode a balky horse, which became unmanageable, so that he dismounted and met his fate on foot, telling his comrades that there was his place to die. His adopted son might have saved himself, but on seeing his father's plight he returned and was killed with him. Pá-guñhéñte, who carried the other medicine, was also among the slain.
Set-dayá-ite had the taíme bag tied upon his back, where it was found by the Ute after the fight. They readily recognized it as some great "medicine," a conjecture which was made certain if it be true, as some say, that the dead man had cut (painted?) upon his body sacred emblems similar to those painted upon the image itself, viz, a crescent upon each breast, the sun in the center, and upon his forehead another crescent. Stumbling-bear, who was in the fight, as was also Anko, went back shortly afterward to bury his remains. He found a beaten circle around the skeleton of Set-dayá-ite, as though the Ute had danced around his dead body.
The Ute carried the taíme with them to their own country, but misfortune went with it. The son of its capturer was shortly afterward killed in a fight with the Cheyenne, and soon after that the custodian himself was killed by a stroke of lightning. Afraid to keep longer such "bad medicine," they brought both images down to the trader Maxwell, in New Mexico, who placed them on a shelf in his store, where they remained in plain view for a long time, but were finally lost. The Ute left word with Maxwell that the Kiowa, if they came for the images, might have them, on payment of a specified number of ponies. For some reason the Kiowa did not come—perhaps because they were afraid to trust themselves so far in their enemies' country.
While the sacred images were on Maxwell's shelf they were seen by a brother of George Bent, of the noted pioneer trading family, from whom the author obtained a description of their appearance. They were two small carved stones or petrifactions, the taíme proper having the shape of a man's head and bust, and was decorated and painted. The other resembled in form a bear's kidney. While in New Mexico some years ago the author made diligent inquiry among Maxwell's former business associates concerning the images, but found no one who could throw any light upon their whereabouts. In 1893 Big-bow and some others of the tribe visited the Ute, chiefly for the purpose of ascertaining the fate of the taíme, not knowing that it had passed out of their possession. They learned nothing, however, as they asked no direct questions concerning it and the Ute volunteered no information. This was the first friendly meeting between the two tribes, although as early as 1873 the Kiowa chiefs in council had made an urgent request to the agent that some good white man should be sent with them to make peace with the Ute (Battey, 18).
When the news of the defeat reached them, the Kiowa were encamped on the Arkansas, near Fort Larned, where at that time they drew their government issues. They at once moved down to the Washita and encamped adjoining the Cheyenne village under Black-kettle, on the western border of Oklahoma. This village was soon after destroyed by Custer. About this time steps were taken to confine the confederated tribes to the reservation assigned them by the late treaty, which was soon after accomplished, and as a people the Kiowa never again went back to the neighborhood of Arkansas river.
The only official reference to this fight, if indeed it does refer to it, is the incidental mention in a letter of about June 20 that an appointment by the agent for the Ute and Jicarilla Apache had been postponed in consequence of the absence of Kaneatche, who was away and had had a fight with the Kiowa and Comanche (Report, 88). Kaneatche, Kanache, or Conyatz (Kanats according to Major Powell) was the head chief of the confederate Ute and Jicarilla band of Apache, and on his death was succeeded by Ouray.
The encounter is thus noted by a contemporary author:
During the previous summer [1868] a war party of Ute left their haunts in New Mexico, and after marching on foot a distance of over 500 miles fell upon a band of Kiowa, completely routed them, captured a number of ponies, took many scalps, and, more calamitous than all, got possession of the "medicine" of the band. As might be inferred, the Kiowa had a superstitious dread of the very name Ute (Keim, 2).
The action and the grief of the Kiowa over the loss of their medicine are further described by a writer in a contemporary Kansas newspaper, who evidently speaks with exact knowledge:
