In this winter Ansó-gíăni or Ansó`te, "Long-foot," the great medicine keeper, died of extreme old age. He had been in charge of the taíme for forty years; consequently there was no sun dance for two years until his successor was selected.
SUMMER 1871
For this summer the Anko calendar records the death of Koñpä´te, "Blackens-himself," who was shot through the head in a skirmish with soldiers. He was the brother of the noted raider, White-horse. The event is indicated by the rude representation of a head struck by a bullet. As there was no dance this summer, the medicine lodge is not represented on either calendar.
The great event of the summer was the arrest of the noted chiefs and raiders, Set-t'aiñte, Set-äñgya and Ä´do-eétte, "Big-tree." The figure on the Set-t'an calendar shows the soldier arresting Set-t'aiñte, distinguished by the red war-paint which he always used.
Notwithstanding the promises of good conduct which had induced General Sheridan to release Lone-wolf and Set-t'aiñte when the tribe had been brought to the reservation in December, 1868, the Kiowa had never ceased their raids into Texas, and had constantly behaved in the most insolent manner toward the agent and military commander on the reservation. On May 17, 1871, a party of about one hundred warriors, led by Set-t'aiñte and Set-ängya, attacked a wagon train in Texas, killed 7 men and captured 41 mules. Shortly afterward Set-t'aiñte had the boldness to avow the deed to the agent, Lawrie Tatum, who at once called upon the commander at Fort Sill to arrest Set-t´aiñte and several other chiefs who had accompanied him, viz: Set-ängya, Big-tree, Big-bow, Eagle-Heart and Fast-bear. The officer promptly responded and arrested the first three; Eagle-heart escaped and the other two were absent at the time. On May 28, the three prisoners were sent under military guard to Fort Richardson (Jacksboro), Texas, to be tried for their crimes, when Set-ängya attacked the guard and was killed in the wagon (Report, 89; Record, 11; Battey, 19; Tatum letter). The fate of the other prisoners is noted elsewhere.
According to the Kiowa account, which is correct in the main incidents, the prisoners having been disarmed, Set-ängya was placed in a wagon, accompanied by a single soldier, and Set-t'aiñte and Big-tree were put into another wagon with other guards, and an escort of cavalry and Tonkawa scouts rode on either side. Leaving Fort Sill, they started toward the south on the road to Texas, when Set-ängya began a loud harangue to the two prisoners in the other wagon, telling them that he was a chief and a warrior, too old to be treated like a little child. Then pointing to a tree where the road descends to cross a small stream about a mile south of the post, he said: "I shall never go beyond that tree." As he spoke in the Kiowa language, none but the prisoners knew what he was saying. Then raising his voice, he sang his death song, the song of the Kâitséñko, of whom he was chief:
I´ha hyo´ o´ya i´ya´ i´ya' o i´ha ya´ya yo´yo´ A´he´ya ahe´ya´ ya´he´yo´ ya e´ya he´yo e´he´yo Kâ´itseñ´ko änä´obahe´ma haa´-ipai´-degi o´ba´-ikă´ Kâi´tse´ñko änä´obahe´ma hadâ´mga´gi o´ba´-ikă´ I hahyo, etc. Aheya, etc. O sun, you remain forever, but we Kâitse´ñko must die. O earth, you remain forever, but we Kâitse´ñko must die.
The song ended, he suddenly sprang upon the guard with a knife which he had managed to conceal about his person, and had cut him seriously when the soldiers following behind fired and he fell dead in the wagon. He was buried in the military cemetery at Fort Sill, but there is nothing to distinguish the grave. The Kiowa statement of his singing his death song is corroborated by Battey and by agent Tatum.
Although a noted warrior and a chief of the Kâitséñko, Set-ängya was generally feared and disliked by the tribe on account of his vindictive disposition and his supposed powers of magic. It was believed that he could kill an enemy by occult means, and that he had in this manner actually disposed of one or two who had incurred his displeasure. The knife with which he attacked the soldier is reputed to have been a "medicine knife," which he could swallow and disgorge as demanded by the necessity of concealment or use; several stories are told by the Indians to confirm this belief. His paternal grandmother was a woman of the Sarsi (Pákiägo, a small tribe incorporated with the Blackfeet,) who had married a Kiowa when the latter tribe lived in the far north. Unlike Indians generally, he habitually wore a mustache and straggling beard. He left two children; the elder, a son, was adopted into a white family under the name of Joshua Given, was educated in the east, married a white lady, afterward returned as a missionary to his people, and died of consumption about four years ago. The younger child, Julia Given, was until recently employed in one of the mission schools on the reservation.
