BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY— SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LXV
PHOTOS BY JACKSON; 1872.
PAÍ-TÄLYÍ OR SUN-BOY.
INTERTRIBAL COUNCIL OF 1888
The questions of railroads through the reservations, intrusions, allotments, and the ultimate opening of Indian Territory to white settlement, had now assumed such proportions that the civilized tribes had become alarmed and had called an intertribal council to debate measures to meet the emergency. The council met at Fort Gibson, in the Cherokee nation, in June, 1888, with representatives of about twenty tribes in attendance. Although recognizing civilization as their ultimate destiny, they were strongly opposed to any change in the tribal holding of their lands, and the sentiment was practically unanimous against allotment or any disturbance of the existing tribal system. The delegates and speakers from the Kiowa and associated tribes were Täbinä´naka and White-wolf for the Comanche, Big-tree for the Kiowa. White-man for the Apache, and Caddo Jake for the Caddo, Wichita, and smaller bands (Report, 66).
DEATH OF SUN-BOY—THE LAST SUN DANCE
In the fall of 1888 died Pai´-tälyi´, "Sun-boy," one of the last of the prominent chiefs of the old days of the buffalo hunt and the warpath (see the [calendar]). The summer of 1890 is notable for the last sun dance (k`adó) undertaken by the tribe. On this occasion the agent, making objection to the ceremony, which the Indians refused to abandon, ordered out the troops from Fort Sill to prevent it. On their arrival, although the Kiowa were at first disposed to resistance, upon the advice of Stumbling-bear and some other of the cooler heads, they finally dispersed to their homes, leaving the unfinished medicine lodge standing (see the [calendar]).
GHOST DANCE INAUGURATED—ÄPIATAÑ'S JOURNEY IN 1890
In the fall of 1890 Sitting-bull (Hänä´chä-thíak), an Arapaho, came and inaugurated the ghost dance among the Kiowa. As this subject is treated at length in the author's work on "The Ghost-dance Religion," in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, it need only be mentioned here. Like all the neighboring tribes except the Comanche, the Kiowa went heart and soul into the new religion, which was in line with the previous prophecies of Dátekâñ and Pá-iñgya. A few months later they sent Ä´piatañ, "Wooden-lance," a prominent young man of the tribe, to find the messiah and investigate and report upon his doctrine. On his return in the following spring he denounced the new teacher as an impostor, whereupon the Kiowa abandoned the dance. Within the last two years, however, they have revived the ghost-dance ceremonies with all the old-time vigor (see the [calendar]).