Fig. 70—Summer 1835—Cat-tail rush sun dance.
The Kiowa had made their winter camp on the Washita, when a war party set out against the Toñhéñ-t'a`ká-i (Mexicans of the waterless country), or Chihuahuans. Having started late, they camped all winter at a mountain toward the southern edge of the Staked plain, known as Déngyä-kóñ K`op, or "Black-ice mountain." One morning in the early spring, while several men were out looking for their ponies, they were suddenly surrounded by the Mexicans and all killed, including Pa-ton, who was shot through the body. Their comrades saw the fight from a distance, but, being outnumbered and therefore afraid to come near to help them, they got away as soon as they could.
SUMMER 1835
Donpä K`ádó, "Cat-tail rush sun dance." This was the first sun dance held by the Kiowa after the recovery of the taíme from the Osages, already narrated, and is thus distinguished because it was held at a place where a great many cat-tail rushes (Equisetum arvense) were growing on the south bank of North Canadian river, at the Red hills, about 30 miles above the present Fort Reno, Oklahoma. The soft white portion of the lower part of the stalk of this rush is eaten raw by the Indians with great relish. The picture above the medicine lodge represents the taíme bíĭmkâ-í or rawhide box in which the taíme is kept.
It was immediately after this dance that a war party of Kiowa made the raid far down toward the coast in which they captured Bóiñ-edal (Big-blond), now the oldest captive in the tribe. This man, sometimes known to the whites as Kiowa Dutch, was born in Germany and is now, according to his own account, about 70 years of age. He remembers having gone to school in Germany as a small boy, and came to this country, when about 8 or 9 years of age, with his father, stepmother, and an elder brother. He describes the place where they located as being a small settlement on a large river, up which ships could sail, where there were alligators and trees with long moss, and which was within a day's ride of the sea. The people were engaged in raising cotton, his family being the only Germans. From other evidence it seems to have been about Matagorda or Galveston bay, showing that the Kiowa carried their raids in this direction even to the coast. Within a year of their coming, and before he had learned English, a Kiowa war party attacked the settlement at night, carried off himself, his mother, and his brother, and probably killed his father; his mother was taken in another direction and he never saw her again; she was afterward ransomed by Tométe, the trader already mentioned; his brother committed suicide during the cholera epidemic of 1849; Bóiñ-edal is still with the tribe. As his name indicates, he is a typical German in appearance, and still remembers a few words of his mother language, besides having a fair knowledge of English and Spanish, although he does not remember his own name or birthplace. It was about the same time that the Comanche raided Barker's fort, on the Navasota, in eastern Texas, and carried off the girl Cynthia Parker, who afterward became the mother of Quanah, the present chief of the tribe. The story of these captives may have a hundred parallels among the three confederated tribes.
Fig. 71—Winter 1835—36—Big-face killed.
WINTER 1835—36
Tó`-edalte (Big-face) was shot through the body and killed by the Mexicans while on a raid into old Mexico. This is Set-t'an's statement, which is borne out by the picture of a man, whose name is indicated by the figure of a big head or face above. Other informants, however, deny any knowledge of such a man, and in the notes accompanying the Scott calendar he is called Wolf-hair. The gunshot wound is indicated in the ordinary way.