This was during the great cholera epidemic that swept the country in the spring and summer of 1849, which was carried to the plains by the California and Oregon emigrants and by some of the tribes then in process of removal from the east. The Kiowa remember this as the most terrible experience within their history, far exceeding in fatality the smallpox of nine years before. It was a disease before entirely unknown to them, and was particularly dreaded on account of its dreadful suddenness, men who had been in perfect health in the morning being dead a few hours later. The disease appeared immediately after the sun dance, which was held on Mule creek (Ädóä P'a, "Tipi windbreak river"), between Medicine-lodge creek and the Salt fork of the Arkansas, and, like the previous smallpox, it was brought by visiting Osage who attended the dance. During the performance a man became inspired or "crazy," as in the ghost dance, and prophesied that something terrible was about to happen after the taíme had been returned to its box. Hardly was the dance over and the taíme put away when a man was attacked by this strange disease and died in a few hours; then another became sick and died as suddenly, and another, until in a few days the epidemic spread through the tribe, killing great numbers, including an unusual proportion of medicine-men. The Kiowa say that half their number perished during its prevalence; this is probably an exaggeration, but whole families and camps were exterminated and their tipis were left standing empty and deserted. Many in their despair committed suicide, but the survivors saved themselves by scattering in different directions until the disease had spent its fury.
Fig. 104—Cholera (from the Dakota calendars).
The tribes of the lake region and those which had been recently removed to Indian Territory generally escaped the disease, but among the wild tribes of the plains, from the Dakota to the Comanche, the ravages of the cholera during this season were as awful as among the white population of the eastern states. The western Dakota, who suffered severely, believed that the disease had been deliberately introduced by the whites for their more speedy extermination (Report, 78). The agent for the Pawnee states that up to June of 1849 twelve hundred and thirty-four persons, or nearly one-fourth of the tribe, had already died, and the disease was still making fearful ravages among them, while the survivors were in such dread of the terrible scourge that no persuasion could induce them to bury the dead, and within a short distance of the agency it was not unusual to find the unburied corpses partially devoured by wolves (Report, 79).
In the spring of 1850 an attempt was made to assemble the tribes of the southern plains for the purpose of making treaties with them to insure the safety of the emigrant roads. The Comanche, however, declined to attend on account of the cholera, which they said their medicine-men had predicted would be communicated to them again by the whites unless they kept at a proper distance until the grass had died in the fall, when the cholera would die out with it, and they would no longer be afraid to meet their white friends (Report, 80). This caused a postponement of the negotiations, which resulted later in the treaties of Fort Laramie in 1851 and Fort Atkinson in 1853.
WINTER 1849—50
The Kiowa killed several of the Pawnee and were received by their friends with a dance on returning to camp. The figure over the winter mark ([figure 105]) represents a Pawnee, as shown by the peculiar shaving of the head, with two long scalp-locks or "horns." In this connection Dunbar says:
The name Pawnee is most probably derived from páriki, a horn, and seems to hare been once used by the Pawnees themselves to designate their peculiar scalp lock. From the fact that this was the most noticeable feature in their costume the name came naturally to be the denominative term of the tribe (Clark, 18. See also summers [1841] and [1851], and winter [1852—53]).
The half circle above represents the circle of dancers opening in the direction from which the warriors are returning, and the cross in the center represents a fire made of a pile of buffalo chips around which they danced.
The Kiowa were camped in two divisions near the Salt fork of Arkansas river when a war party of Pawnee stole the horses of the first camp, whose warriors at once started in pursuit. In the meantime another party of Pawnee stole a number of horses from the Kiowa at the other camp, who also sent their warriors in pursuit of the thieves. The first Kiowa party overtook the Pawnee warriors, dismounted, and attacked them, killing one. While this was transpiring the other band of the Pawnee came up in the rear and stole the horses from which the riders had dismounted to fight. The second Kiowa party, coming up behind the Pawnee, at once attacked them, killed four, and recovered nearly all the horses.