Societies of the Kiowas Part 1

Societies of the Kiowas.

by Robert H Lowie.

PREFACE.

Before summarizing the results of the investigation of Plains Indian societies undertaken by the Department of Anthropology for a number of years, it appeared desirable to secure data from the Kiowa respecting certain theoretical points that had developed from a study of other tribes. Though Mr. Mooney's printed Kiowa material seemed to decide these questions implicitly, it seemed best to take a view of the subject in the field from the particular vantage ground afforded by the systematic survey of the region presented in this volume. For this purpose I made a side trip to Anadarko, Oklahoma, in June, 1915. There I had the good fortune of enlisting the services of Mr. Andres Martinez, a Mexican who had been captured by the Apache while a boy, sold to the Kiowa two years later, and who had lived a large portion of his life as a Kiowa among Kiowa, marrying native women, entering some of the men's societies, and so forth. Mr. Martinez became my main informant and acted as my interpreter in questioning two full-blood Indians on doubtful points. He also corrected several errors in his published biography,[1]

which he explained were due to his inadequate knowledge of English at the time of its composition.

It is obvious that several days' work, however intensive, cannot exhaust such a topic as the military and related organizations of a Plains tribe: all I attempted was to shed some light on the problems treated in this series of papers.

February, 1916.

INTRODUCTION.

From Battey we learn that in the seventies of the last century the Kiowa had a police organization designed to prevent the young men from going on raids that might bring trouble upon the tribe.

... a strong guard of their soldiers were continually watching, day and night, while in camp, to prevent any such enterprise from being undertaken. In moving from place to place, these soldiers marched on each side of the main body, while a front guard went before, and a rear guard behind, thus preventing any from straggling away.

A corresponding body regulated the buffalo hunt.

The soldiers, going out first, surrounded a tract of country in which were a large herd of buffalo; and no one might chase a buffalo past this ring guard on pain of having his horse shot by the soldiers.[2]

Clark merely lists the names of five men's societies.[3]

In Rev. Methvin's biography of my chief informant there is a brief chapter on military societies,[4] but as these data were revised and amplified in connection with my own inquiries, they need not be summarized as there presented.

Our princ.i.p.al sources on this subject, however, are Mr. Mooney's statements.[5] These largely corroborate my own notes and will be presented with them so far as they do not coincide.

The older literature cited above does not in any way contradict the general results I obtained independently, which may be summarized as follows.

In recent times the Kiowa had six men's societies and two women's societies. There once existed in the time of one informant's greatgrandfather an additional men's society, the qo'+item, "Kiowa's Bone"(?). The members of this organization represented each a buffalo bull, except for the leader, who (though also a man) represented a buffalo cow. In a fight, if this leader stopped to stand his ground, all the others were obliged to do the same, even at the risk of death. Thus all of them were killed, and the people were afraid so that they no longer kept up the organization.

The six men's societies of recent times were: the Rabbits (fula'nyu); Shepherds (alto'yuhe); Rulers (?) of Horses (tse'ta'nma); Berries[6]

(ta'ipeko); Black Feet (tunk'unqot'); ? Horses (q'o'i'tse'nko). Of these the first-mentioned comprised all the little boys[7] in the tribe, while the last society in the list is superior to the others in social prestige, being composed exclusively of eminent warriors. The rest are of the same rank. Mr. Mooney at one time believed that the Rabbits "were afterward promoted, according to merit or the necessities of war, in regular progression to higher ranks."[8] In a more recent statement, however, he corroborates my own information that "the next four societies ... were all of about equal rank, varying only according to the merit or reputation of the officers at any particular time."[9] The societies thus did not form a graded series in any sense. As a boy grew up any one of the four coordinate societies might make him join. Some men never advanced from the status of a Rabbit, for if a boy was not considered the right sort he was not asked to join the adult men's organizations. There were only a few individuals who were barred in this way, however; every Indian man of any social standing became a member of some society. Later some other society might induce him to change his members.h.i.+p. If he was especially brave, he might be taken into the q'o'i'tse'nko. Except for the Rabbits, age had nothing to do with members.h.i.+p, nor was members.h.i.+p purchased; further the societies did not offer gifts to the individual sought as a member, thus differing from the Crow societies.

The societies met only during the period between a sun dance announcement and the sun dance itself, but this interval differed greatly in length, the announcement being sometimes made very soon after the consummation of the preceding ceremony while at other times it was only made immediately before the performance announced. During the period defined the societies met very frequently, one member inviting the others one day for a feast, and the rest following suit on other days. The q'o'i'tse'nko met less frequently than the rest. A man could only belong to one society at a time (except in the case of the adult leaders of the Rabbits). Since the Rabbits included all the young boys in the tribe, they were very numerous. On the other hand, the q'o'i'tsenko, owing to the special qualifications for members.h.i.+p, were very few,--only ten according to Mr. Mooney and from fifteen to twenty according to Martinez, while two Indians set the number at thirty. The last-mentioned informants set the average members.h.i.+p of the other organizations at forty or fifty, while Martinez's estimate is from thirty to forty.

There was no such rivalry between any two societies in times of war as has been described for the Crow Indians (this volume, p. 174). Sometimes at the time of the sun dance any two societies might engage in a kicking-fight, the object of which was to teach the young Indians not to run away from the enemy but to stand their ground and fight. This is doubtless the performance referred to by Battey as coming after the erection of the sun dance lodge:--

The soldiers of the tribe then had a frolic in and about it, running and jumping, striking and kicking, throwing one another down, stripping and tearing the clothes off each other.[10]

Martinez knew of no instance of a man voluntarily leaving his society. A father might give presents to poor Indians in honor of a boy who becomes a Rabbit, but he would not take the initiative to get his son into his own organization.

The mutual-benefit feature that characterizes the Crow clubs does not seem to have been prominent among the Kiowa. For example, when a man bought the medicine privileges described by Methvin under the caption "quo-dle-quoit,"[11] he was a.s.sisted by his relatives, but his society had nothing to do with the procedure.

At the time of the sun dance the medicineman appointed one of the societies to get the sacred tree. Similarly, he would choose one of them to act as police during the buffalo hunt. Their function in this connection is called q'i'at'a'tu, which seems to mean "they can stop any one." The offender who hunted individually instead of taking his place with the rest lost the meat so secured, and if he resented this punishment the police might shoot his horse or whip him.

If a member absented himself from an evening session of his society during the sun dance period, his a.s.sociates would sing a song the next day, hallooing and making a big noise at the end of the song. Then one man would call aloud the delinquent's name, coupling it with that of his mother-in-law and crying, "That is your wife!" Since the mother-in-law taboo held sway among the Kiowa,[12] the object of the performance was evidently to make the offender ashamed.

MEN'S SOCIETIES.

RABBITS.[13]

According to Mr. Mooney the Rabbit society embraced boys of the age of about ten or twelve. Martinez was about ten years old when he joined, but said that any boy belonged to the Rabbits when old enough to walk freely. In his case the event occurred later because he only came to live among the Kiowa at nine. There were two leaders, who were grown-up men and stayed with the Rabbits as long as they lived. These also belonged to some other organization, but their first duty was to the Rabbits if a meeting of both organizations should be called at the same time. Ko'tar and Ayate were the leaders in Martinez's time.

The Rabbits, generally, but not always, wore at the back of the head a strip of elk hide with the hair and a feather standing erect. They wore buckskin clothes and painted the face with different colors. All sang while dancing. The leaders beat drums but also took part in the dance sometimes. During one song three or four boys, or sometimes as many as ten, got up to dance. After the dance the leaders told the Rabbits all about their war deeds. If one leader died, the other nominated a successor, and if the boys agreed all went to this man's place, seized him and led him to their tipi.

The day before a feast one of the leaders would ride about, announcing that such-and-such a boy had invited the Rabbits for a dance and feast the next day.

In accordance with Mr. Mooney's statement that the boys of the society "were drilled in their future duties as warriors by certain old men,"

Martinez compares the Rabbit organization to a school. The leaders would rise and say: "When I was young like you, I was a little Rabbit, when I got older I went and stole horses, took scalps, etc."

Martinez says that every once in a while nowadays he hears the father of some sick child say, "If he recovers, I'll call the Rabbits together."

Then, if the child gets well, the father will entertain the boys with a feast, and the Indians believe that the promise was the cause of the recovery. In the old days the Indians used to do the same thing in corresponding cases.

The Rabbits jumped up and down without change of position, held up their hands to the level of their ears, moving the hands, and at the same time imitated the sound of rabbits: ts'a, t's'a!

Martinez remained a Rabbit until he was about fifteen years old.

SHEPHERDS.[14]

When about fifteen years old, Martinez was sleeping in his tipi one night when three young men entered. He gave them something to smoke, they smoked and then told him they were there on business. "What is your business?" My informant had already guessed what it was, for all his visitors were members of the Shepherd society. Each of the Rabbits had a special friend with whom he would dance. Martinez's comrade had already been taken in by the Shepherds and wanted him to join likewise. There was no reason for refusing, but even had he done so it would have been of no avail since they were accustomed to take the boys by force. They took Martinez at once to the Shepherds' meeting-place where the members began to halloo and beat drums. He was at once joined by his comrade, and the two danced together.

The Shepherds danced differently from the Rabbits, moving slightly or jumping up, and also moving both arms out at the level of the waist. No sound was made while dancing. Big-bow and Ayate (the Rabbit leader), both famous warriors, were the leaders of the Shepherds for life. The Shepherds had no badge, but wore feathers on the head. The two leaders had as badges two flat sticks about the length of a man's arms, carved with figures, with a pendant tse'ita u'nta (=?) skin, and a wrist-loop. These emblems were shared by the leaders of all the coordinate societies. If one of the leaders rose and put the loop of his stick round his wrist, all the members had to get up likewise and dance.

At the end of a song all the Shepherds sat down except one of the leaders, who would tell of his exploits. For each deed recited the drummers beat the drum once. Sometimes only one leader recited the deeds, sometimes one after the other. Sometimes some other member would follow with a recital of his own deeds. In the Shepherds, as in the other coordinate societies, all ages from twelve up were represented. If Martinez had so desired, he might have stayed with the Shepherds all his life, but usually some other organization would take a desirable member.

After being adopted, my informant no longer joined the Rabbit feasts but went to those of the Shepherds. All he had to do there was to learn the songs and dances and obey his leaders.

The following story is told. The Kiowa were once being pursued by the enemy toward a mountain called Alto'yuhe. There one Kiowa, a Shepherd, said: "I will not run any farther, I'll make a stand and defend my people, even if I get killed." He acted accordingly, sang his song, and was killed. The mountain was then called after the Shepherds, and the society adopted his death song as a special song of theirs. The words were about the following: "Now I am gone. I am going to leave you."

(i. e. "I will not run any more.")

TSe'TA'NMa.[15]

Martinez was about twenty when this society took him in. His comrade was still a Shepherd, so Martinez sent for him and made him join also. There were two leaders, one of whom marched in front, the other behind. This seems to apply to all the societies. It did not matter which leader took either of the two positions defined. Here, as in all the coordinate societies, the leaders had two sticks of the type described for the Shepherds, and called either after the skin pendant or qo'ku'qa'. There were rattles and drums. Two or three members would dance to the music, but if the leaders rose with their badges, all were obliged to rise and dance. The leaders told about their deeds, then other members followed suit. Martinez was satisfied with the Shepherds, but the tse'ta'nma were eager to get him, and had he refused to join they would have come for him again and again. When getting an individual they went to his own, not to his society's, tipi. The society that lost a member in the manner described would not resent this in any way and might do likewise with members of other societies. If the tse'ta'nma got together now, Martinez would have the right to join in their meeting.