Kiowa Humanity and the Invasion of the State

Chapter 4. Young Kiowa Men, Kiowa Social Values, and the Politics of Rations

Chapter 4. Young Kiowa Men, Kiowa Social Values, and the Politics of Rations Throughout the 1850s and well into the 1860s two developments significantly advanced the United States’ plan to overcome the Kiowas. First, federal Indian policies became increasingly militarized and the United States Army established a more visible presence on the Plains. Texas and its settlers entered the union presuming entitlement to federal protection from Indian raids. The United States responded to Indian “depredations” against the new Americans by establishing a meager military presence. The U.S. Army carried out sporadic assaults against the Kiowas and Comanches from 1858 through 1860, stepping up the effort following the Civil War.1 Second, non-Indian hunters and a brisk hide trade had increased pressure on the buffalo population. The consequent depletion of game transformed rations and annuities from an optional supplementary resource into a subsistence necessity. Kiowa band leaders were in perfect agreement about the problems that lay before them. They saw the Kiowa tribe perched between a diversified economy and strong leadership on the one hand and encroaching intrusions into their territory with potential to undermine their economy and autonomy on the other. The labor of d’ogudle, young Kiowa men, became increasingly valuable during the erosive 1860s and early 1870s when local Indian agents and federal policy makers agreed on a strategy of withholding rations to coerce the Kiowas into compliance with the colonial administration. Kiowa leaders from both the reservation and outside bands benefited from the young men’s work, claiming powerlessness to control them. The calamity created by the rations situation inside the reservation resulted in cooperative intergenerational strategies between Kiowas on either side of the reser- 59 Young Kiowa Men, Kiowa Social Values, and the Politics of Rations vation boundary. Later, the leadership would part on the question of peace or a military response to the United States. Until then, young men continued to fill their traditional work of “bringing home the meat.” The young men’s continued raids, which blunted the impact of the Kiowas’ drastically reduced resources, were represented officially by the U.S. and in popular accounts as “depredations,” another case of state criminalization of tribal practices that the reservation system itself had made even more necessary. Young Kiowa men’s raids, revenge parties, and inevitable clashes with settlers, intensifying as U.S. colonial policies developed into draconian measures, were situated in the context of Kiowa socialization and economy, and thus constitute subjects for a study in Kiowa social values. Food was the prevailing reason for contact between the Kiowas and the reservation agent, but there was never enough. Women continued to procure plants and to process game and men to hunt, but a hostile military presence, depleted game, and limited hunting grounds pressed the Indians toward increasing reliance on government commodities . Dohausen’s talk at the 1865 treaty signing reveals the great changes he had observed since his 1854 complaint about U.S. relations with Indians. “Great Father,” Dohausen pointedly argued, “is always promising to do something for him, but never does anything.”2 The leader spoke to the troubles with the Americans, addressing them directly: I wish you to leave my country alone. The Santa Fe road is open, and will not be disturbed. The rest of the country I want let alone. I want to tell you again and again to throw away the soldiers, and I will get all badness out of my heart, so that we can all travel kindly together. I want you to listen to my talk, and take away the soldiers. Keep my talk in your heart, and get rid of the soldiers. I don’t like to see them. I wish you to do as the Great Father of Washington wishes you to do; just leave the white folks behind, and take the goods to the Salt Plains for the Indians. Before this half the goods have been stolen by the white men; I want the goods taken to the Salt Plains. 60 Young Kiowa Men, Kiowa Social Values, and the Politics of Rations While the lack of food created a reason for conflict between the Kiowas and whites, tensions increased as the United States’ Indian policy evolved into a military occupation of Kiowa territory. A number of Kiowa leaders, including Stumbling Bear, took up Dohausen’s challenge to the U.S. government in 1866. They also...