BULL. 30] 



ADOEETTE ADOPTION 



15 



A. E. 309, 1896; Cashing, ibid., 3H0) . 

 Houses constructed of adobes are very 

 comfortable, being warm in winter and 

 cool in summer. For this reason, and 

 owing to the availability and cheapness 

 of the material, adobe forms an impor- 

 tant factor in the domestic economy of 

 both white and Indian inhabitants of the 

 S. W. (f. w. h.) 



Adoeette {ado 'tree,' e-ei 'great,' tr per- 

 sonal sutiix: 'Big Tree'). A Kiowa 

 chief, born about 1845. In consequence 

 of Custer's vigorous campaign on the 

 Washita in the fall of 18H8 tl)e Kiowa 

 and confederated trilies had been com- 

 pelled to come in upon their reservation, 

 in wliat is now s. w. Oklahoma, but still 

 kept up frequent raids into Texas not- 

 with.standing the establishment of Ft 



ADOEETTE (kIOWa) 



Sill in their midst. In May, 1871, a 

 large party of Avarriors led by Satanta 

 ( properly Set-t'aiii-te, White Bear), (j.v., 

 and accompanied by Satank (properly 

 Set-iingya, Sitting Bear), q. v., and Big 

 Tree, attacked a wagon train, killing 7 

 men and taking 41 mules. For their 

 part in this deed, which they openly 

 avowed, the three chiefs named were 

 arrested at Ft Sill to stand trial in Texas. 

 Setiingyii made resistance and was killed 

 by the guard. The other two were 

 confined in the Texas penitentiary 

 until Oct., 1873, when they were released 

 on promise of good behavior of their tribe. 

 Satanta was subsequently reaiTested 

 and committed suicide in prison. Dur- 

 ing the latter part of the outbreak of 

 1874-75 Big Tree, with other chiefs be- 

 lieved to be secretly hostile, were con- 

 fined as prisoners at Ft Sill. Since that 



time the tribe has remained at peace. 

 Big Tree is still living upon his allotment 

 on the former reservation and is now a 

 professed Christian. See Mooney, Cal- 

 endar Hist. Kiowa Inds., 17th, Rep. B. 

 A. E., 1898. 



Adoption. An almost universal politi- 

 cal and social institution which originally 

 dealt only with persons but later with 

 families, clans or gentes, bands, and 

 tribes. It had its beginnings far back in 

 the history of primitive society and, after 

 passing through many forms and losing 

 much ceremonial garli, appears to-day in 

 the civilized institution of naturalization. 

 In the primitive mind the fundamental 

 motive underlying adoption was to defeat 

 the evil purpose of death to remove a 

 member of the kinship group Ijy actually 

 replacing in person the lost or dead mem- 

 ber. In primitive philosophy, birth and 

 death are the results of magic power; 

 birth increases and death decreases the 

 orenda (q. v. ) of the clan or family of the 

 group affected. In order to preserve that 

 magic power intact, society, by the exer- 

 cise of constructive ore»(f (7, resuscitates the 

 dead in the person of another in whom is 

 embodied tlie blood and person of the 

 dead. As the diminution of the number of 

 the kindred was regarded as having been 

 caused by magic power — by the orenda of 

 some hostile agency — so the prevention 

 or reparation of that loss must be accom- 

 plished by a like ])ower, manifested in 

 ritualistic liturgy and ceremonial. From 

 the view pointof the primitive mind adop- 

 tion serves to change, by a fiction of law, 

 the personality as well as the political 

 status of the adopted person. For ex- 

 ample, there were captured two white 

 persons (sisters) by the Seneca, and in- 

 stead of both being adopted into one clan, 

 one was adopted by the Deer an<l the 

 other by the Heron clan, and thus the 

 blood of the two sisters was changed liy 

 the rite of atloption in sut'h wise that 

 their children could intermarry. Fur- 

 thermore, to satisfy the underlying con- 

 cept of the rite, the adopted person must 

 be brought into one of the strains of 

 kinship in order to define the standing 

 of such person in the community, and 

 the kinship name which the person re- 

 ceives declares his relation to all other 

 per-sons in the family group; that is to 

 say, should the adopted person be named 

 son rather than uncle by the adopter, his 

 status in the connnunity would differ ac- 

 cordingly. From the political adoption 

 of the Tuscarora by the Five Nations, 

 about 1726, it is evident that tribes, fam- 

 ilies, clans, and groups of people could 

 be adopted like persons. A fictitious age 

 might be conferred upon the person 

 adopted, since age largely governed the 

 rights, duties, and position of persons in 



