ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT LXIX 



tiou in Indian tribes is always to introduce arbiti'ary relation- 

 ships tending- to break down the natural kinship system; yet 

 hardly less important were the oft-recurring expeditions, since 

 they involved more or less arbitrary extensions of the simple 

 tribal organization, somewhat analogous to those attending the 

 development of patriarchy among regularly nomadic peoples. 

 Collectively, the conditions growing out of the roving and 

 predatory habits of the Kiowa must have tended in excep- 

 tional if not unique degree to subordinate the prevailing con- 

 sanguineal organization of primitive society, and to gloss or 

 even to replace it with a more strictly artificial or demotic sys- 

 tem corresponding to that of higher culture. Accordingly, the 

 inconspicuousness of gentile organization among the Kiowa 

 Indians would seem to be but a normal consequence of the 

 measurably peculiar habits and history of the tribe. 



Another noteworthy characteristic of the Kiowa Indians is 

 found in an elaborate system of heraldi'y, to which Mr Moone}' 

 makes little more than casual reference, full details being- 

 reserved for another memoir. While the heraldic system does 

 not require extended explication in this connection, it demands 

 allusion by reason of its connection with the social organiza- 

 tion; for it is evidently an artificial substitute for the simpler 

 and more nearly natural clan or gens or totem normal to primi- 

 tive culture, and marks social advance comparable witli that 

 reached by certain other peoples only with the abandonment 

 of tribal organization and the adoption of organization on a 

 territorial basis. Accordingly the heraldic system is peculiarly 

 significant in attesting- the direct interpretation of the social 

 structure. 



A noteworthy, although not unique, characteristic of the 

 Kiowa Indians is expressed in a calendar system or system 

 of recording conspicuous events in the histor}^ of individuals 

 and the tribe. This sj'stem is described in detail in the accom- 

 panying memoir. Previous to the institution of the Bureau, 

 the best-known example of aboriginal inscription of the pres- 

 ent territory of the United States was the Walam Ohnn of the 

 Delawares; with the inauguration of systematic researches 

 relating to native pictography, the now well-known winter 



