MooNETi sett'an and anko calendars 145 



passing outside, his voice easily being beard through the thin walls and 

 the smoke-hole of the lodge. At these gatherings tlie pipe is filled and 

 passed around, and each man in turn recites some mythic or historic 

 tradition, or some noted deed on the warpath, which is then discussed 

 by the circle. Thus the history of the tribe is formulated and handed 

 down. 



Sett'an, "Little-bear," who is a cousin of the old war-chief, in whose 

 family tlie author makes his home when with the tribe, voluntarily 

 brought in and presented the calendar without demanding any pay- 

 ment in return, saying that he had kept it for a long time, but that he 

 was now old and the young men were forgetting their history, and he 

 wanted it taken to Washington and preserved there with the other 

 things collected from the tribe, that the white people might always 

 remember what the Kiowa had done. 



THE ANKO MONTHLY CALENDAR 



The original monthly calendar of Anko (abbreviated from Anl-opad- 

 ifigyadete, "In the middle of-many-tracks") was drawn in black pencil 

 in a continuous spiral, covering two pages of the notebook in which 

 his yearly calendar was recorded, and was redrawn by him in colored 

 inks, under the inspection of the author, on the same buckskin on 

 which the other was reproduced. It begins in the lower left-hand 

 corner. Each moon or month is represented by a crescent, above 

 which is a pictograph to indicate the event, or the name of the moon, 

 and sometimes also straight tally marks to show on what day of the 

 month the event occurred or the picture was drawn. So for this is 

 the only monthly calendar discovered among North American tribes, 

 but since the original was obtained, Anko has made another copy for 

 his own use and continued it up to date. His young wife being far 

 advanced in consumption, he spends most of his time at home with 

 her, which accounts in a measure for his studious habit. On the later 

 calendar he has noted with anxious care every hemoirhage or other 

 serious incident in her illness and every occasion when he has had 

 ceremonial prayers made for lier recovery. 



COMPAKATITE IMPORTAISTCE OF EVENTS RECORDED 



An examination of the calendars affords a good idea of the compara- 

 tive importance attached by the Indian aiul by the white man to the 

 same event. From the white man's point of view many of the things 

 recorded in these aboriginal histories would seem to be of the most 

 trivial consequence, while many events which we regard as marking 

 eras in the history of the plains tribes are entirely omitted. Thus there 

 is nothing recorded of the Custer campaign of 1S(!8, which resulted in 

 the battle of the Washita and compelled the southeru tribes for the 

 first time to go on a reservation, while the outbreak of 1S74, which 

 terminated in their final subjugation, is barely noticed. On the other 



