146 CALENDAR HISTORY OF THE KIOWA [etii..u)n.17 



liaud, WO find noted such incidents as the stealing of a liorse or tlie 

 eloiienicnt of a woman. The records resemble rather the personal 

 rennniscemies of a garrulous old man than the history of a nation. 

 They are the history of a people limited in their range of ideas and 

 interests, such materials as make up the chronicles of the highland 

 clans of Scotland or the annals of a medieval barony. 



It nuist be remembered, however, that an Indian tribe is simply a 

 large family, all tlie members being interrelated ; this is particularly 

 true of the Kiowa, who number only about 1,100. An event which 

 concerns one becomes a matter of gossip aiul general knowledge in all 

 the camps and is thus exalted into a subject of tribal importance. 

 Moreover, an event, if it be of common note in the tribe, may be 

 recorded rather for its value as a tally date than for its intrinsic 

 importance. 



On this i)<)int Mallery says, speaking of the Lone-dog calendar, that 

 it "was not intended to be a continuous histoiy, or even to record the 

 most imjjortant event of each year, but to exhibit some one of special 

 peculiarity. ... It would indeed have been impossible to have graph- 

 ically distinguished the many battles, treaties, horse stealings, big- 

 hunts, etc, so most of them were omitted and other events of greater 

 individuality and better adapted for portrayal were taken for the year 

 count, the criterion being not that they were of historic moment, but 

 that tliey were of general notoriety, or i)erhaps of special interest to 

 the recorders" (2lallery, 1). 



A brief interpretation of the calendars here described was obtained 

 from the original owners in 1892. To this was added, in the winter of 

 1894-05, all that could be procured from T'ebodal, (iaapiatafi, A'dal- 

 pejite, Set imkia, and other prominent old men of the tribe, together 

 with Captain Scott's notes and the statements of pioneer frontiersmen, 

 and all available printed sources of information, inclnding the annual 

 rei)orts of the Commissioner of Indian Atl'airs for more than sixty years. 

 The Dohiisiiu calendar is still in possession of Captain Scott. The 

 Sett'aii and Anko calendars are now deposited in the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology. 



MF/niOn OF FIXING DATES 



A few examples will show how the Kiowa keep track of their tribal 

 and family affairs by means of these calendars. Sett'an was born in 

 "cutthroat summer" (1833), and his earliest recollection is of the "head- 

 dragging winter" (1837-38). Set-hnkia, better known as Stumbling- 

 bear, was about a year old in "cutthroat summer" (1833). He was 

 married in "dusty medicine dance" summer (1S.")1). His daugh- 

 ter Virginia was born in the summer of " No-arm's river medicine 

 dance" (1803), and her husband was born a little earlier, in "tree-top 

 winter" (18(i2-G3). Gunsiidalte, commonly known as Cat, was born in 

 the "winter that Buffalo-tail was killed (1835-36); his son Angopte 



