158 CALENDAR HISTORY OF THE KIOWA [eth.ann.17 



perhaps about 1770. Te'bodal himself remembered having seen the 

 single woman survivor. It is said that the K'uato spoke a peculiar 

 dialect of the Kiowa language, although recognized as a part of the tribe, 

 and were noted for doing foolish and ridiculous things, a statement 

 borne out by the story of their extermination. 



INTERCOURSE AVITH THE ARIKARA, MANBAN, AND HIDATSA 



Next to the Crows, the Kiowa have most to say of their friendship 

 in these old days with the Arikara (Eee), Mandan, and Ilidatsa or 

 Minitari on Missouri river. For many years these three confederated 

 tribes, now reduced to about 1,100 souls in all, have occupied jointly 

 a single village on the northeastern bank of Missouri river, in the 

 vicinity of old Fort Berthold, about opposite Knife river, in North 

 Dakota. In 1805 the three tribes, with a small subtribe, now extinct, 

 occupied eight villages, with a total population of nearly 6,000 souls. 

 The Arikara were then considerably farther down the river, while tlie 

 others were nearly in their present position. From the fact that 

 Grand river, South Dakota, is known to the Dakota as Arikara river 

 it is probable that the Arikara formerly had their residence there for a 

 long period. In habits and home life the three tribes are almost identi- 

 cal, being sedentary agricultuiists, living in substantial earth-covered 

 log houses ; but in language they are quite distinct. The Arikara or Ree 

 are a branch of the Pawnee and sjieak a dialect of that language; the 

 Hidatsa, (irosventres, or Minitari were formerly a part of the Crows 

 and speak a dialect of that language ; while the language of the Mandan 

 is distinct from either of the others, although remotely cognate with the 

 Hidatsa. They are mentioned prominently by every traveler in that 

 region during the last century, the best description of them being given 

 by Matthews in his work on the Hidatsa. 



The definite recollection which the Kiowa have of these tribes shows 

 that they must have been very intimate with them in former times, 

 especially with the Arikara, whom they call K dfd, "biters," designat- 

 ing them in the sign language by a twisting motion of the closed right 

 hand, with thumb extended, in front ot the mouth, the allusion being to 

 gnawing corn from a cob. In the north the sign is sometimes made 

 with both hands, the right working against the left, the allusion then 

 being to shelling corn. The Arikara are preeminently distinguished 

 among the northern tribes as the corn-planting Indians, and are usually 

 designated in pictographs by the figure of a man with an ear of corn. 

 It is probable that they taught agriculture to the Jlandan and Hidatsa. 

 The Kiowa further identify the K at'a as being called Puliini by the 

 Dakota and as speaking a language like that of the Pawnee. Stum- 

 bling-bear claims to have met and talked with some of them on a former 

 visit to Washington. They have more to say of the Arikara than of 

 the others, probably because then, as now, they were the largest of the 

 three tribes, and also, as the Kiowa themselves say, because the Arikara 



