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



RECOLLECTIONS OF OTHER NORTHERN TRIBES 



The old men who have most knowledge of this northern residence 

 and alliance with the Grows and Arikara say, after the Indian style of 

 chronology, tlijit it was in the time when their grandfathers were young 

 men, and when they still had but few horses and commonly used dogs 

 as pack animals in traveling. One of the mythic legends of the tribe 

 accounts for the origin of the Black Hills {Sddalka^i K'op, "manifold 

 mountains"', and another deals with the noted Bear Lodge or Devil's 

 Tower (Tx6-ai, "tree rock," i. e., monument rock), near Sun Dance, 

 Wyoming, which thej' claim is within their old country. Beyond the 

 Yellowstone (Tsdsd I'^a) they say lived the Blackfeet {Ton-koilko, 

 "blackleg people") and the Arapaho Gros Ventres [Botk iiigo, " belly 

 l)eoi)le"). They knew also the Shoshoni (Sonclota, "grass houses"), 

 who, they say, formerly lived in houses of interwoven rushes or grass; 

 the Flatheads, the northern Arapaho, and of course the Dakota. It 

 is somewhat remarkable that they knew also the small tribe of Sarsi, 

 living on the Canadian side of the line at the source of the North Sas- 

 katchewan, whom tliey describe accurately as a tribe living with the 

 Blackfeet and speaking a language resembling that of the Apache. 

 They call them Paknu/o, which they render " stupid i^eople," indicating 

 the tribe in the sign language by a sweeping motion of the right hand 

 across the thigh, perhaps from a confusion with jx'^i, thigh. It is 

 possible that the name is not really of Kiowa origin, but is derived 

 from Fiiki or Fdkiaui, the Shoshoni name for the Blackfeet themselves. 

 The Kiowa call the Brule Dakota Paki-f/uddlkantri, "red-burnt thigh" 

 people, with the same gesture sign as for the Sarsi. Several prominent 

 men of the Kiowa tribe, among whom may be mentioned Gaapiatan 

 and Piitadal, are of Sarsi descent. The maternal grandmother of the 

 noted chief Setiiiigya, killed at Fort Sill in 1871, was a Sarsi woman 

 who married a Kiowa man during an interchange of friendly visits 

 between the two tribes. By reason of this Athapascan blood, those of 

 Sarsi descent, including Gaapiatah, who is Setiiiigya's nephew, consider 

 themselves in a measure related to the Kiowa Apache. 



From the beginning the Kiowa say that they were usually on friendly 

 terms with the Crows, Arapaho, Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa, and, 

 so far as they can recollect, with the Shoshoni and Flatheads, the 

 friendship being interrupted, however, by occasional quarrels more or 

 less serious. They were frequently at war with tlie Cheyenne, and 

 always, from their lirst acquaintance, with the J>akota, Pawnee, and 

 Ute. Their relations with the southern tribes will be noted hereafter. 



ACQUIREMENT OF HORSES 



Although the Kiowa had no horses until they came down from the 

 mountains and settled near the Crows, it is i)robable that they obtained 

 some very soon afterward, probably from their friends the Crows. 



