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



prompt and decided refusal. As the Mexican captive element forms 

 so large a proportion of the blood of these three tribes, the remarks of 

 agent Fitzpatrick in this connection are of interest: 



The chief diffirulty which occurred in negotiating the present treaty was not, 

 however, presented in the article embracing the foregoing points, but in that which 

 contemplates a cessation of hostilities against the neighboring provinces of Mexico 

 and the restoration of prisoners hereafter captured. For a long time these tribes 

 have been in the habit of replenishing their caballadas of horses from the rich val- 

 leys and pasture lands which border upon the Rio Grande. Yearly incursions have 

 been made by them far into the interior of Chihuahua and Durango, and they but 

 seldom return without having acquired much plunder, as well as many captives, 

 from the defenseless inhabitants of that country. The name of the Comanche and 

 Apache has become a byword of terror even in the villages and beneath the city 

 walls of those fertile provinces. The consequences of those expeditions are twofold, 

 for while they serve to sharpen the appetite for pillage and rapine, they also tend to 

 keep up the numbers of the tribe. The large herds driven off produce the former 

 result, and the prisoners captured contribute to the latter. The males thus taken 

 are most commonly adopted into the tribe, and soon become the most expert leaders 

 of war parties and the most accomplished of marauders. The females are chosen as 

 wives and share the duties and pleasures of the lodge. In fact, so intermingled 

 amongst these tribes have the most of the Mexican captives become that it is some- 

 what difficult to distinguish them. They sit in council with them, hunt with them, 

 go to war with them, and partake of their perils and profits, and but few have any 

 desire to leave them. Upon this account the chiefs of the nations refused positively 

 and distinctly to entertain any proposals or make any treaties having in view giv- 

 ing up those captives now dwelling amongst them. They stated very briefly that 

 they had become a part of the tribe; that they were identified with them in all 

 their modes of life ; that they were the husbands of their daughters and tlie mothers 

 of their children, and they would never consent to a separation, nor could any per- 

 suasion or inducement move them to abate this position. All that could be accom- 

 plished was to make a provision for the future (Report, S). 



Even this much seems to have amounted to but little, for in the next 

 year we And the same agent reporting that " so far as I can learn, they 

 have faithfully complied with the treaty stipulations, save one. It is a 

 difficult matter to make them understand that New Mexico now belongs 

 to the United States. They deny ever having consented not to war on 

 Mexicans. They say that they have no other place to get their horses 

 and mules from" [Report, 4). 



DEFEAT OF ALLIED TRIBES BY SAUK AND FOX, 1854 



In the summer of 1854 the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Cheyenne, 

 and others of the plains tribes, organized a great expedition for the 

 purpose of exterminating the immigrant tribes in eastern Kansas, 

 whose presence was beginning to be felt in an ominous decrease of the 

 buffalo. Although this was perhaps the largest war party ever raised 

 by the plains Indians south of the Sioux country, being estimated to 

 number 1,500 warriors, they were ingloriously defeated with heavy 

 loss by a party of Sauk and Fox numbering hardly a hundred, the 

 result being due to the fact that the latter were armed with long- 

 range rifles, while their enemies had only bows and arrows. Almost 



