MooNf^l CHARACTER AND POPULATION 235 



have influenced the tribal character, but whether for good or evil the 

 student of heredity must determine. 



The report of Captaiu Alvord, already quoted at length, attbrds a 

 good insight into Kiowa character. Gregg in 1844 described them as 

 "one of the most savage tribes that infest the western prairies" {Gregg, 

 7). Captain (afterward General) John Pope ten years later called them 

 deceitful and unreliable and "absolutely destitute of most of the chiv- 

 alrous characteristics wliich distinguish the Comanche brave." General 

 Pope iu 1870 denounced them as being altogether the worst Indians the 

 government had to deal with, having been for twenty-five years past 

 "the most faitbless, cruel, and unreliable of all the Indians of the 

 plains.'' About the same time General Sheridan exi)ressed his lasting 

 regret that he did not hang Set-t'aiDte and Lone-wolf and punish the 

 whole tribe when he first met them. The Quaker Battey, a good friend 

 of theirs, describes them as "the most tierce and desperately blood- 

 thirsty tribe of the Indian Territory"— a people who had hitherto resisted 

 all attempts to bring them into friendly relations with the government 

 or to a knowledge of civilization, still continuing to commit deiiredations 

 ujDon the white settlements, stealing horses and mules, murdering men 

 and women and carrying their children into captivity. He says it 

 would probably be difticult to find in the whole tribe a man whose 

 hands had not been imbrued in blood. Clark states that in personal 

 appearance, intelligence, and tenacity of purpose he considers them 

 inferior to the Comauche (Facific, 1 ; War, 5; Battey, IG ; Vlarh, 8). 



POPULATION 



It is always difficult to estimate the population of a roving tribe, and 

 almost invariably first reports are greatly exaggerated. This is partic- 

 ularly true of the Kiowa, whose restless disposition and inveterate 

 habit of raiding made them equally at home anywhere along a frontier 

 of a thousand miles. Excluding some extravagant early estimates, the 

 statements of the most competent observers, and the official reports 

 since they have been put upon the reservation, all indicate that the 

 combined population of the confederated Kiowa and Apache was never 

 much more than 1,G00, or 1,800 at the greatest, of whom the Ajtache 

 numbered nearly one-fourth. No really accurate count was ever made 

 until after their final subjugation in 1875, and it is worth noting that 

 their numbers, which had been reported at 2,774 and 2,303 in the pre- 

 ceding two years, at once fell to 1,414, and remained nearly stationary 

 at that figure until the ci)idemic of 1892. Battey's estimate iu 1873 (iu 

 which he probably means to include the Apache) of 1,000 to 1,050 is 

 probably very nearly correct. In 1892 the Kiowa numbered 1,014 and 

 the Apache 241, a total of 1,255, being a decrease from 1,470 in the 

 previous year in consequence of the epidemic of measles. In Novem- 

 ber, 1S96, they numbered: Kiowa 1,005, Apache 208, a total of 1,273. 

 The associated Comauche at the same time numbered 1,545. In each 



