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



from the present Fort Elliott in the panhandle of Texas. It was in 

 early summer, and they were preparing; for the sun dance; a young- 

 man was out aloue straightening arrows when he saw two men creep- 

 ing- up, with grass over their faces. Thinking they were Kiowa deer 

 hunters, he advanced to meet them, when they fired and wounded him 

 and his horse; he fled back to camp and gave the alarm, and Kiowa, 

 Comanche, and Apache rushed out in pursuit. They soon came up 

 with a small pai-ty of the enemy, who proved to be Olieyenne. The 

 Kiowa and their allies killed three of them thei-e, and following the 

 fugitives killed several others; continuing along tlie trail down the 

 north side of the creek to a short distance below its junction with 

 Sweetwater, they came upon the main camp of the Cheyenne, who dug 

 holes in the sand and made a good defense, but were at last all killed 

 except one, who strangled himself with a rope to avoid capture. The 

 bodies of the dead Cheyenne, 48 in number, were scalped, stri])ped, and 

 liiid along the ground in a row by the victors. Six Kiowa were killed, 



^ ^ '!' I, , 1/ ■ 





N*.N. 



-^ 





^ / / , . •' 



Fig. 75 — Battle pirtiires (from thi> Dakota calendars) 



including the grandfather of the present Lone-wolf. T't'bodal, the 

 oldest man now in the tribe, was engaged in this encounter. 



Set-t'an states that one Cheyenne wearing a war bonnet was killed as 

 he came out of a tipi (see figure 271). Other informants do not remem- 

 ber this, but say that the Kiowa captured a fine medicine lance in a 

 feathered case, and also a pabon or Dog-soldier staff, of the kind 

 carried by those who were pledged to die at their post. The stream 

 where the battle took ])lace is since called Sa'l'ota A'otun-de P'a, 

 "Creek where the Cheyennes were massacred.'' The summer of the 

 occurrence is sometimes called Ale (hid Pai, "Wailing sun-dance 

 summer," because, although the Kiowa wailed for their dead, the sun 

 dance was not on that account abandoned. 



WINTER 18.37-3S 



A'daUem Etla'ierjnnde Sni, "Winter that they dragged the head.'' 

 The figure above the winter mark shows a horseman carrying- a bloody 

 scalp upon a lance and dragging a bloody head at the end of a reata. 



