274 



CALENDAR HISTORY OF THE KIOWA 



[ETH. ANN. 17 



attacked the strangers, who proved to be Avapaho, killing tlieni all. 

 Set-t'an's father, Ten-piiik ia ("Heart-eater"), 

 S \ f f J ^^^ wounded in the leg in this fight, as indi- 

 (. ' ( l^ Z' cated by the iigure of a luau, with blood flowing 

 fi-oni a wound in the leg, below the battle picture. 



SUMMER 1839 



Vihi) K'ddo, "Peninsula suu dance." The 

 ])eniiisula or bend is indicated hyaline bending 

 around the medicine lodge. The dance is thus 

 designated because held in the i^ilii't, or penin- 

 sula, on the south side of the Washita, a short 

 distance below Walnut creek, within the pres- 

 ent limits of the reservation. This dance simply 

 serves as a tally date, as nothing of more special 

 interest is recorded for the summer. It would 

 seem that the incursions of the Cheyenne and 

 Arapaho had prevented the usual holding of 

 the 1;<UJ6 for the two pre- 

 ceding years. 



WIXTER 1S39-40 



Tii'dalkop Sat, "Small- 

 pox winter." The Kiowa 

 were ravaged by the 

 smallpox, the second visitation of that disease 

 within their memory, the first hav- 

 ing been in 1818. The disease is 

 indicated in the conventional In- 

 dian manner by means of the figure 

 of a man covered with red spots fio- td— summer 1839— Pen- 



, o i* T\r n 1 insula 8un dance. 



(compare figures from JMallcry's 



Dakota calendar; see also 18G1-G2 and 1802). It was 

 brought by some visiting Osage, and spread at once 

 through the Kiowa, Apache, and Comanche, killing a 



I great number in each tribe. The Kiowa and Apache tied 



to the Staked plain to escape it, and the Comanche in 

 some other direction. 

 This was the great smallpox epidemic which began on 

 the upper ^Missouri in the summer of 1837 and swept the 

 whole plains north and south, destroying probably a third, 

 if not more, of the native inhabitants, some whole tribes 

 being nearly exterminated. The terribly fatal result of 

 smallpox among Indians is due largely to the fact that 

 their only treatment for this disease and for measles, both 

 of which came to them from the Miiites, is the sweat bath 

 ■followed by the cold plunge. In this instance the disease first broke 



FlQ. 78— Winter 183S-:i9— Hat- 

 tie with Ara]»alH). 



Fio. 80— Winter 

 1839-40— Small- 

 pox. 



