MooNETj THE MEDICINE LODGE TREATY 321 



is sometimes known as T'd-hodal Uhotal-de Sai, " "Winter that Spoiled-ear 

 was killed." Several parties went against tlie Navaho on the Pecos 

 this year (that tribe being still at the Bosque Eedondo), particularly a 

 large expedition, including nearly all the Comanche and about half of 

 the Kiowa and Apache, which started immediately after the sun dance, 

 defeated the Navaho iu an important engagement, and returned in 

 time for the treaty. 



The treaty of Medicine Lodge has already been discussed at length 

 iu another place. According to the statement of the Kiowa they were 

 camped on the creek where they had held their sun dance, when they 

 were summoned to Fort Larned. Sett'ainte, Set-iingya, Set-imkia, and 

 the other chiefs, with all their people, at once moved to that point, 

 where they met an officer who, they say, was called Gdnuiin, "General" 

 by the whites, and whom the Indians called PasotkyiPto, "Old-man-of- 

 the-thunder," because he wore upon his shoulders the eagle or thunder- 

 bird. This was General Winfield S. Hancock, then in command in that 

 section. By his direction they camped on the river near the post, where 

 thej^ were supplied with rations for some days until the i>urpose of the 

 government was explained to them. They then returned to Medicine- 

 lodge creek and prepared a council house among the trees, ready for 

 the arrival of the commissioners. The medicine lodge and Kiowa 

 camp were on the south (west) side of the creek, while the council house 

 in which the treaty was made was on the opposite (northeast) side, 12 

 miles above, or about .3 miles above the junction of Elm creek and 

 near the present site of Medicine Lodge, Barber county, Kansas. It is 

 described in the treaty itself as "the council camp on Medicine Lodge 

 creek, 70 miles south of Fort Larned, in the State of Kansas." The low, 

 timbered hill, from which the stream takes its Kiowa name o{ A'ya'daldii, 

 Phi, "Timber-hill river," is on the east side, opposite the medicine lodge 

 of the last preceding dance, from which the stream derives its present 

 name. It was a favorite dance headquarters, as several other dances 

 had already been held in the same vicinity. 



The Kiowa say that the white man, Philip McCusker, who inter- 

 preted the treaty to the three confederated tribes, spoke only Coman- 

 che, and his words were translated into Kiowa by Bii'o ("Cat"), alias 

 Guusiidalte, "Having-horns," who is still living. They sum up the 

 provisions of the treaty by saying that the commissioners promised to 

 give them "a place to go," to give them schools, and to feed them for 

 thirty years, and hoped that they would then know how to take care of 

 themselves. Only a part of the Comanche were represented, most of 

 the Kwiihadi band being then on an expedition against the Navaho. 

 According to contemporary notices, there were present at the treaty over 

 eight hundred and iifty tipis, or about five thousand souls, of the Chey- 

 enne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache, together with aljout 

 six hundred whites, including the commissioners and attaches, a large 



