MOONEYj 



DECLINE OF THE BUFFALO 



345 



\ 



iill bi' fed until those for the next year were received. But again thoy failed to tind 

 fiame sufficient to fee<l themselves, and the Kiowa, who wliile out were eujjaged in 

 their annual medicine dance, suffered some with hunger. I think their failures in 

 llndiug liuft'alo the past year, and their conseciuent suffering while out, will have a 

 good ctileet in causing them to abandon their idea of subsisting in this way and to 

 look to their crops and stock for a support. It is a fact worthy of note that the reports 

 of the agents show the value of the robes and furs sold by the Indians now belonging 

 to the Kiowa, Comanche, and Wichita agency for the year 1876 amounted to $70,400; 

 for 1877, $64,.iOO; for 1878, $26,37.5; while in 1879 only $5,068 was received, showing 

 that buffalo hunting is not a thing of profit as it once was; and, besides, the most 

 serious drawback to the Indians is the lack of the buffalo meat which at one time 

 helped to subsist them, and which, added to the insufficient rations furnished by 

 the government, kept them partly comfortable. As that supply is 

 cut off. the Indum must go to work and help himself or remain 

 hungry on the rations furnished {lleporl, 100). 



The Anko calendar records the fact that while the Kiowa 

 were driving away their issue of beef cattle some mischie- 

 vous boys, shooting at the cattle with their arrows, acci- 

 dentally shot another boy in the shoulder, but not fatally. 

 In giving this explanation it was evident that Anko did 

 not want to mention the boy's name, probably because 

 he was now dead. 



WINTER 1S79-80 



T(i'k(!gi/(i Sai, "Eye-triumph winter." The name and 

 story furnish a curious illustration of Indian belief. 

 Kaii.sii'nte, "Little-robe "(or Little hide), with two or three 

 others, had gone to the North fork of Red river to look 

 for antelope. According to another stoi-y they went to 

 look for their old enemies, the Navaho, who, it seems, 

 although now removed to their former reservation in 

 western New Mexico, still occasionally penetrated thus 

 far. Among them was a man named Pododal (a variety 

 of bird), who claimed to understand the language of owls, 

 a bird believed by the Kiowa to be an embodied sjiirit. 

 While resting one night in camp this man warned Little- 

 robe not to go to bed, but to I'onud up the ponies and keep watch over 

 them, for an owl had told him that the Navaho would try to steal them 

 that night. During the night Pododal fired at something iti the dark- 

 ness, and on looking in the morning they found the trail of a man, and 

 blood drops, which they followed for a long distance, but at last gave 

 up the pursuit. That night the owl again came and told Pcklodal that 

 the wounded Navaho was lying dead beyond the point where they had 

 turned back, and that he (the owl) would go and fetch him. 



On rising in the morning Pododal saw some strange-looking object 

 lying on the ground in tlie lodge, and on examining it it proved to be 

 the eye of a dead Navaho. On the advice of Pododal they then 

 abandoned the hunt and returned to the Kiowa camp, on a small branch 

 of Apache creek {Scnuit P^u), an upper branch of Cache ci'eek. They 

 17 ETH 3(5 



Fig, 167— Winter 

 1879-80 — Ey 6- 

 triiiiuiih win- 

 ter. 



