DISAPPEARANCE OF THE BUFFALO 



349 



game goes on far iuto the niglit, uutil the contest is decided and the 

 stakes won by oiio side or the other. It is a most animated and inter- 

 esting game, of which they are very fond, and frequently at night in the 

 winter camp the song chorus may be heard from several games in pro- 

 gress simultaneously, the high-pitched voices of the women in one tipi 

 making a pleasing contrast to the deeper tones of the men in anotlier. 

 The Anko calendar notes the building of a medicine tipi by Datekan, 

 for the purijose of bringing back the buffalo (see summer 1882). The 

 tipi is shown below the winter mark. 



StiMMEK 1882 



This summer Dohasiin, whose hereditary duty it was to supply the 

 buffalo for the sun dance, failed to find even one, and in consequence 

 there was no dance. For this summer the Anko 

 calendar notes the death of Patsogate, "Lookiug- 

 alike," a daughter of Stumbling bear, noted for her 

 beauty. In accordance with the tribal custom in 

 regard to speaking of the dead, Anko for a long 

 time refused to mention her name. The incident is 

 indicated by the figure of a woman where the medi- 

 cine pole is usually pictured. 



The Set-t'an calendar notes the excitement caused 

 by the efforts of Datekaii, or Pa-tepte, to bring back 

 the buffalo, also noted by Auko in the preceding 

 winter season. The figure represents the medicine- 

 man seated in his sacred lodge, wearing his cere- 

 mouial red blanket trimmed with eagle feathers, and 

 with a buffalo beside him. 



The buffalo had now disappeared, and with it the 

 old Indian life, the sacred sun dance, and all else 

 that they most cherished threatened also to pass away. According to 

 Kiowa mythology, the buffalo originally lived in a cave irnderground, 

 from which they had been released by their great hero Sinii and scat- 

 tered over the prairies for the benefit of his children, the Indians. 

 Somewhat similar beliefs are entertained by other tribes. As the 

 buffalo had disappeared with the coming of the white man, who, by 

 reason of his superior knowledge, was rapidly dispossessing the Indian, 

 the native tribes almost universally believed, not that the buffalo had 

 been exterminated — a calamity too terrible for their comprehension — 

 but that it had beeu shut up again underground by their enemy, the 

 white man, in order more easily to accomplish their subjection. It was 

 believed that by prayer and sacred ceremonial the buffalo might again 

 be released to furnish food and life for the Indian, and in every tribe 

 there sjirang up medicine-men who undertook to effect the restoration. 



Among the Kiowa this task was adventured by a young man named 

 Ddtekaii, "Keeps-his-uame-always," who announced early in 1882 that 



Fia. 172— Summer 1882— 

 Butfalo inedicmo; Pat- 

 so'gdte died. 



