MooNEv] MEASLES EPIDEMIC — MOURNING 363 



close to lier head and her face and arms deeply gnashed by Knives, in 

 token of uioiuning, while some had even chopped ofi' a finger as a sign 

 of grief at the loss of a favorite child. The men also had their hair 

 cut off at the shoulders and had discarded their usual ornaments and 

 finery. On one occasion, while driving near the camp, the author's 

 attention was attracted by a low wail, and ou looking for the cause he 

 saw, sitting in the tall grass near the roadside, a bereaved father 

 stripped to the breech-cloth, with his hair cropped close to the head 

 and the blood dripping from gashes which covered his naked body; he 

 did not look up or turn his head as the wagon passed, but continued 

 the low wail, with his eyes cast to the ground. Wagons, harness, tipis, 

 blankets, and other property were burned, and horses and dogs shot 

 over the graves of their owners, to accomi)auy them to the world of 

 shades, the destruction of property in this way amounting to thousands 

 of dollars. Every night and morning the women went into the hills 

 to wail for their lost ones, and returned to camp with the blood drip- 

 ping from fresh gashes in their faces and arms; this continued for 

 weeks and months, far into the fall. 



The responsibility for this terrible calamity rests upon the school 

 sui)erintendent, who sent the infected cliildren into camp, and upon the 

 agent who permitted it. The superintendent of the Comanche school, 

 so soon as the disease appeared on the reservation, suspended teach- 

 ing, turned the school into a temporary hospital, with the teachers as 

 nurses, and stationed a guard of police to keep the parent from interfer- 

 ing with or withdrawing the children. The result was that not one died 

 in his school and only one was affected. The census of the Kiowa and 

 Apache tribes for this year shows a decrease from the preceding year 

 of two hundred and twenty-one, or 15 per cent, among the two tribes, 

 due almost entirely to this epidemic. The agent reports, after noting 

 the mortality : 



The above deaths occurred chiefly amoiiK the iufants and young children, and can 

 be attriliuted tn the fact that in most every case they iuvarialily immersed their sick 

 iu the water, thereby causing death in every case thus treated (Ittport, 115). 



Dr J. D. Glennan, attending surgeon to the Indian troop at Fort 

 Sill, had already distinguished himself at Wounded Knee two years 

 before by his bravery and coolness in attending to the needs of the 

 wounded and dying while bullets were flying thick around him. Now, 

 when the eiiidemic broke out among the Kiowa, he gave his services 

 with the same quiet devotion to duty, with such good result that, 

 although for months tlie hospital camp was crowded with stricken 

 Indians, whose relatives outside were dying all over the reservation, 

 only six of those under his care died, and tliese not from the prevail- 

 ing epidemic, but from a complication of diseases. In recognition of 

 his services the Kiowa soldiers afterward raised a sum of money with 

 wliich to j)urchase a horse for him, but as the doctor already had a 

 horse, the testimonial took the form of a valuable piece of silver. 



