50 * THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY, 



The agent iu 1884 wrote of them : 



The Comanches (of the class called blanket Indians) have, I think, made good 

 progress since they left the plains ten years ago. They have given up many of their 

 savage customs, and adopted many of the ways of civilized life. 



August 31, 1885, Agent P. B. Hunt reports: 



I suppose it will be admitted that the Kiowas and Comanches have made greater 

 improvement in the last five years than any other tribes of blanket Indians now iu 

 charge of the Government. When I assumed charge in 1878 they had been but a few 

 j'ears on the reservation and under civilizing influences. Indeed, one of these years, 

 that of 1874, they had spent at war with the whites, and about one-half of each of the 

 others was passed out on the plains hunting and dancing, and few of them had aban- 

 doned any of their savage customs or were endeavoring to subsist themselves by till- 

 ing the soil. Much of their time was spent in counciling, and almost weekly pow- 

 wows were held with the agent in the council-room in the agency building. Some 

 few of the Comanches had fields situated about 15 miles from the agency, but those 

 of the Kiowas who had commenced to till the soil all worked their patches in one 

 field, a Government field, whicb was situated about 3 miles from the agency. The 

 tribes each camped in one body, and the camping place of the Kiowas was at a point 

 about 12 miles from the agency and 15 from the field. My first efi^ort was to break up 

 their large camps and get them to open individual fields. Many of the chiefs, with 

 their bands, moved off the first year and worked the fields I had plowed for them, but 

 in the second year there was a general movement by the heads of families in selecting 

 locations for their fields and making rails with which to inclose them. I required in 

 all cases that an eight-rail fence should inclose the field before I would have the sod 

 broken. This segregation continued, until to-day there are about 150 fields scattered 

 over the reservation. They are, for Indians, reasonably well cultivated, * * * 

 So it will be seen that the village custom of these tribes is broken up, aud that they 

 have settled down as farmers. 



A series of iUustrations of Comanche life and games will be found in 

 several of the pictures within, I^os. 310 to 607 herein. 



paw-:nee picts (tow-ee-ahge). 



[Pawnee: Laws of the United States., Pani: Indian Bureau. See Wacoe and 

 Witchita, called Pawnee Picts. Note at bottom, June, 1885, of page — .] 

 A wild and hostile tribe, numbering about 6,000, adjoining the Camanchees on the 

 north. This tribe and the Camanchees are in league with each other, joining in war 

 and in the chase. 



55. Wee-ta-ra-sh^-ro, ; head chief; an old and very venerable man, 



90 Tears of age. 

 This man embraced Colonel Dodge and others of the dragoon officers in council, 

 in his village, and otherwise treated them with great kindness, theirs being the first 

 visit ever made to them by white people. 



(Painted at Camanchee village in 1834. Plate No. 174, page 73, vol. 2, 

 Catliu's Eight Years.) 



56. Sky-se-r6-ka, ; second chief of the tribe. 



A fine-looking and remarkably shrewd and intelligent man. 



(Painted in 1834, as above. Pla.te No. 175, page 73, vol. 2, CatJin's 

 Eight Y"ears.) 



57. Kid-a-day. „^-,— -^~ — ; a brave of distinction, (No plate, 1834.) 



