The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-18
KIowAs AT THE WORLDS FAIR.
A Tribe That Rafded From the State OF
Warrington to the City of Mexico.

hAO"AS Al IHE WOkLDS FAIR.
A Tribe That Raided From the State of
Washington to the City Of Mexico.
WASHINGTON Cry, Oct. 13.-ISpecial. l.
The exhibit of the Smithsonian institution
at the Worlds fair in Chicago will include
display illustrating the manners and
customs of the kiowas; who are the most
interesting of all the Indian tribes in the
United States. Originally they were per-
haps the widest, carrying their raids from
their home in the Indian territory as far
south as the City of Mexico and as far to
the northwest as the present state of
Washington. They are tanned now, and
rapidly dying off, so that it will not be
long before their lands will be open to the
invasion of a horde of boomers. What
renders them chiefly remarkable is their
extreme conservatism. While other
aboriginal nations have mostly adopted
the white mans ways and more or
less of his costume, the kiowas are much
the same intelligent savages that their
forefathers were when Columbus discov-
cred America. One of their peculiarities
is their method of burial. Their ceme-
teries are up in trees. A framework Of
strong withes is constructed among the
branches and on this the bodies Of the
dead are laid. each warrior wrapped in his
blankets and with all his property about
him. No survivor would ever venture to
use anything that had belonged to per-
son defunct, for fear lest the latter's spirit
should haunt and destroy him. At the
risk of the lives of himself and his party,
Mr.. Mooney. of the bureau of ethnology,
recently procured one of these burial plat
forms, taking it down from the tree in
oh Hni Lao he hrnt 1n,f
q lot of bones that were found on it, and
the whole will make q feature of the ex-
hibit referred to.
There was one curiosity Of the Kiowas
for which Mr.. Mooney would almost have
been willing to give his own head, but
neither he nor any other white man has
ever been permitted even to look upon it.
1t is bag containing the palladium of the
trIhe-all the grand medicine parapher-
MALTA, etc. Not least important of the
contents of this sacred receptacle are 300
scalps of white men and Mexicans, taken
in war or by murder. Also there Is the
OUTFIT of the famous Sun Dance, in which
the young braves acquire their title to
warriorship by passing lariats through
strips of flesh in their breasts and backs.
fastening the other ends to the saddle Of
their ponies and causing the latter to tear
the ropes loose at full gallop. Among the
things WHICH Mr.. Mooney did secure are
tomahawk that has killed six men and
spear with a long steel point which has
slain twelve persons in fight, welded by
the big chief who owned it.
The most interesting battle trophy OBJ
tanned, however, is a standard of war be-
longing to the knighthood among the
kiowas, which is called the Order of the
Dog Soldiers. 1t is a staff, six feet high,
wrapt spIrally with otter skin in strips
and ornamented with eagle feathers and
bells. When the tribe fought, one war
rior was chosen to bear this standard. He
was always the bravest, because he was
pretty sure to be killed. His duty was to
rush as far possible to the front and
plant the staff in the ground at the same
time fastening himself 10 it in such a man.
ner that he could not leave it. He carried
with him a broad strip of tanned leather
with a slit in one end of it through which
he put his head, while through hole in
the other end he thrust the staff as he
planted it in the earth. Thus he stood,
bound to his post and immovable. while
the night ragged around him. Under no
circumstances was he permitted to lift the
standard, although feliow-warrior might
release him. mo retreat" was the motto
of these fierce wild men.
Like the Comanches, the Kiowas lived
az they have always fought-on horseback.
Consequently when on foot they are awk-
ward and bowlegged. The very dolls of
the little girls usually ride. Each female
it is called. 1t is stick of wood, on
which are mounted and set a-stradde
three or four doll babies. securely fastened.
Sometimes each doll has q little saddle
beneath it. One of the doll sticks secured
by Mr.. Mooney has four doll babies on it.
One represents woman with a pappoose
on her back, another is miniature war
rior carrying shield with scalp attached
to it, third is girl and the fourth is a
boy. Some of the bigger dolls, which do
not ride. are very elaborate indeed There
is a warrior doll two feet high, with long
hair that evidently once belonged 10 a
dog, a shield with a picture of a buffalo
painted on ii, culver. bow and arrows,
hair brush, and two wooden spoons
attached to his belt. The face OF
the doh Is made of buckskin, with the
features marked upon it. Such one the
little Kiowa girl does not carry in her
arms. but in a sort of cradle on her back,
because that is the way in which she will
carry her own children when she has them.
Attached TO the toy cradle Is always q
little bag, which is miniature copy of the
beaded receptacle invariably fastened to
the cradle of real children among the
kiowas. In the latter case it contains the
life of the infant, and any mother who per.
mitted this precious article TO be lost
would be considered guilty of heinous
crime. When the child is big enough to
, walk, il wears the bag around its neck,
and in later years it is put away carefully
and preserved. You NAV purchase the
bag itself from Kiowa Indian, but never
can you buy what il contains, which 10
simply the umbilcus of the owner.
The Kiowas mix their tobacco for snok-
ing with sumach leaves that have been
boiled in grease. When they have had an
unsuccessful hunting trip they revenge
themselves upon the bad spirit who Is re-
sponsible by shooting arrows at him into
the air from bow made of buffalo's rib.
They make wooden flutes for serenading
the young women, which produce very
melodious notes Formerly they cooked
their food in leather bags on heated stones,
but now they have adopted the pots and
pans of the white man. Their spoons,
however, are huge implements Of wood.