Mowway, Kotsoteka

[Dietmar]

Mowway (aka Shaking Hand) was a prominent leader of the Kotsoteka Comanche. I always thought W.S. Soule was the only one who pictured him in this photograph:




I found another one at the Heritage auction site recently. I´m not quite sure if this really is Mow-way or another man. The caption on the back of the photo reads Mow-way though.
Can anyone confirm or correct this?

[grahamew]

Feasibly, I suppose but it doesn't look much like him. I have this one credited to Bliss):



Not sure about the attribution and don't think it look like either of the men in Dietmar's post!

[grahamew]

I thought it might be easy to find more photos with the same backdrop and we could try to date it - your picture clearly features someone younger than the subject of the Soule photo.

Edit - The Lawrence T Jones collection dates Mignon at Fort Worth circa 1880-90.

[tkavanagh]

Several bits:

- Mowway the Kotsoteka died in the mid 1880s (I don't know the exact date;
- Except for Bliss' short stay at Ft Sill, there were no photographers [?] there after Soule until the very late 1880s when Lenny and Sawyers operated in Purcell (50 mi due E of Anadarko;)there were others soon therafter but I can't place this particular backdrop.
- There were at least two men named 'Mowwat', given as 'No Thumbs' although the specific digit is not explicitly in the name. If this attribution of 'Mowway' is correct, it may be either wishful thinking on the part of the photographer to be the older bear-claw Mowway. Or it could just be a mis-hearing of the final /t/ [easily done]. Of the Mowwat's given, one has only a bried occurance on one census; the other has a much longer documentary record, living until at least 1923. That Mowwat is given in the FRB as the son of Hitutatsi (Little Crow)and thus was a grandson of Ten Bears.

-The other image (one of a pair)is given by UTEX archives as "Comanche War Rig." Except for the moccasins, and maybe the headdress, I can't substantiate anything in is outfit as being Numunuu.

tk
Esimotsoraivo

[Dietmar]

Thank you Tom and Grahame.

I agree that it is unlikely the photo shows Mowway.
Nevertheless a nice photo.

[cinemo]

I think the first photo, posted by Dietmar, shows ( old ) Mowway, who died in the 1880ies.
A hint for that is the bear claw, attached in his hair. Mowway was a very brave man.
Ti-So-Yo, the son of Mowway, told us regarding his father :

Mowway was hunting with two companions, when suddenly a huge grizzly attacked the rear man. The third companion fled, but Mowway dashed back, he attacked the grizzly and killed the bear with his knife. Thereafter he wore as a momento a bear claw attached in his hair.

Ti-So-Yo has told too, Mowway means Push Aside.

The fight with the bear is mentioned in the book :
Plains Indian Raiders: The Final Phases of Warfare from the Arkansas to the … , by Wilbur Sturtevant Nye ( page 298 )
In some sources is stated, Mowway was a signatory of the Medicine Lodge Treaty, but so far as I know, this is wrong. The name Mowway is not in the list of the ten Comanche signatories.

cinemo

[tkavanagh]

FWIW,

/ma-/ prefix referring to 'hand'
/ma?wikeetu/ ‘shake hand’
/ma?wikaru/ ‘push away (with the hand'

tk