Kiowa / Crow relations

[cc]

Crow history tells of Kiowa relationsars in the 1700'snear black hills alot of trading goin on and some intermarrying and even an allied stand off against Sioux in 1790.there is also story of a small rogue band of crows who traveled more south then traditional crow country that went by name ,"dried out furs". apparently they suffered military loses and joined Kiowas. So I was wondering from Kiowas history is there any stories that could give support to these topics or even more info. Thanks southern brothers and sisters

[chicheman]

Hello CC,

being in contact with Kiowa and having studied some Kiowa history thru reading, there is indeed stories remembered. Kiowas received their sacred Taime Sundance medicine from the Crow. In a fight around 1820, just out of memory that I have in mind, some visiting Kiowas among the Crows helped the Crows fighting a force of Lakota and Cheyenne. Could be that I was reading that in Grinnell´s The Fighting Cheyennes. Then there was chief Kicking Bird who was part Crow. Might find interesting to read Mildred P. Mayhall, The Kiowas; James Mooney Kiowa Calendar History; Candace S. Greene One Hundred Summers - A Kiowa Calendar Record, Maurice Boyd Kiowa Voices 1 + 2 . Interesting to learn of that small Crow band moving south and joining Kiowas, wasn´t aware of that band, though think to remember about Crow mentioned somewhere having been found among Kiowas, and also among Comanches I recall one note(Francis Joseph Attocknie, Thomas Kavanagh, The Life of Ten Bears). Thanks for your share.

[carlo]

Early Alliance with the Crows

The leading facts in the traditional history of the Kiowa are those of their early residence at the extreme head of the Missouri and their subsequent removal to the east and alliance with the Crows. It is impossible to assign any definite date to this early migration from the mountain country, but it was probably about or before 1700. It was subsequent to the separation of the Crows from the Hidatsa, an event which probably took place before the end of the seventeenth century (Matthews, 2; Clark, 3), and it must have been long before the discovery of the Black Hills by the Dakota, which, according to a calendar of that people, occurred in 1775 (Mallery, 2). The present tai-me or sun-dance "medicine" of the Kiowa was obtained from the Crows while the two tribes were neighbors in the north, at a date probably very near 1765. It is probable that scarcity of game or severity of climate had much to do with their original removal from the head of the Missouri, but it is worthy of note that in all their wanderings the Kiowa have never, for any long period, entirely abandoned the mountains. After making friends with the Crows, they established themselves in the Black Hills until driven out by the invading Dakota and Cheyenne, and now for seventy years or more they have had their main headquarters in the Wichita mountains.

The northern Arapaho, now living on a reservation in Wyoming, have distinct recollection of this former northern residence of the Kiowa, with whom in the old times they were on terms of intimate friendship. While visiting them in 1892 they informed the author that when they first knew the Kiowa that tribe lived about the Three forks of the Missouri, near where are now Gallatin and Virginia City, Montana. This information, obtained from old men without the use of leading questions, and with the aid of good maps, tallies exactly with the earliest tradition of the Kiowa tribe. They say further that the Kiowa moved down from the mountains and eastward along the Yellowstone in company with the Crows, and then turned southeastward to about the present neighborhood of Fort Robinson, Nebraska, where they parted with the Crows and continued southward. "Plenty-poles," then nearly ninety years of age, first met the Kiowa when he was a 156 small boy on the head of the North Platte, west of the present town of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The friendship between the Kiowa and the Crows was close and intimate, in spite of occasional quarrels, and continued after the Kiowa had entirely removed from the north and established themselves on the Arkansas. They made common cause against the invading Dakota and Cheyenne from the east, by whom they were finally dispossessed. As already stated, the Kiowa obtained their present tai-me or sun-dance medicine from the Crows, and the sacred arrow lance of Tängúadal's family came originally from the same source. For a long time after removing from the north it was a frequent occurrence for Kiowa fathers to make visits to the Crows and leave with that tribe their young children for two or three years in order that they might learn the Crow language and thus help to preserve the old friendship. There are still several old people among the Kiowa who have a considerable Crow vocabulary acquired in this way. Conversely, the northern Arapaho state that the Crows refer to the Kiowa as their relatives, and that some of them speak a little of the language acquired during similar visits to the south.


Source:James Mooney, "Calendar history of the Kiowa Indians", in Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, 1895-96, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898. Page 155.

[cc]

Wow thanks guys for piecing that together and thanks for the sources gonna do some research it makes fun when history starts to fall together the southern band I read about was Brian Keefe's book blood was the color of our forefathers

[chicheman]

Hello,

I was talking with a close Kiowa friend of mine and he told me that relations between the two tribes are going on still today. Each year they meet for hand games and there is also some intermarriage still occasionally. Sure also meeting at powwows at times, like Crow Fair etc. So that is going on still.
chicheman