KIOWA

North American Indian people of Kiowa-Tanoan linguistic stock who lived on the southern Great Plains; they were one of the last of the Plains tribes to capitulate to the U.S. Including the Kiowa Apache, they numbered about 3,000 in the late 20th century; estimates of their population in 1780 approximate the same number. Accounts dating from the 18th century appear to place them northwest of their present location in southwest Oklahoma, where since 1868 they have shared a reservation with the Comanche (q.v.) between the Washita and Red rivers, centring on Anadarko. The Kiowa were divided into seven bands (one, the Kuato, now extinct), including the Kiowa Apache, a small southern Athabascan band or tribelet speaking an Apachean language. The Kiowa were typical of nomadic Plains tribes. After acquiring horses from the Spanish, they hunted buffalo on horseback, had no agriculture, and lived in large three-poled skin tepees. They had warrior societies, the members of which attained rank according to their exploits in warincluding not only killing an enemy but also touching his body during combat. The Kiowa believed that dreams and visions gave them supernatural power in war, hunting, and healing. Ten medicine bundles were believed to protect the tribe and became central in the Kiowan sun dance. With the Comanche they were instrumental in spreading the peyote religion that involved use of a hallucinogenic cactus. The Kiowa were also notable for their pictographic portrayalsdone twice a yearof important tribal events. Each summer and winter from 1832 to 1939, these calendar histories were painted on skins by an artist of the tribe.