The Kiowas and the Legend of Kicking Bird

Until now, the mysterious death of Kicking Bird, one of the great leaders of the Kiowas, has overshadowed other significant events of his life. Stan Hoig fills this void in scholarship by providing a more comprehensive account of this important tribal leader and the problems the Kiowas faced during his lifetime. Originally a tribe of the northern mountain regions, the Kiowas migrated to the prairies of Colorado, Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma during the late eighteenth century to take up a buffalo-hunting existence. Like other Plains tribes, the Kiowas were caught squarely in the thrust of Anglo-American military power, forcing the critical decision between continued resistance or acculturation. Kiowas also faced starvation as professional white hunters killed off the vital buffalo herds, which, by government design, were supposed to supplement the meagre, and often tardy, rations promised to the Kiowas by treaty.