Bad Medicine and Good: Tales of the Kiowas [Paperback]

Wilbur Sturtevant Nye (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1997

One of the great tribes of the Southwest Plains, the Kiowas were militantly defiant toward white intruders in their territory and killed more during seventy-five years of raiding than any other tribe. Now settled in southwestern Oklahoma, they are today one of the most progressive Indian groups in the area. In Bad Medicine and Good, Wilbur Sturtevant Nye collects forty-four stories covering Kiowa history from the 1700s through the 1940s, all gleaned from interviews with Kiowas (who actually took part in the events or recalled them from the accounts of their elders), and from the notes of Captain Hugh L Scott at Fort Sill. They cover such topics as the organization and conduct of a raiding party, the brave deeds of war chiefs, the treatment of white captives, the Grandmother gods, the Kiowa sun dance, and the problems of adjusting to white society.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Captain W. S. Nye (more recently Major W. S. Nye, U.S.A) was born in Canton, Ohio. As a boy he moved with his parents to California and can remember when Hollywood was a barley field. Upon the entrance of the United States into the World War, he enlisted in the ambulance service. Soon, however, he received an appointment to West Point where he was graduated in 1920. Major Nye has seen service at Camp Knox, Kentucky; Camp Lewis, Washington; Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; and in Washington, D.C. He was stationed at Fort Sill in 1933, as a student in the advanced course of the Field Artillery School, when he began the researches in Indian history that led to the writing of Carbine and Lance.

A frequent contributor to the military journals and the author of many featured articles on western history, he is now editor of The Field Artillery Journal.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press (September 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806129654
• ISBN-13: 978-0806129655
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,585,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tales of the Kiowas told by the Kiowas, October 22, 2004

By 

Don Butler - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bad Medicine and Good: Tales of the Kiowas (Hardcover)

First person accounts of events and individuals, both important and ordinary, provide remarkable insight into the history of this most fascinating of all the Native American tribes of the South Plains. Colonel Nye does a good job of providing just enough explanatory comment, while leaving most of the story telling to the Kiowas themselves. If you were under the impression that the only Plains Indians worthy of mention were the Sioux, Comanches, Cheyennes and Apaches, you need to read this book.