The Kiowas and the Legend of Kicking Bird [Hardcover]

Stan Edward Hoig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2000

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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 329 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Colorado (June 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870815644
• ISBN-13: 978-0870815645
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,657,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars "THE KIOWAS ARE LIKE WOLVES, SO HARD TO FIND"..... (COMANCHE & WICHITA CHIEFS, 1835), February 19, 2006

By 

Kay's Husband (Virginia, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Kiowas and the Legend of Kicking Bird (Hardcover)

This well written and interesting book focuses on both the Kiowas as a unit examining their tribal history while at the same time also fixing focus on Kicking Bird, a chief of the tribe. A Kiowa leader caught in the midst of turbulent times of change for his tribe and many other southern plains tribes as well, a man who saw futility in resisting the white migrations that poured in and through his homeland.

While Kicking Bird had much respect as a warrior and esteem from many other Kiowas, he also experienced opposition, especially from Santanta and his followers, as they saw Kicking Bird as someone spending far too much time with the enemy whites. Going so far to see Kicking Bird as a traitor to his tribe. Due to his assisting in jailing many trouble makers within the Kiowas, Kicking Bird's reputation took a small nosedive, and eventually may have led to his early death. No one knows how he died but poison at the hand of his own people cannot be ruled out.

Should a reader find interest in the Kiowas, this is an excellent book that chronicles their activities throughout known history. Having a few other books concerning these people, I think this book may be the most recent to recount their history.

Semper Fi.