Kiowas

Kiowa

Three Kiowa men, 1898
Total population
12,000 (2011)
Regions with significant populations
United States ( Oklahoma)
Languages
English, Kiowa, Plains Sign Talk
Religion
Native American Church, traditional tribal religion, Sun Dance, Christianity

The Kiowas (/ˈkaɪəwə, -wɑː, -weɪ/) are a tribe of Native Americans. They migrated from western Montana southward into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries, and finally into the Southern Plains by the early 19th century. In 1867, the Kiowa were moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma.

Today they are federally recognized as Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma with headquarters in Carnegie, Oklahoma. The Kiowa language (Cáuijògà) is still spoken today and is part of the Tanoan language family. As of 2011^[update], there are 12,000 members.

Kiowa call themselves Ka'igwu, Cáuigù or Gaigwu, most given with the meaning "Principal People". The first part of the name is the element Kae-, Cáui- or Gai- which means the Kiowa themselves – it may derive from the word ka' (mother) or from ka-a (a type of spear with feathers along its length). The true origin is lost. Kae-kia means a Kiowa man; Kae-ma is a Kiowa woman. The second element -gua refers to "men or people", so the meaning of the two elements is "Kiowa people"; to express "Principal People" (sometimes "Chief People") or "genuine, real or true People" in Kiowa is to add the ending -hin.

Ancient names were Kútjàu or Kwu-da ("emerging" or "coming out rapidly") and Tep-da, relating to the myth pulling or coming out of a hollow log until a pregnant woman got stuck. Later, they called themselves Kom-pa-bianta for "people with large tipi flaps", before they met Southern Plains tribes or before they met white men. Another explanation of their name "Kiowa" originated after their migration through what the Kiowa refer to as "The Mountains of the Kiowa" (Kaui-kope) in the present eastern edge of Glacier National Park, Montana, just south of the border with Canada.