Cutthroat Massacre
The scattered bands of Kiowa, about 2,000 people gathered in a large camp
at the mouth of Rainey Mountain Creek near present day Mountain View in the
late spring of 1833. Islandman A'd'ate Principle Chief of the Kiowa had
called them together to plan the annual Sun Dance and hold a tribal council
on general tribal affairs. After the council ended, a large number of warriors
joined a war party and rode off northwest to raid the Utes. Others left on a
buffalo hunt.
A few days after they had left, a hunter found an Osage arrow in the buffalo
grass. This was their long time enemies. The hunter hurried back to spread the
alarm to the camp. Sentries were posted and earth breastworks were hastily built.
After few days, with no sign of the Osage, the hunters again set out, and the
large camp broke up into smaller bands to seek grazing grounds for their large
horse herds. One group went west to a wild horse range in the Wichita Mountains
and the others spread to the four winds in search of better camp sites. It was
understood they would come together again when the hunters and warriors returned
for the Sun Dance.
Chief Islandman's camp had mostly women, children, the elderly and a few warriors.
They moved south to the headwaters of Cache Creek, then returned northwest to
the Saddle Mountain area where they stayed a few days. Searching for good grass
and campsite, they moved on west to Sugar Creek, following it south, then west
again through a gap in the mountains to a favorite campsite. It was a small
valley ringed by mountains, good grazing, good water and plenty of wood. The
camp was set up on both sides of the creek below a big springs, near a small
hill on the western end of the valley. The camp quickly settled into a routine.
Since there had been no further signs of the Osage, Islandman and his people
felt secure and failed to take precautions against an attack.
Unknown to the Kiowa, the Osage tracked Islandman's band from Saddle Mountain
through the mountains to the camp site. After locating the camp, they carefully
scouted it and waited for an opportune time to attack. Late one evening, some
girls had gone to the spring for water, It was located at the base of some high
rocky ledges. One of them saw a pebble fall into the water, and as the ripples
smoothed, she saw a face of a strange warrior in the water.quitely told the
others, and acting as if nothing was wrong, made their way back to camp. They
told what they had seen, but their elders thought it was just some of the boys
playing tricks on them and dismissed it with no investigation.
Early the next morning, one of the boys was taking his family's horses out to
graze, when he saw the shaved and roached head of an Osage watching from behind
a large boulder. He turned his horse and ran for the village to raise the alarm.
As the Kiowa ran from their teepees, the Osage raiders struck, swarming through
the panic stricken camp. The Kiowas, surprised and outnumbered, were unable
to organize a defense. The few warriors tried to hold the Osage back to allow
the women, children and elderly to flee. Many ran headlong into the enemy warriors
who slashed and stabbed women, children and elderly with their long knives.
There were many couragous acts of bravery in the camp. A visiting Pawnee warrior
fought off a group of warriors while some of the women and children reached
safety. One boy placed himself between the fleeing women and children and shot
arrow after arrow at the Osage. A mother told her young daughter to run while
she turned and fought off three Osage warriors with a tomahawk before she escaped.
A mother fled with a young baby in a cradle board on her back dragging a small
girl by hand. An Osage caught them, grabbed the girl and was about to split
her throat when the mother turned on him and successfully fought him off and
escaped with her children. A father grabbed the cradle board holding his child,
and holding it in his teeth while running and firing arrows at the Osage. Another
father grabbed his his young son, Stumbling Bear and held him in his teeth while
running, putting him down to shoot arrows at the Osage, taking him up and running
again. Both father and son escaped.
One older man escaped on foot, made his way to another camp on Elk Creek, and
word was sent quickly to other camps. As word arrived at the other camps, relief
parties were quickly sent to help Islandman's people.
Kiowa Warriors found the camp destroyed and decapitated bodies laying where
they had fallen. The Osage put the heads of their victims in cooking pots. They
took the sacred Tai-me Medicine bundle, two captives, a boy named "Thunder"
and a girl named "White Weasel", and many horses. Thunder died during cativity,
White Weasel was returned to her family in 1834 by the first Dragoon Expedition.
For allowing the camp to be surprised, the disgraced Islandman was removed as
Princple Chief. To-hau-san was chosen to replace Islandman and served as Principle
Chief until his death in 1866. Little Bear recorded the massacre on his calender.
It was known to the Kiowas as the "summer that they cut off their heads." The
site later became known as "Cutthroat Gap".
Later, Chief To-hau-san, with the assistance of the United States Indian Agents
negotiated with the Osage Tribe for the return of the Tai-me medicine bundle.
While To-hay-san was chief, the Kiowa resisted all efforts of the United States
to pacify them and it is said that he never lost a battle he fought with the
Us Cavalry.
While Cutthroat Gap had long been a favorite camping spot for the Kiowa, they
never used it again after the massacre. It is claimed by some that at certain
times of the moon the spirits of the beheaded victims roam the area and can
be heard still screaming and wailing. Until a few years ago, each year a member
of the Kiowa tribe would climb to the top of the large mountain north of the
massacre site before sundown on the evening before Easter, spend the night praying
and singing and come down after sunrise the next morning.
Information about Massacre Gap was provided in part by William Hall Zotigh,
Kiowa Tribal member, Hobart, OK
This information compiled, prepared and submitted to this site
by Ethel Taylorand remains the property of the
submitter
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