Set-angya, Set-angya is the name of a Kiowa
chief of the 19th century.
A very extraordinary man.
There is one photograph of Set-angya
in the National Archive.
It's the only photograph of him that I know exists.
It's from about here up and he's glaring into the camera
with his one eye.
He has only one eye.
I think at least there is one eye glaring into the camera.
The other eye is just a slit.
I think he must have lost it somewhere along the way.
He's wearing a buffalo robe and bandolier.
You can't tell what the bandolier is made of.
But a President Buchanan peace medal, right here, his hair
is gray and scraggly and long.
He has a fu manchu mustache and he's
looking into the camera with something like malice.
Now this man, I want to tell you a little bit about him
because some of the things I want to read to you
refer to him.
He was the leader of the Kaitsenko society in the Kiowa
tribe.
The Kaitsenko society was the Crazy Dog society.
The Dog Soldier society.
It was composed of 10 men only.
The 10 most brave.
And he was the leader of this society.
Each of the Kaitsenko warriors wore a sash,
a long sash which trailed the ground
and carried a sacred arrow.
And in time of battle, the Kaitsenko warrior
must impale the sash to the ground by means of the arrow
and stand background to the death.
The Kaitsenko society was the last defense of the people.
And so this was a military organization the elitism
of which cannot be overstated, the creme de la creme.
The warrior society of all warrior societies.
And this old man was the leader.
His son, his favorite son was killed in Texas on a raid.
And when Set-angya got word of his son's death,
he went to Texas and gathered up the bones of his son
and he carried them.
He placed them on the back of a horse and led the horse around.
Everywhere from that time on, he carried the bones of his son
with him.
At night he would place the bones in a special teepee
and he would announce to the people
that his son was at home.
Come, come my son is at home tonight,
come and pay your respects.
When he was quite old, but still the great chief and leader
of the Kaitsenko society, he was imprisoned
at Fort Sill along with two other Kiowa chiefs.
They had been charged with murder in connection
with the Warren wagon train massacre.
So these three great chiefs were imprisoned at Fort Sill.
And then it was decided to move them to Texas, Huntsville
where they would await execution.
And so they were shackled hand and foot, placed
in the back of a wagon, and the teamster
drove the wagon with two mounted armed guards
on either side going to the rail head and to be put
on the train for Huntsville.
And as they were moving across the Fort,
Set-angya began to sing the song of the Kaitsenko society.
Now, this was taboo.
The song could only be sung in the face of death and everybody
knew that.
And it was a very serious matter that he
should begin to sing the song and the other two
chiefs looked at him.
And they were greatly alarmed and they
said, "you can't sing that song, that's taboo.
What are you doing?"
And he said you see, this is all very well documented
in the archives at Fort Sill.
He said, that tree you see in the distance,
and there was a Cottonwood tree by the side of the road.
He said, by the time we reach that tree I will be dead.
And they didn't know what to make of that,
but Set-angya drew a knife, which
he had secreted on his person and he attacked the teamster.
He stabbed the teamster in the leg.
The armed guards on either side of course,
opened fire and shot him dead on the spot.
He was true to his word.
Before they reached the tree in the distance he was dead.
And he remains a figure in Kiowa society
and I will have a chance to come back to that a bit later.