Before summarizing the results of the investigation of Plains Indian societies undertaken by the Department of Anthropology for a number of years, it appeared desirable to secure data from the Kiowa respecting certain theoretical points that had developed from a study of other tribes. Though Mr. Mooney's printed Kiowa material seemed to decide these questions implicitly, it seemed best to take a view of the subject in the field from the particular vantage ground afforded by the systematic survey of the region presented in this volume. For this purpose I made a side trip to Anadarko, Oklahoma, in June, 1915. There I had the good fortune of enlisting the services of Mr. Andres Martinez, a Mexican who had been captured by the Apache while a boy, sold to the Kiowa two years later, and who had lived a large portion of his life as a Kiowa among Kiowa, marrying native women, entering some of the men's societies, and so forth. Mr. Martinez became my main informant and acted as my interpreter in questioning two full-blood Indians on doubtful points. He also corrected several errors in his published biography,[1] which he explained were due to his inadequate knowledge of English at the time of its composition.

It is obvious that several days' work, however intensive, cannot exhaust such a topic as the military and related organizations of a Plains tribe: all I attempted was to shed some light on the problems treated in this series of papers.

February, 1916.