The United States government persues its plan to relocate Indian nations from coveted lands to Indian Territory. The Konze are robbed of Kansas; the Quapaw forced out of Arkansas. The Kiowa, Comanche, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho are forced onto shrunken islands in their former territory, their movement restricted, their freedom curtailed. Of the scores of nations relocated to Indian Territory, few recieve more attention than the Ponca, whose resistance against removal prompts the landmark U.S. court decision of Judge Elmer Dundy that an Indian is indeed a person and therefore guaranteed rights under the law. Yet removals occur anyway. All is effected by treaties, all looks legal. Settlers swarm around remaining Indian lands like sharks with the taste of blood.

"I have heard that you intend to settle us on a reservation near the mountains. I don't want to settle. I love to roanm over the prairies. There I feel free and happy, but when we settle down we grow pale and die. I have laid aside my lance, bow, and shield, and yet I feel safe in your presence. I have told you the truth. I have no little lies hid about me, but I don't know how it is with the commissioners. Are they as clear as I am? A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers; but when I go up to the river I see camps of soldiers on its banks. These soldiers cut down my timber; they kill my buffalo; and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting...."

- Satanta, Kiowa.

The Staked Plains. (1871)

As starvation forces southern Plains nations onto reservations, many continue to resist. Kiowa under the leadership of Lone Wolf defy the United States government by maintaining their sovereignty and freedom. They will not live in confinement under government supervision. Among them is Satanta, fast gaining a reputation for outmaneuvering the military. He bugles counter-commands during U.S. cavalry charges, throwing them into confusion. In full view, he drives off their horses, then delivers the officers a sweeping bow. His intelligence mocks them. They know it. They feel it. They burn with it. Satanta will be made to pay. To the military, he is a scapegoat for every crime committed on the southern Plains, whether or not he has been anywhere nearby.

Hunger forces Satanta to lead a raid on a mule train in Texas. He is caught. Satank -- whose son was killed by Texans -- and Adoe'et also are implicated. Crammed into a tiny crawl space beneath the barracks of Fort Sill, they wait in darkness. The air is suffocating; they are hungry. Hauled out after twelve days to be taken to Texas for "trial," they stand squinting in the blinding light of the sun. Prominent military officials recommend hanging. Satank, although an old man, offers so much resistance that he is separated from the others. As the wagons bearing them rumble out of Fort Sill, Satank delivers a parting message to his people. Nearing a tree in the road, he breaks free from his guard. Moments later, his body riddled with bullets, Satank is dead. In a few short years, Satanta will join him. The government claims he has committed suicide by leaping from his prison window. But the Kiowa know better. No one has broken Satanta's spirit.

"This is our country. We have always lived in it. We always had plenty to eat because the land was full of buffalo. We were happy ....Then you came. First the traders. That is all right for we were in need of blankets and kettles. Then the soldiers came. We can understand that for we are soldiers. Then other men came. They are farmers. They want to work the land. That is not all right. Land doesn't want to be worked. Land gives you what you need if you are smart enough to take it. This is good land but it is our land. We know how to take what it gives us. We don't want these people working this land. You kill the land by taking things out of it....We have to protect ourselves. We have to save our country. We have to fight for what is ours."

- Satanta, Kiowa.

"Yes, I led in that raid. I have repeatedly asked for arms and ammunition, which have not been furnished. I have made many other requests which have not been granted. You do not listen to my talk. The white people are preparing to build a railroad through our country, which will not be permitted. Some years ago they took us by the hair and pulled us here close to Texas where we have to fight them. More recently I was arrested by the soldiers and kept in confinement several days. But that is played out now. There is never to be any more Kiowa Indians arrested. I want you to remember that. On account of these grievances, a short time ago I took about a hundred of my warriors to Texas, whom I wished to teach how to fight."

- Satanta, Kiowa.

"I wish to send a little message by you to my people. Tell my people that I am dead. I died the first day out from Fort Sill. My bones will be lying on the side of the road. I wish my people to gather them up and take them home."

- Satank, Kiowa.

"I think all the old things will soon be dead. There is an end to one kind of living for the Kiowas. Things will never be as before."

- Wood Fire, Kiowa.

First Opened: November 13, 2000
Revised: June 2004