Description: Warrior culture has long been an important facet of Plains Indian life. For Kiowa Indians, military societies have special significance. They serve not only to honor veterans and celebrate and publicize martial achievements but also to foster strong role models for younger tribal members. To this day, these societies serve to maintain traditional Kiowa values, culture, and ethnic identity.
Brief description:
William C. Meadows is Professor of Anthropology and Native American Studies at Missouri State University, Springfield. A scholar of Plains Indian cultures, he is the author of Kiowa, Apache, and Comanche Military Societies: Enduring Veterans, 1800 to the Present; Kiowa Ethnogeography; and The First Code Talkers: Native American Communicators in World War I.
Review Quotes: "William C. Meadows has contributed greatly to our understanding of Kiowa military organizations and, by extension, the warrior ideal of the Plains Indians as a whole. I know of no other study that is as meticulously researched, sharply perceived, and clearly written. Here is a monumental work, eminently accessible and rewarding, a landmark in the ethnography and history of the Great Plains."--N. Scott Momaday, author of Three Plays: The Indolent Boys, Children of the Sun, and The Moon in Two Windows