The Speech Santana Gave at the Treaty of the Medicine Lodge

"I love this land and the buffalo and will not part with it. I want you to understand well what I say. Write it on paper...I hear a great deal of good talk from the gentlemen the Great Father sends us, but they never do what they say. I don't want any of the medicine lodges (schools and churches) within the country. I want the children raised as I was. I have heard you intend to settle us on a reservation near the mountains. I don't want to settle. I love to roam over the prairies. There I feel free and happy, but when we settle down we grow pale and die. A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers, but when I go up to the river I see camps of soldiers on it's banks. These soldiers cut down my timber, they kill my buffalo and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting.  This building of homes for us is all nonsense. We don't want you to build any for us; we would all die. Look at the Penatekas! Formerly they were powerful, now they are weak and poor. I want all my land, even from the Arkansas south to Red River. My country is small enough already. If you build us houses the land will be smaller. Why do you insist on this? What good will come of it? I don't understand your reason. Time enough to build us houses when the buffalo are all gone. But you tell the Great Father that there are plenty of buffalo yet, and when the buffalo are gone, I will tell him. This trusting to agents for food I don't believe in."

Winfield Courier, September 7, 1876. Editorial Page.

Satanta, the aged Kiowa chief, now confined in the Texas penitentiary, was so overjoyed on hearing of the slaughter of Custer and his command that he begged to be allowed to go to the assistance of Sitting Bull, and could hardly conceal his rage when his request was denied.

By the 1860’s Santana, like Lone Wolf (Guipago) and Kicking Bird (Teneangope), had risen to a position of leadership among the Kiowa.  At this time, the principal Kiowa chief was Little Mountain (Dohasan).  In 1865 Santana participated, along with these 3 men, in the negotiations that lead to the treaty of the Little Arkansas River.  The Kiowa were not happy with their small reservation and continued to harass the white settlers that crossed their lands.   The situation got worse when Little Mountain died in early1866.   Several chiefs competed to fill the void, including Santana (who led the faction that favored war), Lone Wolf (Guipago) and Kicking Bird (Teneangope) (who led the faction that favored peace).  Keep in mind that General Wm. T. Sherman was at this time in command of the U. S. forces in the west.  He had already promised a unique solution to the “Indian situation”. "Kill the buffalo, and you kill the Indians," he said.   The raids Santana led in retaliation over the next two years gained him even more recognition and he was asked to be one of the tribe’s representatives at the Medicine Lodge Treaty council. 

The area called Medicine Lodge was located in Kansas in an area where the Elm Creek and Medicine River join.  The Kiowa went there yearly to bathe in the healing waters and to renew their medicine at a sacred lodge.  Because the area was isolated they had no fear of surprise attack.  Over 5,000 Indians (Kiowa, Comanche, Kiowa-Apache, Cheyenne and Arapaho) attended the meeting.  The 7^th Calvary was there to defend the white negotiators.  The first thing to happen was some soldiers went on a buffalo hunt, killing several of the great beasts merely for sport, leaving the bodies to rot.  This angered Santana and at his protest the soldiers arrested the men.

Over the course of the next three weeks both Indians and whites made many speeches.  Read Santana’s speech to the left).  The Indian Commissioner’s heard his speech, heard all the Indian speeches but it made no difference – the decisions had already been made.  The Kiowa representatives signed the treaty and accepted a restricted range between the Washita and Red Rivers.