Kicking Bird, also known as Tene-angop'te, "The Kicking Bird," or "Eagle Striking," and as Watohkonk, "Black Eagle," was the high chief of the Kiowa Native American tribe.
Born around 1835, little is known of Kicking Bird's early life except that his grandfather was a Crow captive who was adopted by the Kiowa. It was said he signed the first Kiowa Treaty in 1865 in Wichita, Kansas. This ultimately set up the boundaries of the reservation established in the Treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867. Kicking Bird was a strong supporter of peace and tried to encourage his people to acknowledge what he believed to be unavoidable. With the Kiowa, Kicking Bird participated in many battles and raids during the 1860's and 1870's. Kicking bird was an advocate of education for his tribe. Along with the help of Thomas C. Battey, an Indian Agent, began the actions to open a school for the Kiowa tribe. However Kicking Bird suddenly died at Cache Creek under mysterious circumstances on May 3, 1875, he was buried at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in the post cemetery. It is rumored he had been poisoned by another member of the Kiowa tribe.
Famous quotes containing the words kicking and/or bird:
“All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door. The violence of revolutions is the violence of men who charge into a vacuum.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“A Bird came down the Walk—
He did not know I saw—
He bit an Angleworm in halves”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)