Dohäsan, Dohosan, Tauhawsin, Tohausen, or Touhason (late 1780s to early 1790s – 1866) was a prominent Native American. He was War Chief of the Kata or Arikara band of the

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...

Indians, and then Principal Chief of the entire Kiowa Tribe, a position he held for an extraordinary 33 years. He is best remembered as the last undisputed Principal Chief of the Kiowa people before the Reservation Era, and the battlefield leader of the Plains Tribes in the largest battle ever fought between the Plains tribes and the United States.Mayhall, Mildred ''The Kiowas''

Name

Dohäsan's name, which was hereditary, has been variously translated as Little Mountain, Little Bluff, or Top-of-the-Mountain. The name is difficult because /tòhɔ́ː/ denotes 'the concavity in a bluff rather than the bluff itself. /sân/ indicates 'small'. He was the son of a chief named Dohá (Bluff). Because his name, and the Chieftainship of his band, was hereditary, (though not necessarily father to son) – Dohäsan himself was succeeded by his nephew, rather than one of his sons, and though his father was a chief, it was his uncle who was the hereditary war chief from whom he got his name.

Life before becoming Principal Chief

The Arikara band was so named because of their close trading relationship with the

Arikaras Arikara (), also known as Sahnish,
''Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.'' (Retrieved Sep 29, 2011)

in the upper Missouri valley during the tribe's early recorded history. Because of their trading relationships with traders from the US, Spain, and the French, the Kiowa, and the Arikara in particular, were well known to European-Americans. Dohäsan was known to traders as early as the late 1820s. He gained a reputation as a fierce, but tricky, warrior and successful war chief.''DOHASAN''
Handbook of Texas Online Dohäsan was a member of the elite warrior society, the

Koitsenko The Koitsenko was a group of the ten greatest warriors of the Kiowa tribe as a whole, from all bands. One was Satank who died while being taken to trial for the Warren Wagon Train Raid. The Koitsenko were elected out of the various military soc ...

. Although his position as Chief of the Arikara band was hereditary, the Principal Chief of the entire

people was not a hereditary position. The elders of all the bands met together and elected the Principal Chief, and he generally held that position the rest of his life. Dohäsan became principal chief of the Kiowas in the spring of 1833, after the tribe elders and sub-chiefs deposed then-Principal Chief A'date. This followed the massacre of A'date's village by Osages at Cutthroat Gap, near the head of Otter Creek in what became the

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

of the Oklahomas. Dohäsan was the last undisputed Principal Chief of the Kiowa Tribe while they were a free people.

After ascension to Principal Chieftainship

After A’date was deposed, and Dohäsan arose to become principal Chief of the entire Kiowa people, the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

became acquainted with Dohäsan. The massacre of an entire village of the Kiowa prompted the dragoon expedition of Colonel

Henry Dodge Moses Henry Dodge (October 12, 1782 – June 19, 1867) was a Democratic member to the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, Territorial Governor of Wisconsin and a veteran of the Black Hawk War. His son, Augustus C. Dodge, served as ...

to Western

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

in the summer of 1834. Dohäsan was among those on hand to greet the colonel and his expedition. Artist

George Catlin George Catlin (July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American adventurer, lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the Old West. Traveling to the American West five times during the 18 ...

, who accompanied the expedition, sketched and painted Dohäsan 's portrait. The expedition found Dohäsan to be a friendly and calm in person under peaceful conditions. The purpose of the expedition was to end the ferocious fighting between the various Plains Tribes, and in May 1837 Dohäsan was one of the principals who signed the Fort Gibson Treaty, by which the United States government sought to end intertribal warfare in Indian Territory. Treaties did little to end the Kiowas' frequent raids for horses and other plunder, and it is arguable whether they even slowed the fighting between the tribes.

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

was basically wide open to joint Kiowa-Comanche raids, and the annual raids into

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

became a dreaded part of life in both Mexico proper and its northern states. In his raids, Dohäsan and his tribesmen and allied

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in ...

came to live in the winter in the Staked Plains, especially along the

Canadian River The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River in the United States. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma. The drainage area is about .Palo Duro Canyon, which served as a base for both wintering and the annual raids. At Palo Duro Canyon, on September 17, 1845, he was sketched by Lt. James W. Abert in his watercolor portfolio. In the summer of 1851 Dohäsan led a war party of the various Kiowa bands, and allied Comanches against the

Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska ...

s near the head of Medicine Lodge Creek in

Kansas Kansas () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its Capital city, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebras ...

, killing most of them. His name again rises in Army records in 1857 when he successfully led his warriors out of an ambush by Mexican soldiers at Hueco Tanks near El Paso Norte in Texas. The Mexicans had pursued the raiders north out of Mexico, and hoped to eliminate them. Instead, most of the Mexican troops were killed or wounded. The American Government was anxious to keep the Kiowa friendly as the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

beckoned, and in late 1859, as a goodwill gesture, Major

John Sedgwick John Sedgwick (September 13, 1813 – May 9, 1864) was a military officer and Union Army general during the American Civil War. He was wounded three times at the Battle of Antietam while leading his division in an unsuccessful assault against Co ...

's troops gave Dohäsan an old army ambulance wagon along with the usual presents. When he was unable to master the art of driving a team, Dohäsan had a couple of Kiowa boys ride the harnessed horses as he sat in the driver's seat. In 1861, when federal authorities threatened to withhold annuity goods and send troops against the Kiowas if they did not cease their raiding, Dohäsan angrily and contemptuously called the "white chief" a fool with the "heart of a woman."

First Battle of Adobe Walls

Other than the extraordinary length of his service as Principal Chief, and being the last Principal Chief of the free Kiowa, Dohäsan will be remembered in military history for commanding the Native American forces at the First Battle of Adobe Walls.Trosser, John (2004)
"Adobe Walls Texas"
September 7, 2007. The first battle of Adobe Walls occurred on November 26, 1864, in the vicinity of Adobe Walls, the ruins of William Bent's abandoned adobe trading post and saloon near the Canadian River in Hutchinson County, Texas. The battle was one of the largest engagements in terms of numbers between European-Americans and Indians on the Great Plains, and the largest engagement ever between the Comanche and Kiowa and their allies, against the non-Natives. It came about because Gen. James H. Carleton, commander of the military district of New Mexico, decided to punish Comanche and Kiowa attacks on Santa Fe wagon trains. The Indians saw the wagon trains as trespassers who killed buffalo and other game the Indians needed to survive. Col. Christopher (Kit) Carson, was given command of the First Cavalry, New Mexico Volunteers, and told to proceed and campaign against the winter campgrounds of the Comanches and Kiowas. This was the second invasion of the heart of the Comancheria, after the Antelope Hills Expedition. The campgrounds in question were reported to be somewhere on the south side of the Canadian River. On November 10, 1864 Carson started from Fort Bascom with 335 cavalry, and 75 Ute and

Jicarilla Apache Jicarilla Apache (, Jicarilla language: Jicarilla Dindéi), one of several loosely organized autonomous bands of the Eastern Apache, refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Atha ...

scouts. Those Carson had recruited from

Lucien Maxwell Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell (September 14, 1818 – July 25, 1875) was a mountain man, rancher, scout, and farmer who at one point owned more than . Along with Thomas Catron and Ted Turner, Maxwell was one of the largest private landowners in Uni ...

's ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico. On November 12, 1864, Carson’s force, supplied with two mountain

howitzers A howitzer () is a long-ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like oth ...

under the command of Lt. George H. Pettis, twenty-seven wagons, an ambulance, and forty-five days' rations, proceeded down the Canadian River into the Texas Panhandle. Carson had decided to march first to Adobe Walls, which he was familiar with from his employment there by Bent over 20 years earlier. Inclement weather, including an early snow storm, caused slow progress, and on November 25, 1864, the First Cavalry reached Mule Springs, in Moore County, approximately west of Adobe Walls. Scouts reported the presence of a large Indian encampment at Adobe Walls, and Carson ordered his cavalry forward, to be followed by the wagons and howitzers. Approximately two hours after daybreak on November 26, 1864, Carson's cavalry attacked a Kiowa village of 150 lodges. The Chief, Dohäsan, and his people fled, passing the alarm to allied Comanche villages nearby. Marching forward to Adobe Walls, Carson dug in there about 10 AM, using one corner of the ruins for a hospital. Carson discovered to his dismay that there were numerous villages in the area, including one very large Comanche village. The total number of Indians opposing Carson are often estimated at 3,000, but it is unlikely that the total manpower of the Comanche, Kiowa, and Kiowa-Apache amounted to more than one-half that number. Whatever their numbers, Carson saw he was outnumbered by the warriors pouring forward to engage him in battle, a much greater force than he had expected.The Comanches: Lords of the Southern Plains. University of Oklahoma Press. 1952. Dohäsan, assisted by

Satank Satank (Set-angya or Set-ankeah, translated as chief Topinabee A quiet Sitting Bear) was a prestigious Kiowa warrior and medicine man. He was born about 1800, probably in Kansas, and killed June 8, 1871. An able warrior, he became part of the Ko ...

(Sitting Bear), Guipago (Lone Wolf) and

Satanta Satanta can refer to: * Satanta (Kiowa leader), a leader of the Kiowa people * Satanta, Kansas Satanta is a city in Haskell County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 1,092. Every year there is a ce ...

(White Bear), led the Kiowas in the first attack. Fierce fighting developed as the Kiowa, Kiowa Apache, and Comanche warriors repeatedly attacked Carson's position. Reportedly, Satanta replied to Carson's

bugler The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, normally having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure. History The bugle developed from early musical or communication i ...

with his own bugle calls. Carson succeeded in repelling the attacks only through his clever use of supporting fire from the twin howitzers. After six to eight hours of fairly continuous fighting, Carson realized he was beginning to run low on shells for the howitzers, and ammunition in general, and ordered his forces to withdraw

The angry Indians tried to block his retreat by setting fire to the grass and brush down near the river. The wily Carson, however, set back-fires and retreated to higher ground, where the twin howitzers continued to hold off the Indians. When twilight came, Carson ordered a group of his scouts to burn the lodges of the first village, which also resulted in the death of the Kiowa-Apache chief, Iron Shirt, when he refused to leave his

tepee A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan, and in use in Dakhótiyapi, Lakȟ� ...

."Adobe Walls Texas"
September 7, 2007. Despite the fact that Carson was forced to retreat in the face of much more opposition than he had expected, the United States Army declared the First Battle of Adobe Walls a victory. Carson was probably outnumbered 10-1, and his clever use of backfires and the howitzers prevented his being overrun. As it was, Carson lost 6 dead, 25 wounded, to approximately 50-60 killed among the Indians. Nothing could obscure the fact however that the Kiowa and their allies had driven the American army from the field. Dohäsan, probably in his 70s, had commanded the largest force of Plains Indians ever massed against the army, and compelled a force armed with howitzers to retreat and yield the day.

Little Arkansas Treaty and death

In October 1865 Dohäsan signed the Little Arkansas Treaty, but he vigorously protested confinement to a reservation, declaring that the Kiowas owned all the land from the North Platte River to the upper Texas Panhandle and needed room to roam about. Shortly afterward, in early 1866, he died.

Beginning of the reservation era

As noted earlier, though the chief position in the Kata or Arikara band of the

Indians was hereditary, it was not necessarily given from father to son, and in this case, it was not. Dohäsan's sister's son, Agiati or "Gathering Feathers" inherited his name in 1864.Greene, 31 The younger Dohäsan took part in the remaining battles as the Kiowa struggled to remain a free people. But time was running out, and he was part of the delegation to Washington in 1872, which appealed to the government to allow the Kiowa to remain free. Afterward, as the remaining Kiowa went to the reservation, the younger Dohäsan lived with his family in peace on the reservation near Fort Sill until his death.

Artist and calendar keeper

Dohäsan was the primary calendar keeper among the Kiowa throughout most of the 19th century. He added many innovations to Kiowa pictorial art. In his

winter count Winter counts (Lakota: ''waníyetu wówapi'' or ''waníyetu iyáwapi'') are pictorial calendars or histories in which tribal records and events were recorded by Native Americans in North America. The Blackfeet, Mandan, Kiowa, Lakota, and other Pla ...

, he added an image for each year's summer

Sun Dance The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by some Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada, primarily those of the Plains cultures. It usually involves the community gathering together to pray for healing. Individua ...

. To painted

tipi A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan, and in use in Dakhótiyapi, Lakȟó ...

designs, Dohäsan introduced images of counting coup. When he died, his nephew Agiati became a calendar keeper, followed in turn by Agiati's son,

Silver Horn Silver Horn or Haungooah (1860–1940) was a Kiowa ledger artist from Oklahoma. Background Silver Horn was born circa 1860 to Agiati (Gathering Feathers) and Sa-Poodle (Traveling in the Rain) and was a member of the Kiowa Indian tribe of Ok ...

(1860–1940), one of the most prolific of all Kiowa artists. Dohäsen's original calendar is in the collection of the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

.Greene and Thornton, 300 In 1892 the young Dohäsan gave his annual family calendar history, begun by his uncle, the last great principal chief of the Kiowa, to Capt. Hugh L. Scott, who in turn donated it to the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

. Dohasan's descendants included his granddaughter, Betty Nixon, who co-founded the Mid-America All-Indian Center in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...

, in 1976.

Notes

References

*Davis, Lucile
''The Kiowa of Texas''
New York : PowerKids Press, 2003. *Greene, Candace S. ''Silver Horn: Master Illustrator of the Kiowas.'' Norman: University of Oklahoma, 2001. . *Greene, Candace S. and Russell Thornton, eds. ''The Year the Stars Fell: Lakota Winter Counts at the Smithsonian''. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2007. *Mayhall, Mildred. ''The Kiowas''. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dohasan 18th-century births 1866 deaths Native American leaders Native American painters Native American people of the Indian Wars 1866 in the United States Battles involving the Comanche Kiowa people Texas–Indian Wars Painters from Oklahoma