The Kiowa people lived on the plains in southern Montana. In the 1700s they moved to Black Hills in Dakota where they allied with the Crow people. Kiowas was a small tribe and were pushed to the south from the much larger Sioux tribe. They settled in Texas and New Mexico and in 1790 they allied with the Comanches.

In 1837 Kiowas signed a treaty with the United States, but as they were buffalo hunters they worried about the increasing numbers of white settlers. The Kiowa chief Satanta negotiated many times with the American governement and signed several treaties such as Little Arkansas (1865) and Medicine Lodge (1867). Satanta agreed to that Kiowas should live on reservations, but as the indians delayed the movement, Satanta was kept as hostage by General George A. Custer until the tribe moved to the reservation. In 1871 Satanta lead several attacks on wagontrains in Texas. He was arrested in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and at his trial he warned the whites if they should hang him: " I am a great chief among my people. If you kill me, it will be like a spark on the prairie. It will make a big fire - a terrible fire!" Satanta was comitted to murder and ordered to die. Edmund Davis, governor of Texas, decided to change the death penalty to be life time prison.

Kiowa and Comanche indians started to attack settlers in Texas. In 1873 Satanta was released and soon he was back as a war leader. He attacked white buffalo hunters and lead the attack on Adobe Walls. Kiowas met the same destiny as the Comanches when Colonel Ranad Mackenzie found their winter camp in September 1874 and attacked in the dawn. The camp was destroyed, the horses stolen and food and other supply was seized. The indians later gave up because of starvation. Satanta was captured in October 1874. As he didīnt want to spend the rest of his life in prison he took his life the 11th of October 1878 by diving from a window situated high up in the prison hospital.