ABOVE: Horace Poolaw (Kiowa), on right. Unidentified figure on left. Artwork on the plane’s fuselage features Horace’s daughter, Linda, from one of his photographs. MacDill Field, Tampa, Fla., ca. 1944. 45UFL52
MIDDLE: Honor dance at Carnegie Park Dance Ground, welcoming Pascal Cleatus Poolaw, Sr. (Kiowa) home after serving in the Korean War. Poolaw is the most decorated American Indian soldier, earning 42 medals and citations. At his left are members of the Kiowa War Mothers, a tribal extension of the American War Mothers. Pascal Cleatus Poolaw, Sr., holds the Ameri- can flag, at right. Carnegie, Okla., ca. 1952. 45POW29
RIGHT: Irene Chalepah Poolaw (Kiowa/Apache) at the funeral of her husband, Pascal Cleatus Poolaw, Sr. (Kiowa), showing his medals. Fort Sill, Okla., 1967. 45UFN1
battle; as a result, the warrior societies became relevant again. But the Kiowa warrior spirit was more en-
thusiastically reinvigorated mid-century, with the outbreak of two more wars in relatively quick succession. Between World War II and Korea, the Kiowas’ opportunity to achieve valor in combat renewed the somewhat dor- mant Gourd Clan and Black Legs military societies. Horace Poolaw’s fellow serviceman Gus Palmer, Sr., was a key figure in renewing the Black Legs Society in 1958, and served as commander from that time until his death in 2006. Horace Poolaw was a member of both the Gourd Clan and Black Legs societies, ac- cording to his son Corky, who is himself also a member of both after his lifelong service in the Marine Corps and his combat honors earned during the Vietnam War. Says Linda of her brother, “Corky inherited that ‘warrior- dom’ from Dad; it wasn’t rules or regulations, but a warrior spirit.” At the same time, Kiowa women’s societies
reemerged in a somewhat different form from pre-reservation times to include groups such as the Kiowa War Mothers (a distinctly Kiowa
14 AMERICAN INDIAN WINTER 2014
version of the American War Mothers) and the Carnegie Victory Club, creating new songs for the modern era. The Kiowa War Mothers’ Flag Song still opens many military society celebrations. Horace Poolaw, as his daughter often remarks, photographed the transitions and adaptations that the Kiowa people made to recover their culture from the devastation caused by the reservation period. During Horace Poolaw’s time, honor
dances and other veterans’ events were much bigger than they are today, perhaps because the pre-reservation warriors and chiefs were still in attendance. “Honor dances would’ve been presided over by elders,
traditional-
ists,” explains Dennis Zotigh (Kiowa/Ohkay Owingeh/Santee Dakota), cultural specialist at the National Museum of the American Indian. “They would’ve all been speaking Ki- owa.” The war chiefs would have been able to still recount their deeds, maintaining a strong connection to the old ways. Poolaw’s pride in documenting honors in war echoes those recounted deeds; he provides evidence for us today of the honor dances, parades, powwows and Gourd Dances during this time of change.
© 2014 ESTATE OF HORACE POOLAW. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION.
© 2014 ESTATE OF HORACE POOLAW. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68