They say their ancestors came into this world from an underworld by passing through a hollow log. Tribal stories say the Kiowa originated near the sources of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers in western Montana. At that time, 12,398 people claimed to have some Kiowa blood.
The 2000 census showed 8,321 Kiowa (7,853 Kiowa and 467 Oklahoma Kiowa). Census, 9,460 people identified themselves as Kiowa (8,936 Kiowa and 524 Oklahoma Kiowa). In the early nineteenth century there were about 1,800 Kiowa. In the 1990s nearly 6,500 lived in several small cities in southwest Oklahoma near their former reservation, which no longer exists. In 1700 they were living near the Black Hills of South Dakota, but moved to the southern Great Plains in 1785. The Kiowa’s earliest known homeland was in western Montana.
Their name for themselves was kwuda, which means “coming out,” a reference to their origin story. It later evolved into the name “Kiowa,” which means “the Principal People” to the tribe. The name Kiowa (pronounced KIE-uh-wuh) comes from the Comanche word “Kaigwa,” meaning “two halves differ,” describing Kiowa warriors who cut their hair on only one side and left the other side long.
