Kiowa
/ˈkīəwə
/noun (plural same or Kiowas)
1A member of an American Indian people of the southern plains of the US, now living mainly in Oklahoma.On the southern plains, a war in 1868-69 forced Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Comanches to new reservations....
- From there they would repair telegraph lines, escort traders and pioneers, and, if necessary, fight the Cheyenne and their allies the Comanches and Kiowas.
- My people the Kiowas, like all Indian people, are a very spiritual people.
2The language of the Kiowa, related to the Tanoan group.I do not speak Kiowa, and I never understood her prayers, but there was something inherently sad in the sound, some merest hesitation upon the syllables of sorrow....
- She readily learned to speak Kiowa and soon forgot her native tongue.
3 (in full Kiowa Apache) An Athabaskan (Apache) language of western Oklahoma and neighboring areas.
adjective
Relating to the Kiowa or their languages.Unlike many of his young Indian peers, Rogers' Kiowa grandparents believed in serving more traditional foods, including berries, deer, and fish....
- A half-dozen Blackhawks and twice as many heavily armed Kiowa scouts indicated right away we would have a long wait for lunch.
- Some motifs traditionally are associated with a single tribe, such as the leaf, which was used as a central motif by Kiowa women.
Origin
From American Spanish Caygua, perhaps from Caddoan kā́hīwa’ 'Kiowa'.