Momaday: ‘The Death of Sitting Bear’

 Among the elite societies of the world, the Kaitsenko, a group of warriors among the Kiowa, might have been the elite. Membership was limited to 10.

The poet N. Scott Momaday said each member wore a bandolier with a loop at each end.

The warrior wore one loop around his neck. In time of battle the other loop was secured to the ground by means of a sacred arrow. The Kaitsenko must stand this ground to the death.

Momaday’s poem “The Death of Sitting Bear” tells the story of the group’s leader. The poem has 12 sections, each of eight lines. It reads like a compressed epic.

The poem tells of Sitting Bear’s origins in the north where the hills are black. It tells of the myth that holds that the Kiowa people entered the world by coming out of a hollow log.

The poem tells of the great tragedy of Sitting Bear’s life. His son was killed in a raid in Texas. The grieving father journeyed far to collect the bones and bring them home.

Sitting Bear was captured and held at Fort Sill, Indian Territory. Here’s the old warrior speaking as he was being hauled in chains in a wagon, guarded by outriders. 

Singing my death song, I made strong medicine.

Gnawing my wrists to the bone I slipped my bonds,

Blood beading the bone, the color of watermelon.

Sitting Bear died fighting. In Momaday’s poem Sitting Bear lived consistently. His actions were in accord with the conception of what Kiowa culture held life should be. He lived, as well as a human can, an ideal.

Sitting Bear sang his own death song. In Momaday’s poem, this is how it ended:

I become the being I was at the mouth of the log.

Between birth and death is the way of the warrior,

And there is nothing at either end but a dream.

It’s a wonderful poem. If you don’t read the poets, maybe you should.

• Source: N. Scott Momaday, The Death of Sitting Bear; New York: Harper, 2020. The title poem of the book is on pp. 122-31. The quotations are on pp. 122, 128 and 130.