The Kiowa are a Great Plains tribe, originally from what is now Montana, they had over the 17th and 18th century migrated to Colorado and then the Southern Plains. They subsisted as a nomadic people into the 1860's, when they were forcibly removed to Oklahoma and Texas by the federal government. Today, there are only about 12,000 Kiowa and their language is practically extinct.
Like other peoples of the plains, the Kiowa relied on hunting buffalo for their survival. They ate the meat and used their hides for teepees, clothing, mocassins and containers. The US government engaged in a campaign to kill all the buffalo to starve the people of the Great Plains and force them into reservations. Only recently, the Kiowa have undertaken a project to restore their buffalo herds.
In addition to buffalo, the Kiowa hunted deer, rabbits and other small game. They collected roots, acorns and berries, as well as other wild plants, and traded for corn, beans and melons with other tribes. Meats were mostly roasted in pits or in open fires or boiled, or preserved by sun drying it, grinding it and mixing with animal fat to create pemmican.
Once the Kiowa were forced into reservations, they were given rations to subsist on: beef and, when available, beans, corn, flour and salt. The food was often low quality and moldy. I have not been able to determine how the Kiowa prepared these rations - but I did find a recipe for fry bread, a common food among Native Americans.
Nowadays, however, Kiowa chefs, as other Native American chefs, are working to bring back and update the foods of their ancestors and they are creating recipes that honor their heritage while making them exciting for modern tastes.
For my quick sojourn into Kiowa cuisine, I made:
