A Kiowa’s Odyssey is a sketchbook of drawings by Etahdleuh Doanmoe. Doanmoe, along with seventy-one other Native Americans, were captured in 1875 in Oklahoma Territory after an Indian uprising. The captives were sent to Fort Marion, Florida by the United States government out of fear of further uprisings in protest of the arrests. Doanmoe’s drawings depict the thousand miles-plus trek led by Lt. Richard Pratt, who eventually went on to direct the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania.
The Journey
The shackled prisoners traveled by wagon train, rail, and steamboat through St. Louis, Missouri, Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida before arriving in St. Augustine, the location of Fort Marion.
Assimilation Begins
Once across the Fort’s drawbridge, the Indian’s shackles were removed. Pratt ordered several of the Indians to stand in front of a stone wall located in the courtyard of the fort to have their picture taken. This was the beginning of Pratt’s experiment to “civilize” the Indian. As Pratt would later do at the Carlisle school, he taught the Indians English values, religion, and language.
Pratt treated the Indians more like students than captives. As a reward for good behavior, Pratt allowed them to go into St. Augustine. They were given paper and colored pencils and instructed to draw what they remembered about their journey. Although there were several sketchbooks that included drawings by the Indians, Doamoe’s sketchbook was the only one Pratt added typed captions.
The Importance of Etahdleuh Doanmoe Drawings
The uniqueness of Doamoe’s sketchbook brought together scholars from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania where some Carlisle Indian School documents are held and Yale University in Connecticut where Richard Pratt’s papers are held. At one time the sketchbook was disassembled and part of it was at Dickinson College and the part of it at Yale University. After a major collaboration between the two schools to make the book whole it is now available to purchase. Along with the collaboration also came large sketches that are now touring the various places of the United States. The first exhibition is at Dickinson College’s Trout Gallery. The exhibition will then move to Fort Marion, Florida.
What makes the sketchbook so important is that it documents an end of an era. In 1878, after the release of the Indians from Fort Marion, Pratt encouraged many to go on to Hampton Institute in Virginia. When Pratt opened the Carlisle Indian School, he asked the former Fort Marion students to travel to their reservations and promote the Carlisle Indian School.
Earenfight, Phillip, ed. A Kiowa's Odyssey: A Sketchbook from Fort Marion. Seattle, University of Washington Press, 2007.
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