Just over twenty years ago Tribal Elder Atwater Onco told me, “It was time.” I was to have a Kiowa Name.
Atwater said, my Name had come to him after our time together, then confirmed in a dream.
Kiowa Naming Ceremony
My father started a fire early that morning. As it blazed, Grandpa fed resin-rich cedar needles into the fire. The cedar smoke kept negative energy and spirits away.
It was a clear day with a slight breeze.
The wind blew the ribbons on my shirt as I stood facing Atwater Onco with Grandpa at my side. I clenched my jaw tight. I was nervous. It was such an honor to receive a Kiowa Name … and a responsibility.
Atwater started with a prayer, said first in Kiowa than repeated in English.
A low drum beat began.
I recorded Atwater’s words:
“This is a sacred ceremony for the Kiowa, it is important to receive a Kiowa name, a true name. Many receive an ancestor name, that is a strong thing, it links our generations together and we remember. Family names are good things…New names are good too.“
Atwater Onco Explained,
“Names are precious things to the Kiowa, they are a celebration, today a name has come to Donna.”
Grandpa’s deep brown eyes held mine. My heart beat slowed to match the drum’s steady thrum.
Atwater continued.
“Being around this young lady. I find her to be really concerned about the Kiowa people. She desires to permanently make available to the Kiowa people the great history we have as Kiowas through interviews with different Kiowa Elders.
She comes from the Kiowa family of Ah quo oat and Aei oin thay, Island Man, Jimmy Quoetone, Sam Ahtone, Jim Todome, Charlie Rowell and Everett Rowell. All outstanding Kiowas.
During our talk at Cutthroat Gap, where our people were slaughtered and beheaded, the scene of the first massacre on the Plains, I know she was emotionally touched by imagining what had taken place against our Kiowa people.
She showed me there, that she was Kiowa.”
I lowered my head, that had been a hard day. We had gone to where the wind still carried the screams of the slaughtered.
Atwater cleared the air of bad thoughts with a brush of his Eagle fan.
Atwater looked deep into me as he announced,
“As of this day, I give Donna Rowell the Kiowa Name, a new name … Her Kiowa Name will be Koyh Mi O Boy Dah, She is a Traditional Kiowa Lady.”
EEEEEIIIIIIYA!
A war whoop rang out celebrating a Kiowa Named.
I stood silent. Atwater leaned in. He softened his thunderous voice,
“Koyh Mi O Boy Dah. That’s your name.”
I stood in the center of the universe, in balance.
Read more Stories from Kiowa Grandparents here