Death of Sét:àñ:gyà (Satank), a Kiowa leader who refused to be tried in a US court

A Kiowa warrior and member of the Kiowa military society Koitsenko, Sét:àñ:gyà led many raids against settlements, wagon trains, and army outposts during the mid 1800's. He fought with Kiowa's and Comanche's in the First Battle of Adobe Walls which dramatically repelled Kit Carson. Later he was a signatory of the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 which confined the Kiowa to the southwestern corner of Oklahoma. Discontented, especially after the death of his son, he continued to raid and was implicated in a raid on the Warren Wagon train in May 1871. US Army General William Sherman, order his arrest along with Set:t’aiñde (Satanta) and Á:dàuiétd̶è (Big Tree). Sherman insisted they be taken to Texas and tried for murder in criminal court instead of a military tribunal. This marked the first time the United States had tried Native American chiefs in a state court. This in itself was an attack on Indigenous sovereignty, as Sherman was trying to send a message that acts by a war party would be regarded as common crimes rather than legitimate resistance by representatives of a sovereign state. While in transit to the court, Sét:àñ:gyà pulled his red war blanket over his head to hide himself gnawing at his own wrists to escape his chains. After singing his Koitsenko death song and escaping his chains, he attacked his captors with a knife he had hidden, wrestled a rifle away from one of them but was killed before he could fire.