George Catlin painted Kiowa warriors with this hairstyle. This was a functional practice to keep their hair from getting tangled while they shot an arrow from a bow string. This corresponded to the ancient Kiowa hairstyle cut horizontally from the lower outside edge of the eyes to the back of their ears. In Plains Indian Sign Language, Kiowa is expressed by holding two straight fingers near the lower outside edge of the right eye and moving these fingers back past the ear. Some older Kiowas will say Kiowa as KYE-wah /ˈkaɪ.wɑː/. The English name derives from how the Comanches would say /kɔ́j–gʷú/ in their language. In English, Kiowa is pronounced KYE-o-wə /ˈkaɪ.oʊ.wə/, KEE-o-wə /ˈki.oʊ.wə/ is considered improper. Later, they called themselves Kom-pa-bianta (Kòmfàubî̱dàu) (tipi flap+big–plural) for 'people with large tipi flaps', before they met Southern Plains tribes or before they met white men. Īncient names of the tribe were Kútjàu or Kwu-da ('emerging' or 'coming out rapidly') and Tep-da, relating to the tribal origin myth of a creator pulling people out of a hollow log until a pregnant woman got stuck. The second element -gua/gú (or in older Kiowa) is a plural marker. The first part of the name is the element (spelled Kae-, Cáui-, Gáui-, or Gai-) which simply means 'Kiowa'.

In the Kiowa language, Kiowa call themselves, spelled variously as Ka'igwu, Cáuigú, Gáuigú, or Gaigwu, most given with the speculated meaning 'Principal People.'

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The Kiowa language (Cáuijògà), part of the Tanoan language family, is in danger of extinction, with only 20 speakers as of 2012. Today, they are federally recognized as Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma with headquarters in Carnegie, Oklahoma.

In 1867, the Kiowa were moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries, and eventually into the Southern Plains by the early 19th century. ə w ə, - ˌ w ɑː, - ˌ w eɪ/) or Ka'igwa (from their endonym Cáuigú IPA: ) people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. Native American Church, traditional tribal religion, Sun Dance, Christianity

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