This is an ethnographic study of the military societies of the Kiowa Indians, the largest form of pre-reservation sodality and a continuing vehicle for traditional enculturation. Meadows (anthropology and Native American studies, Missouri State U.) describes the ritual structures, ceremonial composition, and historical development of each of the Kiowa military societies. His treatment includes discussion of origins, structure, functions, rituals, society leaders, dances, music, regalia, paraphernalia, and powwows and their evolution through time. It also includes an examination of Kiowa women's societies. For the early, pre-1900 period, he relies primarily on ethnographic field notes, ledgerbook art, and tribal calendars and for subsequent periods he relies on Kiowa oral history, supplemented by documentary research. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)