Rainy Mountain

Rainy Mountain GPS Coordinates: 34.997003, -98.849513

Best access for viewing located near where N2320 Rd & E1390 Rd form a bend.
N2320 Rd & E1390 Rd, Gotebo, OK 73041, USA
GPS Coordinates: 35.000594, -98.848893

Rainy Mountain is a rounded hill standing northwest apart from the main Wichita Mountains in Kiowa County, Oklahoma. It was a prominent landmark for the Plains Indians on the southern plains.

Rainy Mountain Creek, flowing northeastward from Rainy Mountain, was a favored winter camp for Plains Indians, especially the Kiowas, because the grass was green even in winter.

The Kiowa tribe has always placed great importance on the Sun through their religion of worshiping Tai-me (creature-God of the Sun Dance) and the Talyi-da-i (Boy Medicine) bundles. It was at the foot of Rainy Mountain where the Kiowa would dance the Sun Dance, which became very sacred to the people. It was, in fact, the only day that the effigy Tai-me (a half-bird/half-mammal statue) was both revealed and worshiped. The last complete Sun Dance was danced at the foot of Rainy Mountain at the Rainy Mountain Creek of the Washita River. This was the last itme the Sun Dance was done in its entirety. The following time, in 1980, the soldiers at Fort Sill showed up and dispersed the Kiowa tribe before the ceremony was complete.

An excellent work of fiction that depicts the place Rainy Mountain has held in the Kiowa culture is * "The Way to Rainy Mountain" by N. Scott Momaday.

Another great work about the Kiowa and religion is:
* "Religious Revitalization among the Kiowas: The Ghost Dance, Peyote, and Christianity" by Benjamin R. Kracht

Sources:
* Wikipedia contributors. (2017, June 26). Rainy Mountain. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:12, January 25, 2019, from en.wikipedia.org
* Noelle Thompson. "What does the geography of the land of Rainy Mountain represent to Momaday and to his Kiowa culture?" eNotes, 9 Feb. 2016, www.enotes.com. Accessed 25 Jan. 2019.