This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Before each season, Little Wolf is fanned from head to toe with smoke from a bundle of cedar, sage and sweetgrass.
Aromatic and sweet, the smell "reminds you of the old way," says Little Wolf's mother, while the smoke acts as an armor against the dangers that lie ahead.
"It doesn't matter if you're 10,000 miles away or up the street, it protects you wherever you go," she says.
It's 2015, and Little Wolf is not a warrior in the traditional sense. Still, he can use some added protection. He's a quarterback.
Little Wolf is Kendal Thompson, who as a University of Utah athlete is known as a Ute but is in fact a member of the Kiowa tribe, which was moved to southwestern Oklahoma by the federal government in 1867 after once populating western Montana, then the Rocky Mountains, then the Southern Plains.
His mother, Kori, is the daughter of Kiowa Norman Kaubin, with whom they lived while Thompson's father, Charles, played football in the Canadian Football League and NFL Europe, and Thompson was joined at the hip with Kaubin at an early age.
Thompson describes the powwows they attended as being like weekend-long concerts. Kaubin spoke the tribe's language and was a champion dancer. Thompson worked and watched.
During the annual Kiowa Gourd Clan Celebration, around the Fourth of July, Thompson would sneak off to a nearby park for fireworks battles with other young "knuckleheads," and listen to Kaubin tell stories about his ancestors, who include great-great-great-grandfather Ahpeahtone — the tribe's last chief — longtime Kiowa leader Lone Wolf the Elder and renowned war chief Satanta.
"That was kind of the fun I looked forward to, besides [sports], in my childhood," Thompson says.
Kaubin died in March 2003, but Thompson remains close to that side of his family. His great aunt — or grandmother, as custom dictates he calls her — Franda Flyingman tries to attend as many of his games as she can, and plans to drive up from Albuquerque with her daughter to watch the Utes take on the Sun Devils this Saturday.
An administrator in the Bureau of Indian Education, Flyingman was impressed during a previous visit by the "Ute Proud" announcement Utah plays on the video board during home games, and the speaker in those videos, former state director of Indian Affairs Forrest Cuch, agreed that the U.'s educational effort has been "commendable" since the school and the Ute Indian tribe signed a new five-year memorandum of understanding in April 2014.
"It should have been done 50 years ago," he said. "There wouldn't be so much ignorance in this state."
Cuch said he's noticed fewer fans dressing as Native Americans at games and found that more know that the Utes are indigenous to the state and an important part of its history, even if they don't know much more than that.
Four years ago, Cuch began speaking to Utah's football team to kick off its annual team indoctrination program. Cuch and his son Cameron tell the team what sets the Utes apart from other tribes and relate their warrior tradition to the job of defending the home turf and raiding others' fields.
The short speech has helped the players understand what they represent, Cuch said. "We've never had that before. ... It's no longer a superficial connection. It's a meaningful connection."
Thompson learned about Native American history at a much earlier age, with a perspective that you can't replicate in a textbook.
Flyingman once asked him if he realized that his great-great-grandfather, Lon Ahpeatone, had fought for the U.S. Army in France during World War I, and that Native Americans wouldn't be granted citizenship until 1924.
He grew quiet, she remembers.
"But they were in this land," he told her, perplexed.
Flyingman had long hoped Thompson would receive his Kiowa name, promised to him by the last Little Wolf, his great-grandfather, before he died in 2002.
But between football, schoolwork and fatherhood, he never found the time. Back home this summer, he asked his mom, Kori, if they could do it on short notice.
"He's such a special kid among our family that of course we just dropped everything and prepared to do it," said Flyingman, who said Thompson has asked more and more questions about his heritage as he's grown older.
The Kiowa language is not written. Thompson's Kiowa name might be most appropriately spelled Cûi-sàn — with a hard "C" that verges on a "G" sound — and spoken "Kooey-shun," but it means "Little Wolf."
Among those at his ceremony were his mom and dad, his two younger brothers, his girlfriend and their 4-year-old daughter, Kynleigh.
The women wore shawls while Thompson carried a fan made of eagle feathers and wore gourd regalia borrowed from family: a strand of beads, a satchel with specially chosen herbs and buckskin beaded moccasins.
In front of him they laid out what looked like a Pendleton blanket, soliciting donations that they gave per custom to the head drum and the rest of the ceremony staff.
As an emcee shared his family's history and his accomplishments — they are most proud that he has one degree and is working toward another — they danced.
Thompson, in front. His family, behind him.
And Little Wolf received his name.
mpiper@sltrib.com Twitter: @matthew_piper —
Kendal Thompson
Before Utah • An Under Armour All-American at Southmoore High in Moore, Okla., Thompson earned the Franklin D. Watkins Memorial Trophy Award for his athletics, academic and community achievements. He spent three seasons at Oklahoma, where his father was a wishbone quarterback in the late 1980s, and was expected to vie for the starting job until breaking his foot on the first day of fall practice in 2013.
At Utah • Courted while the playing status of starter Travis Wilson was still in doubt due to an artery in Wilson's brain, Thompson and Wilson battled through 2014 fall camp for the starting job and then again throughout the season until Thompson tore his ACL after starting against Oregon. In total, Thompson has completed 60 of 88 passes for 544 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions, while rushing 74 times for 252 yards and three more touchdowns.