We wanted to see what earlier Americans — people who perhaps had different perspectives on the natural world — believed were the roots of the destructive winds. So we turned to the Silver Horn Calendar Record kept by Kiowa artists for much of the 19th century and into the 20th century.

Over the course of 100 years or so, the Kiowa tracked the seasons — and dramatic occurrences — by naming them and drawing essential pictures. A belongs to the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.

The first year of the Silver Horn calendar was 1828, known as Pipe Dance Summer. The hot days of 1855 were recorded with a drawing of a man with very long hair and feathers on his head. It was known as Long-haired Pawnee Killed Summer. The Horses Ate Ashes Winter of 1862-63 shows a horse that cannot find grass to eat in the deep snows.

And the summer of 1905 — pictured in the middle panel above — was called Great Cyclone Summer. It is a graphic depiction of a tornado's destruction — of human life and property.