From the Zuni language, Kia Kimatranslates as "eagles' nest" and has been in use since the camp first opened in 1916.
The camp originally was going to be Camp Chickasaw, but it was named by the first Camp Director, Edward Everett, while on a trip to the property in 1916 to prepare for the summer camp season.
Kiakima was an ancestral Zuni village or pueblo at the southwest base of Dowa Yalanne, a mesa outside of Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, on the Zuni Indian Reservation.
Camp Tallaha in Charleston, MS, was near Morgan Freeman's farm. In 1994, the Chickasaw Council and Delta Area Council had just merged, and a group of Kia Kima Staff went to Tallaha to help run the camp prior to Kia Kima's season. Morgan Freeman rode a horse to Tallaha one night during Staff Week to join the staff for dinner.
Staffer David "Truck" Robinson was riding on the bumper of a pickup truck on the way to the Dining Hall during Staff Week when he was thrown off while the truck was going around the curve in front of the present-day Osage Staff Center. Robinson received a few broken bones, a concussion, and a new nickname. The "Memorial Curve" sign was put up by an anonymous Staffer shortly after the incident.
