| Summary: | Part of the Institute of Texan Cultures' The Texians and the Texans series. . - . ~ '" J . . THE INDIAN TEXANS This pamphlet is one of a series prepared by the staff of the University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio. This series, when completed, will tell of the contributions made by the many ethnic groups to the history and culture of this state . \ R. HENDERSON SHUFF LER Institute Director ((J &-~97 THE FIRST TEXANS The first Texans were immigrants, tough and daring hunters of Asiatic origin, who followed wild game into this land perhaps 40,000 years ago. The little we know about these people was pieced together from scattered bits of evidence. It is believed that the ancestors of these first Texans came from Asia to Alaska during the last Ice Age when there may have been a land bridge at the present location of the Bering Strait. From Alaska, the hunters drifted generally southward to warmer climates, where game was more plentiful and life was easier. Workmen building a dam in North Texas a few years ago uncovered a campsite of these early hunters. A clue to the age of this campsite was provided by fourteen crude rock hearths which contained the bones of animals long since extinct. A more reliable dating was obtained by making a radioactive carbon test of charred wood from the campfires. The remains were discovered to be more than 37,000 years old. In one of the hearths was a flint spear-point similar to ones found in the camps of early man from Alaska to the Texas coast. This suggests that the first Texans were descended from the men who crossed the Bering Strait. These ~ame flint points have been found in camps dated as late as 10,000 years ago, leading scholars to believe that these early hunters lived in Texas until at least that time. These forerunners of the Texas Indian, known as the Llano (Plains) people, were surprisingly modern men-erect, intelli-gent, resourceful, and courageous. They survived in spite of the constant peril of their surroundings. They won the neverending battle to feed and protect themselves and their families. And they raised the children to people this land for generations to come. "MIDLAND MINNIE" about 12,000 years ago The first Texan we can idenmfy as an individual is known as "Midland Min, nie." Fragments of her skull and a few bones were found in a blow-out-a shallow depression caused by wind-shifted sandson the Scharbauer Ranch near Midland in 1953. Exact dating is difficult under such circumstances, but there is evidence that Minnie lived in Texas from 8,000 to 18,000 years ago. She is pelieved to have been one of the Plains people, who hunted in that area when it was much cooler and wetter than it is today. Her people had no bows and arrows, no horses to ride, and no permanent places to live. They followed the herds of game from place to place, killing the elephant and the buffalo with crude spears and darts tipped with flint. To increase the force of their spearthrows, they used a simple notched stick called the atl-atl. Held in the hand, with the spear-butt resting in the notch at the far end, the atl-atl gave a man the throwing force of a longer arm. MIDLAND MINNIE ~ 8'-3 ~ Hal Storr :. <!: . ':'" <11 ' E:;:: : - . ,"-~ - -~ - , ~ . ~ ~ . ~. ?'" N ' S.,o : ::-. ~ '< . \ \ \ , \ , \ J.- . T' li~'"- .""L"~ -;'j' .'.~.•.•!. t.•~ .-s- ". . .':t::,~.~ , ~ J""f.' > ",, " ,. .~: . , /,. :""v ~ , '· ,.~ ,'"' .~. ~'.~_ ~. 'A t:;- -''"*, ' ;; - ""'," . - """'.:r UiY -- 3.1-1 THE BISON JUMP about 10,000 years ago At Mile Canyon, near Langtry, archeologists have found evidence of a simple but effective tactic used some 10,000 years ago by these first Texas hunters. Here, a natural cleft in the canyon rim was used to funnel herds of buffalo off the edge of the cliff and onto the rocks below. Then the hunters could butcher and skin their quarry at leisure. This is the oldest known American example, by several thousand years, of "the bison jump." THE MALAKOFF HEADS ~ f; -lD 3 CARVED STONE HEADS In spite of the never-ending struggle to stay alive and his constant wandering to follow the herds of game on which he lived, the early Texan somehow found the time to create elementary forms of art. The most spectacular examples are three large rounded boulders, averaging one hundred pounds, carved as human heads. The faces are rough-hewn, but unmis-takably human. Considering the time at which they were made and the tools available, these oldest examples of Texas art are remarkable works of primitive craftsmanship. They were uncovered a number of years ago, deep in a quarry near Malakoff in Northeast Texas. Bones of prehistoric .animals found in this same level indicate that the heads were carved around 10,000 years ago. HUNTERS AND GATHERERS 7,000 years ago The first step toward civilization by the early Texan came when he stopped following herds of game. Possibly, this happened when some of the larger types of animals, off which he had always lived, began to disappear. He learned to supplement his diet with small animals, and with the plants, seeds, nuts, and berries he could gather from the land. This made it possible for the tribe to stay in one place most of the time, to establish more permanent homes, and to store-in good times -food for the bad days ahead. These people learned to kill small game with a curved club, much like a boomerang, which was called a "rabbit stick." They hunted deer and buffalo with the spear, thrown with the atl-atl. Soft seeds and acorns were ground on slabs of porous rock, using fist-sized riverbed rocks as grinding stones. Harder foods were pounded into edible pulp in deep holes on rock ledges, with hard rock pestles. They learned to weave cactus fibres into sandals, mats, baskets and other useful items. Their homes were in shallow caves along the rocky ledges of river canyons and at the edge of the high plains, near running streams or permanent waterholes. 70 - ,;F/ 1 A WICHITA VILLAGE fot-.5(,p DREAMERS AND PAINTERS Though this hard way of life went on almost unchanged for the next 6000 years, the primitive people of Texas began to develop religious systems and simple tribal organizations. And they began expressing their dreams and realities by painting pictures on the walls of their caves, using twig brushes dipped in a mixture of colored rock dust and animal or vegetable fats. Some of these paintings, thousands of years old, are as fresh in color and detail now as they were the day they were painted. Some of these figures, found in Marcy, Exploration of Red River the caves along the Rio Grande and Pecos River, are fifteen feet high. Some are very realistic; others look like the works of modern abstract painters. They depict human hands, cougars, deers, snakes, dancers, hunters, medicine men and many objects we cannot identify. These paintings, and the rock carvings sometimes found with them, are the best record we have of our primitive predecessors in Texas. IN THE WOODLANDS 5,000 years ago to 800 A.D. Along the streams and in the woods of Central Texas, small groups established seasonal camps, which they occupied regularly, moving only when the seasons offered better food supplies in different areas. They built rock hearths for cooking, and in time these grew into large mounds of burned rocks, bones, flint chips, and debris, which we call middens. These people hunted smaller game, gathered fruits, nuts, and berries, and caught fish and mussels from the streams. The woodlands furnished them some protection and they probably built semi-permanent brush shelters. THE GREAT CHANGE 300-500 A.D. When the primitive Texan started planting and raising certain of the native plants on which he depended for food, he made one of the greatest changes in his way of life. By cultivating and protecting his crops of corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, and tobacco, he could settle in one place instead of roving across the land. To a degree, he could depend on his own wits and energy, instead of being wholly at the mercy of the elements. This development started in the rich well-watered soils of East Texas between 300 and 500 A.D. and spread slowly into other areas where the climate made agriculture possible. As the hunters and gatherers became farmers, their villages became permanent, their societies more peaceful and stable. The people began to develop fine skills in handicrafts and arts, more complex religious and political systems, and other marks of what we call civilization. BIG BEND FARMERS A.D. 1100 to 1400 The revolutionary idea of raising a part of one's food, instead of drifting in search of it, spread into Central and North Texas within a few hundred years, but it took much longer to reach West Texas, which even then was much drier than the other regions. For a time, however, West Texas remained cool and wet enough to raise some crops. From around 1100 to 1400 A.D. a people called the Jumanos raised corn, beans, and squash along the Rio Grande at its junction with the Rio Conchos (near present Presidio). As drouths steadily increased in frequency and length, the Jumanos were forced to return to hunting, fishing, and gathering mesquite beans, sotol bulbs, and other wild vegetables. These people developed a stable society, and lived in villages of low, square, flat-roofed adobe and pole houses resembling the pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona. But by the time the first white man (Cabeza de Vaca) visited them in 1535, the tribe was growing smaller. By 1770, the Jumanos had ceased to exist. CANADIAN RIVER FARM ERS·TRADERS 1000-1400 A.D. In the century and a half before the first Europeans visited that area, an ingenious people lived along the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle. They built scattered villages of many-roomed, singlestory pueblos and developed a society based on hunting, farming, and trading. They hunted buffalo arid smaller game on the highlands, and cultivated crops in the rich flood plains of the river. They tilled their fields of corn with buffalo bone hoes and digging sticks. They also gathered in wild nuts, berries, and seeds. When food was plentiful, they stored it for the future in pits in the floor and between houses. With the problem of feeding themselves solved, these plainsmen could develop their skills as craftsmen and become the first great traders of Texas. They developed a major business enterprise- · extracting and bartering flint from the famed Alibates Flint Quarries. This was, probably, the first commercial enterprise in Texas. These people not only traded large boulders of uncut flint, but also a variety of finished products such as hide scrapers, awls, hammerstones, axes and knives. In time the use of Alibates flint spread throughout most of the West-from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. In addition to their manufacture of items from flint, these early settlers also made a distinctive type of cord-marked pottery. Abandonment of the Canadian River pueblos seems to have taken place sometime in the 15th century. CADDO TRIBES OF THE EAST 755-1540 A.D. Most varieties of people who had populated Texas during the thousands of years of prehistory had either died out or evolved so radically over the centuries that they cannot be identified with the Indians who were here when Texas was "discovered" by the Europeans. The farming tribes of East Texas, generally called the Caddo, were an exception. Living in a rich, well-watered, wooded country, and having developed their agriculture over a period of centuries, they were at a peak of civilization when the white men came. These tribes had permanent villages near the farmlands where they raised corn, beans, squash, sunflowers and tobacco. They were numerous and wellfed, with highly developed political and religious systems. The clay temple mounds which they built are still to be seen in many parts of East Texas. Their burials were elaborate, with graves containing such offerings as pottery, arrow points, bone and shell implements, and elaborate personal ornaments. La ~ -J-l() iii .E.-.<. Cf) .:I g ;:J ~ o t:l ~ <: ~ ;::, . ;:t CI:l . . § bIl oS o ~ ~ ~ ~ FIRST DEALINGS WITH EUROPEANS 1528 In the winter of 152.8 the Karankawas were the first Texas Indians to become acquainted with the Europeans who would eventually take over their homeland. When a large party of survivors of the Narvaez expedition were shipwrecked on an island off the Texas coast, the Karankawas greeted them with awe and delight. They held a noisy dance of welcome and brought offerings of food. Then the Spaniards lost their armor, their clothes, and their weapons while trying to escape in an unseaworthy boat. The Indians' feeling turned to contempt, as they saw how small and much less fit for survival these strange men were. Later, when the starving Spaniards started killing and eating each other, the Indians were horrified. Four survivors, three Spaniards and a Negro, were enslaved until they won the respect of the Indians as medicine men and traders. In time these four escaped the Karankawas and made their way along the coast, where they were received as healers by the various CABEZA DE VACA PERFORMS PRIMITIVE SURGERY, PAINTING BY TOM LEA .:.Q I .r- D pzau tribes. As the fame of their magical cures spread, the strangers were passed from tribe to tribe, showered with gifts and food, and allowed to cross the country into Mexico, where they rejoined men of their own kind. This first encounter with unarmed civilized men gave the Indians a false idea of the peaceful intentions of all white men and a great respect for the magic of their religion. One of the survivors of this six-year trek across Texas, Cabeza de Vaca, later published an account of the adventure, which is still one of the most valuable sources of information on Texas Indians of this period. Texas Surgical Society KARANKAWAS The Karankawas were considered ferocious and cannibalistic, but de Vaca, who lived among them, wrote: "Of all the people in the world, they are those who most love their children and treat them best . " These tall, well-built coastal people adorned themselves by piercing the nipple of each breast and the lower lip and inserting pieces of cane; they also painted and tatooed their bodies, and used rancid shark oil to fend away mosquitoes. They lived mainly on fish, oysters, and seafood. An early writer said of their hardiness: "They boast and brag of being strong and valiant; because of this they go naked in the most burning sun, they suffer and go around without covering themselves or taking refuge in the shade. In the winter when it snows and freezes so that the water in the river is solid with ice, they go out at early dawn to take a bath, breaking the ice with their body." Sometime in the 1840's the last handful \v«(/~ : ~ . : .~. .·i··~,,, ~, .' ". ,,~ <, W~bj ' . \. ~ . . : I \ . . , ~ ,~ ~ · ',t -. . ". of Karankawas was moved into Mexico. By 1855 there were only six or eight survivors living near San Fernando in the State of Tamaulipas. COAHUILTECANS The Coahuiltecans lived a hard life in the barren semi-desert country of South Texas. They wore little clothing-only a loin cloth, fiber sandals, and a cloak or robe during bad weather. Food was difficult to find; they ate bulbs of different plants, mesquite beans, and prickly pear tunas. Frequently the food was mixed with dirt to "sweeten" it and make it go further. With bow anti arrow they killed javelina, deer, and occasionally bisonthough when game was scarce they would eat ant eggs, worms, lizards, snakes, and rotten wood. They lived in low circular huts made by placing reed mats over bent saplings. Diseases brought in by the white men rapidly cut down the Coahuiltecans. Hostile Apaches and Comanches . FOOD FOR ALL INDIAN TEXANS-A NECESSITY FOR LIFE ON THE PLAINS killed many more. By 1800 most of the survivors of this South Texas tribe had been absorbed into the Mexican population. LIPAN APACHES Coronado's expedition found the Staked Plains of the Texas Panhandle " . with no more landmarks than as if we had been swallowed up in the sea. . . ." The people living there planted gardens and hunted buffalo afoot. When they acquired horses from the Spanish settlements, they became roving hunters following the great herds. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Lipans were caught between the Spanish on the south and the Comanches pushing down from the north. Forced farther into Texas and Mexico, they became the renegade and savage raiders of later Texas history. TEJAS In 1541 the Caddo Indians, living at the bend of the Red River, greeted the Spanish explorer Luis de Moscoso with the word Tarshas or Teras, signifying friendship. The Spanish soon applied the term to all East Texas Indians. The word Tejas was then used to designate the province, and finally the state, of Texas. By 1700 extensive trade and missionary contacts between the Caddo and both the Spanish and French were well under way. The introduction of European diseases, and the slaughter of Indians by the settlers diminished the tribes greatly. The Caddo who went on the reservation in 1854 were but remnants of the once powerful tribe. 0 !:J-( -;). 7 THE HORSE AND THE INDIAN 1660 The Indians, on foot, were completely at the mercy of the Spaniards on horses. "Next to God, we owed our victory to the horses," wrote a member of the Coronado expedition. Soon after the conquest there was an ordinance prohibiting any Indian from riding a horse. At first, the Indi-ans killed and ate the animals whenever there was an opportunity. But they soon learned from the Spaniards how to equip and use horses. Then they began raiding the ranches around Santa Fe. From later settlements there was a steady supply by theft and trade. Herds of wild mustangs grew from stock turned loose in 1690 at several river crossings by an expedition under Alonso de Leon. By 1775 these mustangs were plentiful. The horse gave the Indian mobility and made it possible for him to hold out many years Library of Congress longer against the white man. Six tribes: Apache, Kiowa, Comanche, KiowaApache, Wichita, and Tonkawa, became great hunters, raiders, and a constant threat to the encroaching whites. Their horsemanship was often superb. Years later the artist, George Catlin, would write that the Comanche was awkward and unattractive while on foot, "but the moment he lays his hand upon his horse, his face even becomes handsome, and he gracefully flies away like a different being." Cocr-- -I ~0-.THE INDIAN AND THE BUFFALO 1865 Concern over the vanishing buffalo was a basic cause of the Indian uprisings on the Great Plains following the Civil War. "The buffalo is our money," declared Chief Kicking Bird of the Kiowas. "It is our only resource with which to buy what " ;.' :".~ ·:' -;>-C ·. we need and do not receive from the government. The robes we can prepare and trade. We love them just as the white man does his money. Just as it makes a white man's heart feel to have his money carried away, so it makes us feel to see others killing and stealing our buffaloes, which are our cattle given to us by the Great Father above to provide us meat to eat and means to get things to wear." Library of Congress George Hunt, Kiowa historian, was able to recall about 75 uses of the buffalo, but even then he was not certain that he had not overlooked a few. The Indian could not understand how and why the buffalo had disappeared within so short a time. He kept hoping that a miracle would bring back the great herds. INDIAN VIEW OF MEDICINE LODGE COUNCIL "&,, ,t'l National Anthropological Archives THE MEDICINE LODGE TREATY 1867 In October 1867 the United States Government and the plains Indians negotiated a new treaty on the banks of Medicine Lodge Creek in southern Kansas. The Kiowas, Comanches, and Kiowa-Apaches were assigned 3,000,000 acres of land between the Wichita and Red Rivers, in the Indian Territory, north of Texas. They were to be provided food, clothing, and farming equipment; schools and churches; a resident agent, doctors, and other services. In turn, the Indians agreed not to molest whites, interfere with travel or hamper railroad construction, and to stop their raids into Texas. TEN BEARS, COMANCHE CHIEF Perhaps the most eloquent voice at Medicine Lodge Creek was that of Ten Bears: "I was born upon the prairie, where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures and everything drew a free breath. I want to die there and not within walls. I know every stream and every wood between the Rio Grande and the Arkansas. I have hunted and lived over that country. I live like my fathers before me and like them I live happily." "If the Texans had TEN BEARS f4f-~ been kept out of my country there might have been peace . . The white man has the country we loved, and we only wish to wander on the prairie until we die . . " Ten Bears was old and his influence declining by the time he became known to the white people. He advocated peace and, as a result, lost standing among his own people. When he returned from a trip to Washington in 1812, he was sick and exhausted. His tribe had abandoned him. The Indian agent at Fort Sill gave him a bed in the agency office. Here, he died among strangers in an age he did not understand. Only his son attended his death. National Anthropological Archives ~ . \\ \~ KICKING BIRD National Anthropological Archives K I C KIN G B I R D. K lOW A CHI E F Kicking Bird led the peace faction of the Kiowas. His wisdom, eloquence, bravery, and undisputed military ability enabled him to extend his influence far beyond his own band. His force of character was such that he could face down other older chiefs whenever differences arose. He was a signer of the Medicine Lodge Treaty. In the outbreak of 1874, Kicking Bird induced three-fourths of the Kiowas to remain on the reservation. But his peace keeping efforts gained him powerful enemies within the tribe. In 1875 officials at Fort Sill, Oklahoma asked him to single out men who should be sent to prison at Fort Marion, Florida. The Kiowas claim that Maman-ti, the owl prophet, promised to cause Kicking Bird's death by witchcraft. Shortly after the prisoners departed, Kicking Bird-seemingly in perfect health-did die under mysterious circumstances. The post surgeon listed the cause as "poison." The Kiowas thought d~ffer~ntly . THE W IN TER CAMPAIGN OF 1868·1869 1868 While Congress debated the terms of the Medicine Lodge Treaty, frontier conditions steadily worsened. Indians became restless as the buffalo slaughter continued and white men moved onto the old tribal lands. Indians responded in the only way they knew. Raids increased until General Philip Sheridan organized a winter campaign late in 1868. A decisive battle was fought on the Washita River where General George Custer led a reckless attack against an overwhelming number of tribesmen. When the season had ended, Kiowas, Comanches, and Kiowa-Apaches had been settled on a reservation near newly established Fort Sill. And the U.S. Army had learned how to take advantage of the nomadic Indians' worst natural enemy: the severe winter weather of the Plains. But a lasting peace had not been achieved. Roving Comanche and Kiowa bands made 1869 one of the bloodiest in Texas history. One chief said that if Washington wanted his young men to stop their depredations, then Texas would have to be moved far away, where they could not find it. GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER National Archives 70 -1& INDIAN SKETCH OF ATTACK AT SALT CREEK SALT CREEK MASSACRE 1871 On May 18, 1871, a raiding party of perhaps 150 Comanches and Kiowas waited in hiding for a suitable target to cross Salt Creek Prairie in Young County, twenty miles west of Fort Richardson. An army ambulance with a small escort of soldiers came into view that morning, but the Indians left it alone at the urging of Maman-ti, who predicted a better oppor-tunity that afternoon. Unknown to the Indians, this was General William T. Sherman conducting an inspection tour of the West Texas frontier. Late that night a wounded civilian came to the post with a report that a wagon train had been attacked by Indians shortly after Sherman had passed. Seven of the teamsters had been killed and four others wounded. When the Indians showed up at the reservation a few days later, the chiefs Satank, Big Tree, and Satanta Gilcrease Institute were arrested after Satanta boasted they had led the massacre. The prisoners were taken to Jacksboro for trial. Satank was killed enroute when he attacked his guards, but Big Tree and Satanta were convicted and sentenced to death in the first war crimes trial on Texas soil. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and two years later they were paroled. ri ~ .III GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN General William T. Sherman had succeeded U. S. Grant as Commanding General of the United States upon the latter's election as President. Until he narrowly missed being scalped at Salt Creek Prairie, he had followed the old policy of using troops to defend the Texas frontier, but not allowing them to pursue the Indians onto the plains and destroy their resources. Now he changed the policy and ordered the pursuit and punishment of the raiders. This led to the final destruction of the Indians' power to seek revenge on the Texas settlers. When Sherman heard that Big Tree and Satanta had been paroled by Governor E. J. Davis, he sent the Governor a scorching letter: ". . . In making the tour of your frontier, . I ran the risk of my life . " "I will not again voluntarily assume that risk in the interest of your frontier. . . I believe [that J Satantal and Big Tree will have their revenge if they have not already had it, and that if they are to have scalps, that yours is the first that should be taken." SATANTA. ORATOR OF THE PLAINS Satanta was called "orator of the Plains" for his eloquence in council. At the Medicine Lodge negotiations he said: "I don't want to settle. I love to roam over the prairies. There I feel free and happy, but when I settle down I grow pale and die." Satanta was one of the most active raiders of his tribe. He was imprisoned for his part in the Salt Creek massacre. Following his parole, he was returned to prison at Huntsville, and committed suicide by throwing himself from a second floor window of the hospital. In 1963 his remains were taken from a Huntsville cemetery to Oklahoma. His old adversary, General Custer, once said: "Aside from his character for restless barbarity and activity in conducting merciless forays against our exposed frontiers, Satanta is a remarkable man-remarkable for his power of oratory, his determined warfare against the advances of civilization, and his opposition to the . quiet, unexciting . . . life of a reservation Indian." SATANTA "_1 ?tional Anthropological Archives BIG TREE 0 g - 9 ( Barker History Center BIG TREE Big Tree was an outstanding warrior and member of many raiding parties into Texas. After his arrest over the Salt Creek incident, Big Tree kept silent. He was a model prisoner during his stay at Huntsville. After returning to the reservation, he was converted to Christianity, and was a deacon in the Rainy Mountain Baptist Church until his death in 1927. He told George Hunt, a fellow tribesman, that he never ceased to regret the many horrible things he had done as a young man on the warpath. Still, his old eyes always seemed to brighten when he talked of his youthful adventures. SATANK Satank never adjusted to white men's ways. A person of great courage, he was a member of the Koeet-senko, the most elite of Kiowa warrior societies. In 1870, after his favorite son was killed while on a raid in Texas, Satank went to Texas, collected his son's bones, and carried them with him until his death in 1871. For his part in the Salt Creek massacre, he was arrested. On his way to trial in SATAN.K . "f'-fa ., Jacksboro, he sang his death song, drew a knife on a guard, and was shot to death. Many years later the soldier who fired the fatal shot wrote: "I don't look at Satank's picture after dark. He might come and roost on the bed post." Interestingly enough, another of Satank's sons and his daughter went to school in the East. The son took the Christian name of Joshua Given and became an Episcopal missionary to the Kiowas. His sister, Julia, likewise became a missionary. National Anthropological Archives MAMAN-TI, MEDICINE MAN, WAR CHIEF, & OWL PROPHET Maman-ti was scarcely known to the white man during his lifetime, but only Kicking Bird had greater influence among the Kiowas. Maman-ti organized and led many raids, including the Salt Creek attack- for which he let others take credit. His skillful planning and leadership virtually assured success in such endeavors. He was the greatest of the owl prophets, and reputedly had the ability to forecast the outcome of raids. He was a somewhat sinister figure who allegedly prayed Kicking Bird to death, but in so doing, forfeited his own life because he had misused his power. Maman-ti's final prophesy concerned the time of his own death. He was uncannily accurate about it. OUTBREAK OF COMANCHES, CHEYENNES, AND KIOWAS 1874 After a hard winter in 1874, when rations were extremely scarce, Indians began raiding into Texas once more. In part, the food shortage was a result of the wanton slaughter of buffalo by the white man, a process that was speeded in 1871 when tanners discovered a means of turning the "flint" hides into usable leather. In three years, 1872-74, an estimated 3,698,730 buffalo were killed. Of that number, the Indians killed only 150,000; the rest were killed by white hunters, mostly for the hides. Addressing a joint session of the Texas Legislature, General Philip Sheridan said, "Let them kill, skin and sell until the buffalo is exterminated, as it is the only way to bring lasting peace and allow civilization to advance." By the end of that year, the southern herd had ceased to exist. SECOND BATTLE AT ADOBE WALLS 1874 Isatai, an ambitious young Comanche medicine man, encouraged the Indians to make a final effort to drive the white men from the hunting grounds in the Panhandle of Texas. The Great Spirit, he BUFFALO HUNTER'S GAMP4 ,~-q(p promised, would then bring back the buffalo and the life they loved. At sunrise on the morning of June 27, 1874, a group of perhaps 700 Comanches, Kiowas, and a few Southern Cheyennes, all led by Quanah Parker, attacked the headquarters of some 28 buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls. Isatai's prediction of victory was wrong-they were beaten off. At least 13 braves were killed-one by the famous "mile long shot" of Billy Dixon. Smarting under this defeat, the Indians spread out across the Plains. Adobe Walls was the beginning of the end. George Robertson \\ QUANAH PARKER ~if' _ / 3ff1niversity of Oklahoma QUANAH PARKER, LAST GREAT CHIEF OF THE COMANCHES 1874 Quanah was the son of Peta Nocona, a Comanche, and Cynthia Ann Parker, a white captive. He attained his greatest fame as a warrior at the second battle of Adobe Walls in 1874. The following year Quanah's band was one of the very last to surrender. After that time he led his people with great intelligence and ability in their struggle to conform to reservation life. Although Quanah had always lived far out on the plains where. he had little chance for contact with white men, he seemed instinctively to know how to deal with them. TH E BATTLE AT PALO DURO CANYON 1874 Within a month of the fight at Adobe Walls, columns of troops began closing in on the Indians from five directions. One column under General Nelson Miles routed four to six hundred warriors, mostly Cheyennes, on the northeast rim of Palo Duro Canyon and devastated their camp. A month later Colonel Ranald Mackenzie, one of the most famous In- COL. RANALD MCKENZIE '10 - ::LO I dian fighters among the federal troops on the Texas frontier, surprised remnants of the Kiowas and Comanches in their winter quarters in the Canyon. He attacked the camp, drove the Indians out onto the Staked Plains, burned their lodges, took their provisions, captured and destroyed their horses, and left them only the alternative of starving or going to the reservations. This ended the Indians' attempts to reclaim their great hunting grounds and opened the High Plains to settlement. University of Oklahoma r I;. VICTORIO. LAST GREAT APACHE WAR CHIEF 1879 fo'S.,()1 The Mescalero Apaches deeply resented the presence of the settlers, travelers, and soldiers in the Big Bend area. In 1879 the wilder elements of this band joined with the Warm Springs Apaches under the leadership of Victorio, whose tactics were a model of guerilla warfare. His band crossed the Rio Grande three times in the winter of 1879-80, leaving death and destruction behind them. Then, these Indians made two attempts to reach the Mescalero Reservation in southern New Mexico, but were fought off by United States troops in battles at Quitman Canyon and Rattlesnake Springs in far West Texas. Victorio went back to his stronghold in the Candelaria Mountains of Old Mexico. On October 14, 1880, he was picked off by a sharpshooter during a battle with Mexican volunteers under Colonel Joaquin Terrazas at Tres Castinos. In January 1881 the remnants of Victorio's band attacked a stagecoach in Quitman Canyon. Texas Rangers pursued, killed eight, and dispersed the rest. This was the last Indian fight on Texas soil. VICTORIO. LAST GREAT APACHE WAR CHIEF 1879 fo'r,,/~1 The Mescalero Apaches deeply resented the presence of the settlers, travelers, and soldiers in the Big Bend area. In 1879 the wilder elements of this band joined with the Warm Springs Apaches under the leadership of Victorio, whose tactics were a model of guerilla warfare. His band crossed the Rio Grande three times in the winter of 1879-80, leaving death and destruction behind them. Then, these Indians made two attempts to reach the Mescalero Reservation in southern New Mexico, but were fought off by United States troops in battles at Quitman Canyon and Rattlesnake Springs in far West Texas. Victorio went back to his stronghold in the Candelaria Mountains of Old Mexico. On October 14, 1880, he was picked off by a sharpshooter during a battle with Mexican volunteers under Colonel Joaquin Terrazas at Tres CastilIos. In January 1881 the remnants of Victorio's band attacked a stagecoach in Quitman Canyon. Texas Rangers pursued, killed eight, and dispersed the rest. This was the last Indian fight on Texas soil. \",' END OF THE TRAIL? 1969 The wild, wandering days of the Texas Indian are over. Today his presence in this land is remembered in the original place names he gave to Waxahachie, Anahuac, Quitaque, Copano, Quanah, Tahoka, and other towns. Then there are the tribal names that have been applied to such places as Seminole, Comanche, Kickapoo Springs, Cherokee County, Caddo Lake, Karankaway Bay and the creeks of Bedias, Choctaw, Kiowas, Keechi, Delaware and Shawnee. Each year archeologists unearth new sites where Indians once dwelt and find new cave paintings with which to piece together the history of these early Texans. But the Indian has also left a living legacy of surprising proportions in his descendants, who contribute significantly in many fields of endeavor. In recent decades the Indian population of Texas has shown a surprising increase. In 1900 the state had only 470 persons of Indian ancestry; in 1920, 2,109; in 1940, 1,103. The 1960 Census showed a population of 5,750 of whom 4,101 were urban and 1,649 rural. It is easy to be aware of our two resident tribes, the Tiguas and Alabama-Coushattas, because they have stayed together and preserved some of their old customs. Less noticed are the thousands of Indians who, over the years, have left the reservations, secured educations, and made a place for themselves in the trades, businesses, and professions. Every major Texas city has a number of these people, many of whom have achieved notable success. It is almost forgotten that through many Texas families there runs a strong strain of Indian blood. Texans of Mexican heritage are descended from the proud peoples who created great civilizations south of the Rio Grande long before the Spaniards came. Many others are descended from Texas tribes. An outstanding example of a Texas family who have preserved and cherished their Indian heritage is the Parker clan. One branch iS'descended from Daniel and James W. Parker, ~ho came to Texas in 1832; the other branch originates with the Comanche chief, Peta Nocona, whose people had been here much longer. The families became related when Cynthia Ann Parker, a captive, became the wife of Nocona. One of her sons, Quanah Parker, was the last great war chief of th~ Comanches. Each year the 300-member Parker clan holds a reunion, either in Oklahoma or at the site of Parker's Fort near Mexia. In appearance they run the full spectrum from pure Comanche to pure Irish. These family reunions are remarkable gatherings, filled with ceremonies, tale-telling, and exchange of family history. It is not difficult to find other individuals who proudly claim their relationship to the real first families of Texas. The Indian, like every other people who have come here through the centuries, has left his mark upon us and our land. (c.;y - /() ~ W. W. Keeler, Chairman of the Board, Phillips Petroleum Company. Principal chief of the Cherokees. Born at Dalhart, Texas. . Robert Beames. Director, Field Employment Assistance Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Dallas. Quarter Choctaw and descendant of Sam Houston. 10 -:J.lv l 10~ Vernon Tehauno and Forrest Kassanavoid in Comanche ceremonial costume. Tehauno is a machinist for the Murdock Machine and Engineering Company in Irving Texas. Kassanavoid is an accountant for the U.S. Post Office at Dallas. Richard Santos. Bexar County Archivist. Historian and author. Coahuiltecan ancestry. " " : . . ,'f' . . \ . " " " . ,' .
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