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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 .
;
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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.
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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/
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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.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
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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
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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.
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