Red River Pioneers: Anglo-American Activities in Northeast Texas, Southeast Oklahoma and Southwest A

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Rex W. Strickland

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Jim Letland hahahahaha Reply? Lukasz Czaru so many fake sites. Burnet had already been granted a tract of land within what were defined as Cherokee treaty lands. Rusk, commander of the Texas militia, to delineate the boundary. He was unsuccessful in this effort, and Houston could take no more action on the matter before his presidency ended. During Houston's presidency, the Texas Rangers fought the Battle of Stone Houses against the Kichai on November 10, ; they were outnumbered and defeated.

Evidence existed that a widespread conspiracy of Cherokee Indians and Mexicans had united to rebel against the new Republic of Texas, and rejoin Mexico. Houston refused to believe that his friends among the Cherokee were involved, and refused to order them arrested. He used them to neutralize the anti-Texans among the group, identifying the Mexican network and having its members killed. The Cordova Rebellion was an example of Houston's ability to quash it without much bloodshed or wide unrest [19] When Houston left office, the Texans were at peace with the Indians, but many captives were still held by the tribe's bands.

During Houston's first presidency, the Texas Congress passed laws opening up all Indian lands to white settlement, and overrode Houston's veto. The settlement frontier quickly moved north along the Brazos, Colorado, and Guadalupe rivers, into Comanche hunting ranges and the borders of Comancheria. Soon the Texan-Comanche relationship was turning violent. Houston made efforts to restore peace and the Comanches, alarmed at the vigor of Texan settlement, began to consider demanding a fixed boundary, contrary to their traditional notions about borders.

However, Houston was forbidden by Texas law to yield any land claimed by the Republic. He still made peace with the Comanche in Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar , second president of the Republic of Texas, was hostile toward the natives. Lamar's cabinet boasted that it would remove Houston's "pet" Indians. In , Lamar announced his policy: President Lamar was the first official of Texas to attempt "removal", the deportation of Indian tribes to places beyond the reach of white settlers.

As carried out, the policy was based on establishing a permanent Indian frontier, i.

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The Cherokee War and subsequent removal of the Cherokee from Texas began shortly after Lamar took office. Lamar demanded that the Cherokee, who had been promised title to their land if they remained neutral during the Texas War of Independence, voluntarily relinquish their lands and all their property, and move to the Indian Territory of the United States.

In May , Lamar's administration learned of a letter in the possession of Manuel Flores, an agent of the Mexican Government, exposing plans by officials to enlist the Indians against the Texas settlers. When they refused, he used force to compel their removal. On July 12, , the Militia sent a peace commission to negotiate for the Indians' removal.

The Cherokee reluctantly agreed to sign a treaty of removal that guaranteed to them the profit from their crops and the cost of the removal. During the next 48 hours the Cherokee insisted they would leave peacefully, but refused to sign the treaty because of a clause in the treaty that would require that they be escorted out of Texas under armed guard.

On July 15 and 16 of , a combined Militia force under General K. The Indians attempted to resist at the village, and when that failed, tried to re-form, which also failed. Approximately Indians were killed, including Chief Bowles, to only three Militia. When killed, Chief Bowles was carrying a sword given to him by Sam Houston. After the battle, the Cherokee fled to the Choctaw Nation, and northern Mexico making East Texas was virtually free of organized communities of Indians, and their lands guaranteed by treaty, were given to American settlers.

Lamar's success in ethnically cleansing the Cherokee, a neutral tribe, from Texas emboldened him to do the same with the Plains tribes. Lamar needed an army to carry out his Indian policies, and he set out to build one, at great cost. But at independence, the best estimates were that the Republic had 30, Anglo-Americans and Hispanic residents. The Comanche and Kiowa however, had in the s a population estimated between 20, and 30, They were well supplied with high-quality firearms and had a large surplus of horses.

In addition, by the s the Comanche had established a large network of Indian allies and a vast trading network. Lamar had neither the manpower nor the money to pursue his policy after the Cherokee War, but was not deterred. Lamar's two-year term was marked by escalating violence between the Comanche and colonists. There were not enough Rangers to battle the Comanche at Palo Duro Canyon, for instance, where they could catch them during winter. Cheyenne and Arapaho attacks along the northern border of Comanche territory coupled with huge losses in the two preceding generations in several smallpox epidemics had the Penateka Peace Chiefs convinced a treaty might be in their best interests.

Additionally, they now realized the huge importance the captive Texans held by the Comanches, had in the Texan imagination. Thus, they reasoned great concessions could be gained from the Texans. Consequently, the Comanche offered, to meet with the Texans, in an effort to negotiate peace in return for a recognized boundary between the Republic and the Comancheria and the return of the hostages.

None of the other 11 Bands of the Comanche were involved in the peace talks at all. The decision of Peace Chiefs from one band of the Comanche to negotiate, as well as the offer of returning of the hostages, appears to have convinced Lamar that the Comanche tribe was ready to surrender the hostages. However, the majority of past negotiations concerning the return of hostages were never honored by the Comanche who obtained concessions but didn't return the hostages or dragged out indefinitely the return of them. His Secretary of War issued instructions which make clear that Lamar expected the Comanche to act in good faith in returning the hostages, and to yield to his threats of force.

Fisher, commanding the 1st Regiment of Infantry:. Should the Comanche come in without bringing with them the Prisoners, as it is understood they have agreed to do, you will detain them. Some of their number will be dispatched as messengers to the tribe to inform them that those detained, will be held as hostages until the Prisoners are delivered up, then the hostages will be released. Thirty-three Penateka chiefs and warriors, accompanied by 32 other Comanches, virtually all of whom were family members or retainers, arrived in San Antonio on March 19, None of the bands except the Penateka arrived at the meeting.

However, they were the pre-eminent band and understood to be the primary leadership of the nation, and were expected to hold the ability of rounding up the hostages. When the Comanche representatives arrived at San Antonio in March , following instructions from the Lamar administration, Commissioners of the Texas government demanded the return of all captives held by the Penateka.

In addition, Texas officials insisted that the Comanches abandon Central Texas, cease interfering with Texan settlements, cease conspiring with Mexicans, and avoid all white settlements. The Comanche chiefs at the meeting had brought along one white captive, and several Mexican children who had been captured separately. The white captive was Matilda Lockhart, a year-old girl who had been held prisoner for over a year and a half. Mary Maverick , who helped care for the girl, wrote almost 60 years after the event that Matilda Lockhart had been beaten and raped, and had suffered burns to her body.

Allegedly, her face was severely disfigured, with her nose entirely burned away, a detail which has been commonly included in Texas history descriptions of the incident since the s. Hugh McLeod mentioned any abuse in his report of March 20, commenting on the intelligence of the girl, but nothing like a missing nose nor any other Texas officials at the time nor Matilda Lockhart's own sister-in-law, who was in San Antonio, in a letter written to her own mother shortly after the release.

Yet none of the Texas officials claimed this to be the case at the time; evidence of abuse is conspicuously missing in the primary documents. Maverick may have exaggerated Lockhart's condition because of the growing criticism of Texas in the American and European press. The most significant source on Matilda's condition is a brief statement made in a letter by her sister-in-law, Catherine Lockhart, who was in San Antonio.

Catherine describes Matilda's release but says nothing of abuse. Webster and her two children who, unknown to her, had just made their escape and that the Comanche chiefs had decided to ransom them. The Texians believed this was against the conditions for the negotiations which they believed stated that all abducted whites had to be released before the council.

The Comanche, of course, had a different view, since the chiefs and bands not in attendance were under no obligation to release anyone, as they had never agreed to anything. The talks were held at the council house, a one-story stone building adjoining the jail on the corner of Main Plaza and Calabosa Market Street. She maintained that the Indians had wanted to see how high a price they could get for her, and that they then planned to bring in the remaining captives one at a time. The Texians demanded to know where the other captives were.

The Penateka spokesman, Chief Muguara, responded that the other prisoners were held by differing bands of Comanche. He assured the Texians that he felt the other captives would be able to be ransomed, but it would be in exchange for a great deal of supplies, including ammunition and blankets. He then finished his speech with the comment, "how do you like that answer? The interpreter warned the Texian officials that if he delivered that message, the Comanches would attempt to escape by fighting.

He was instructed to relay the warning and left the room as soon as he finished translating. After learning that they were being held hostage, the Comanches attempted to fight their way out of the room using arrows and knives. The Texian soldiers opened fire at point-blank range, killing both Indians and whites. The Comanche women and children waiting outdoors began firing their arrows after hearing the commotion inside. At least one Texian spectator was killed. When a small number of warriors managed to leave the council house, all of the Comanche began to flee.

The soldiers who followed again opened fire, killing and wounding both Comanche and Texians. Armed citizens joined the battle, but, claiming they could not always differentiate between warriors and women and children, since all of the Comanche were fighting, shot at all the Comanche.


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Hugh McLeod, written March 20, , of the 65 members of the Comanches' party, 35 were killed 30 adult males, three women, and two children , 29 were taken prisoner 27 women and children, and two old men , and one departed unobserved described as a renegade Mexican. As revenge for the killing of 33 Comanche chiefs at the Council House Fight, all but three of the remaining captives held by the Indians were executed slowly by torture; the three who were spared had been previously adopted into the tribe. Possibly all the most important and renowned Comanche chiefs joined the raid: Gathering around warriors and another women and boys to provide comfort and do the work, Buffalo Hump took his gigantic war party and raided all the way from the Edwards Plateau to the sea.

Several hundred Militia under Mathew Caldwell and Ed Burleson, plus all Ranger companies and their Tonkawa allies engaged the war party in a huge running gun battle, as the Comanche tried to safeguard their loot, and the Militia tried to destroy the Indians. Ironically, again according to military historians, the same thing, greed, that had driven the Comanche into being the preeminent warriors of the plains, now made them vulnerable. The Rangers and Militia overran the Comanche guarding their loot and eventually in a running gun-fight recovered several dozen captives held by the Comanche and eventually recovered mules with several hundred thousand dollars in bullion on them.

The remainder of the Lamar Presidency was spent in daring but exhausting round of raids and rescue attempts, managing to recover several dozen more captives. Buffalo Hump continued his war against the Texans, and Lamar hoped for another pitched battle to use his Rangers and Militia to remove the Plains tribes. The Comanche, however, had learned from Plum Creek, and had no intention of ever massing again for the Militia to use cannon and massed rifle fire on.

Lamar spent an incredible 2. When Sam Houston left the presidency of Texas the first time, the population seemed to support Lamar's strong anti-Indian policies. After the Great Raid and hundreds of lesser raids, with the Republic bankrupt, and all of the captives either recovered or murdered by the Indians, Texans turned away from continuation of war and toward more diplomatic initiatives by electing Houston to his second presidency.

Houston's Indian policy was to disband the vast majority of the regular Army troops, but muster four new companies of Rangers to patrol the frontier. Houston ordered the Rangers to protect the Indian lands from encroachment by settlers and illegal traders. Houston wanted to do away with the cycle of rage and revenge that had spiraled out of control under Lamar. Under Houston's policies, Texas Rangers were authorized to punish severely any infractions by the Indians, but they were never to initiate such conflict.

When depredations occurred to either side, the troops were ordered to find and punish the actual perpetrators, rather than retaliating against innocent Indians simply because they were Indians. Houston set out to negotiate with the Indians. The Caddos were the first to respond, and in August , a treaty was reached. Houston then expanded it to all tribes except the Comanche, who still wanted permanent war. In March , Houston reached agreement with the Delaware, Wichitas, and other tribes. At that point, Buffalo Hump, who trusted Houston, began to talk. In August , a temporary treaty accord led to a ceasefire between the Comanches and their allies, and the Texans.

In October , the Comanches agreed to meet with Houston to try to negotiate a treaty similar to the one just concluded at Fort Bird. The remaining period of the Republic of Texas under President Anson Jones , had the government follow Houston's policies, with the exception that Jones, like most Texas politicians, did not wish to put a boundary on the Comancheria, thus he supported those in the Legislature who derailed that provision of the treaty.

After the Texas Senate removed the boundary provision from the final version of the treaty, Buffalo Hump repudiated it and hostilities resumed. On February 28, , the U. Congress passed a bill that would authorize the United States to annex the Republic of Texas. Texas] became a U. In , in return for this assumption of debt, a large portion of Texas-claimed territory, now parts of Colorado , Kansas , Oklahoma , New Mexico , and Wyoming , was ceded to the Federal government.

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The entry of the Republic into the United States marked the beginning of the end for the Plains Indians. The United States had the resources and manpower to realistically apply a policy of "removal," and they did so. Finally, in May Buffalo Hump became convinced that even he could not continue to defy the massed might of the United States, and the State of Texas, so he led the Comanche delegation to the treaty talks at Council Springs that signed a treaty with the United States. As war chief of the Penatucka Comanches, Buffalo Hump dealt peacefully with American officials throughout the late s and s.

In he guided John S. Ford's expedition part of the way from San Antonio to El Paso, and in he sadly and finally led his people to the newly established Comanche reservation on the Brazos River.

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Continuous raids from white horse thieves and squatters, coupled with his band's unhappiness over their lack of freedom and the poor food provided on the reservation, forced Buffalo Hump to move his band off the reservation in During this period, when settlers began to actually attack the Indians on the reservations established in Texas, federal Indian Agent in Charge Robert Neighbors became hated among white Texans. Neighbors alleged that the United States Army officers located at the posts of Fort Belknap and Camp Cooper, near the reservations, failed to give adequate support to his resident agents and him, and adequate protection to the Indians.

In spite of continuous threats of various people to take his life, Neighbors never faltered in his determination to do his duty, and carry out the law to protect the Indians. With the aid of federal troops, whom he finally shamed and politically forced to assist him, he managed to hold back the white people from the reservations.

Rex Strickland (Author of Red River Pioneers)

Convinced, however, that the Indians would never be safe in Texas, he determined to move them to safety in the Indian territories. In August , he succeeded in moving the Indians without loss of life to a new reservation in Indian Territory. Forced to return to Texas on business, he stopped at the village near Fort Belknap. On September 14, , while he was speaking with one settler, a man named Edward Cornett shot him in the back while he was talking to the first man, and killed him. Historians believe his assassination was a direct result of his actions protecting the Comanche.

Neighbors probably did not even know his assassin. He was buried in the civilian cemetery at Fort Belknap. The years —58 were particularly vicious and bloody on the Texas frontier as settlers continued to expand their settlements into the Comanche homeland, the Comancheria, and was marked by the first Texan incursion into the heart of the Comancheria, the so-called Antelope Hills campaign , marked by the Battle of Little Robe Creek.

This battle signaled the beginning of the end of the Comanche as a viable people, as they were attacked in the heart of their domain, in force.

Ancient Native American Homes

Valuable Indian hunting grounds were plowed under, and grazing range for the Comanche horse herds lost. By , only five of the twelve Comanche bands still existed, and one, the Penateka, had dwindled to only a few hundred on the reservation. Realizing their way of life was disappearing, the remaining free Comanche struck back with incredible violence. Army proved wholly unable to stem the violence. Federal units were being transferred out of the area for reasons that seemed driven more by political than military considerations. At the same time, federal law and numerous treaties forbade incursion by state forces into the federally protected Indian Territories.

Army was likewise instructed not to attack Indians in the Indian Territories or to permit such attacks. Other tribes, such as the Comanche and Kiowa, continued to use that part of the Indian Territories that was the Comancheria to live in while raiding white settlements in Texas.

ANGLO-AMERICAN COLONIZATION

The relationship between the federal government, Texas and the native tribes was further complicated by a unique legal issue which arose as a result of Texas' annexation. The federal government is charged by the U. Constitution to be in charge of Indian affairs and took over that role in Texas after it became a state in But under the terms of Texas' accession to the Union, the new state retained control of its public lands. In all other new states, Washington controlled both public lands and Indian affairs and so could make treaties guaranteeing reservations for various groups.

In Texas, however, the federal government could not do this. Texas adamantly refused to contribute public land for Indian reservations within the boundaries of Texas, meanwhile expecting the federal government to be responsible for the cost and details of Indian affairs. Since federal Indian agents in Texas knew that Indian land rights were the key to peace on the frontier, no peace could be possible with the uncooperative attitude of Texas officials on the question of Indian homelands.

The loss of the 2nd Cavalry in Texas was a particularly bitter blow to colonists. Texas Governor Hardin Runnels had campaigned for office in on a platform to put an end to the raids. He publicly expressed astonishment and rage when the 2nd Cavalry was transferred to Utah, and ultimately disbanded altogether. Ford was known as a ferocious and brutal Indian fighter.

Ford had no trouble ordering the slaughter of villages which resulted in the wholesale slaughter of any Indian, man or woman, he could find. Comanche raids were brutal in their treatment of colonists. Follow any trail and all trails of hostile or suspected hostile Indians you may discover and if possible, overtake and chastise them if unfriendly. Ford and Tonkawa Chief Placido , were determined to follow the Comanche and Kiowa up to their strongholds amid the hills of the Canadian river, and into the Wichita Mountains, and if possible, "kill their warriors, decimate their food supply, strike at their homes and families and generally destroy their ability to make war.

Ford, still operating under Runnell's explicits orders to "follow any and all trails of hostile and suspected hostile Indians, inflict the most severe and summary punishment," [13] and to "allow no interference from any source. The force then advanced into the portion of the Comancheria in the Indian Territories in Oklahoma. Ford led his men across the Red River, into the Indian Territory, violating federal laws and numerous treaties, but stating later that his job was to "find and fight Indians, not to learn geography.

At sunrise on May 12, The Battle of Little Robe Creek was actually three distinct engagements over the course of a single day. The first was the attack on the first village discovered by the scouts of the Ranger force. The second was a follow-up attack on the larger village 70 tents of chief Puhihwikwasu'u "Iron Jacket" , somewhat farther up the Canadian River. Puhihwikwasu'u "Iron Jacket" was killed in this exchange, and the remainder of his village was saved by the intervention of his son, and Quahadi war chief, Peta Nocona "Lone Wanderer" with a third force of Comanche who arrived to engage Ford while all the villages along the Canadian made a swift withdrawal.

Peta Nocona knew that his warriors were no match for the Rangers in an even exchange of gunfire, and had no intention of engaging in such an exchange. He used every trick available to him, including attempting to lure the Rangers and Tonkawas into individual duels, to delay the enemy so the villages upriver would be able to withdraw safely. In this, he was successful.