Sherman almost raided by Kiowas in 1871 Texas as chief of army

Quahadis subset of Comanche most feared, even by Comanche; led by Quanah Parker, didn’t trade or treaty with whites

Gen. Mackenzie dispatched to kill Comanche in reversing frontier, used Comanche rivals as scouts

Mexico encouraged white settlement in Texas for buffer against Comanche territory

Horses (from Spanish) key to Comanche power; mounted Indians were rare, and Iberian mustang bred in Asia and Africa and Mexico to suit arid plains

Called ‘Nermernuh’ initially, Comanche were obscure, feckless tribe until Spanish arrived

Name ‘Comanche’ came from Utes “Koh-mats” or Komantcia meaning “anyone who is against me all the time”

Kidnapping allowed for ransoms and helped supplement low fertility rates, induced by horseback lifestyle miscarriages

“The land alone stood a good chance of killing you. The fact that is was inhabited by Comanches and other mounted Indians made death something of a certainty.” p. 40

Since women prepared buffalo hides for trade and tended horses, were more prized as captives

Thousands of years behind on civilization, North American tribes viewed as “premoral” backwards barbarians compared to more cultured and learned settlers

Organized in discrete bands rather than tribes; whites would negotiate with headmen and assume they spoke for whole tribe

Republic of Texas launched Indian war in 1839; began using rival Indians as scouts

By 1840s, disappearing game plus Texan warfare killing them steadily, but nothing more than disease: smallpox, syphilis, cholera

Parker clan came from Illinois in 1833 with land grants

Texas in a hard place: wouldn’t be annexed in 1836 by US, not recognized as independent by Mexico, attacked by Comanches from west and north; neither would accept peace or surrender

Ranging companies established by Daniel Parker: self-supplied, young, structure-less

Rangers, led by legendary John Coffee Hays, started using Colt revolving six-shooter, mounted; big change from on foot with cumbersome Kentucky rifles

Texas population 15,000 in 1836 and 604,000 in 1860.

“The outcome of nearly every treaty was the same: White civilization advanced, aboriginal civilization was destroyed, subsumed, pushed out. The government made claims it could never enforce and never intended to enforce, and Indians died. This is a dreary history.” p. 162

Army failed to adopt Ranger tactics after Hays success

Cynthia Ann recaptured in Battle of Pease River, where husband Peta Nocona was killed and young sons Quanah and Peanuts escaped; taken in with daughter Prairie Flower and paraded by uncle Isaac Parker and family

Civil War evaporated western resistance briefly; after the war the army stuck between massacring Indians and neutering frontier for whites

Belief in Office of Indian Affairs that frontier troubles were white men’s fault wrongheaded given Comanche all-around aggression; besides wouldn’t get behind stopping American expansionism

Treaty conference in Wichita 1867, with reps from remaining tribes and US government, Gen. Sherman; tribes signed but were quickly betrayed or neglected

Corruption and graft in Indian Affairs led to terrible food and clothing and Leavenworth walking off the job in 1868, anarchy

Office of Indian Affairs replaced with Indian Bureau by Grant, run by Quakers to reduce corruption

Mackenzie a class behind Custer at West Point, graduating in 1862; serious, smart student (opposite of Custer); ascended to brevet major general, wounded six times

Grant’s new peace policy ended up rewarding aggression, as Indians realized warpath led to treaties/gifts and goods

Buffalo extermination in 1870s for commerce but also to eliminate Indian livelihood

By 1874 Quanah’s raiding led to abandoning peace policy and reservation safe haven; Mackenzie’s forces pursued them en force but couldn’t find them

Quahadis starved out winter of 1875 before they resigned to reservation; Mackenzie’s respect earned them better treatment

Meager food and goods on reservation; weak cattle released for warriors to kill

Quanah remade himself, in 180 took “white man’s road” and abandoned past; Mackenzie tutored him in white ways and took interest in his family history

Quanah dispatched to bring in renegade Comanche band, using his optimism and killer credentials to convince them of better life

Cattle business under Quanah blossomed, led to increased status and influence via reservation land leasing; some opposed leasing as a way to lose land, but Quanah played the game well

Wanted to build house but needed funding. Petitioned for subsidy but denied by Baptist commissioner against Quanah’s polygamy

Mackenzie gained acclaim within ranks after cleaning up the Custer mess and subduing other skirmishes, but after promotion to brigadier general in 1881 he rapidly declined and died in obscurity in insane asylum in 1889

Dawes Act of 1887 allowed gov’t to parcel reservations for individual allotments; Quanah hectored Jerome Commission for specifics and got some concessions before Senate ratification but lost land

Relationship with Roosevelt brought him to Star House in Cache, Oklahoma, for a publicized wolf hunt, and later Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

Rejected Ghost Dance revival, revived peyote as religious ritual, and fought for better reservation school district; contrast with neighbor Geronimo, self-promoter but not well-liked

Tracked down Cynthia’s grave and lobbied successfully to re-inter her in Oklahoma