Ch. 16 War on Texas Indians

How did Texans try and solve their Indian Problem?

• By the time of the Civil War, only the Plains Indians like the Comanche were still in Texas.

• White settlers feared the Indians.

• They believed they were savages and should be exterminated.

• Settlers believed the land was legally obtained by the United States.

Settlers Expand West

Savage: Someone who is uncivilized.

1849

Frontier FortsForts were established on the western frontier to protect the settlements

Frontier: The farthest most reach of civilization.

The further west the settlers went the more they would come into conflict with Indians.

Quanah Parker• Comanche leader• Father was a Comanche

chief and mother was Cynthia Ann Parker a white woman who had been captured when she was a child in 1836

Cynthia Ann Parker

• In 1836 members of the Parker family were killed in a raid by Comanche known as the Ft. Parker Massacre. In this raid, an 8-year old girl, Cynthia Ann Parker, was captured.

• Cynthia was found by Texas Rangers 24 years later in 1860 and returned to her white family.

Battle of Adobe Walls• In 1864 300 Union troops commanded by Kit Carson

attacked the Kiowa and Comanche at Adobe Walls. (In the Panhandle of Texas)

• Outnumbered by about 1000, the Union troops used their cannons to win and were able to burn hundreds of Indian lodges and destroy the Indians winter food supply.

Kit Carson

Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek

• After the Civil War, the United States Army wanted to end the hostilities with the Natives.

• In 1867 Indians from the southern plains met in Kansas with the U.S. government.

• The Treaty created a 3 million acre reservation for Indians in Oklahoma.

• The U.S. promised to supply Indians with food and clothing and to teach them to farm.

• Promised that no Americans would be allowed on their land. Indian Reservation: Is land set aside for an

Indian tribe, were the tribe is allowed to govern itself.

Failure of the Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek• Plains Indians did not want to

be farmers or move to Oklahoma

• U. S. government failed to keep its promises of supplies and food.

• Often Indian Agents in charge of the reservations were corrupt and sold supplies for their own profits.

• Traders called Comancheros in New Mexico encouraged Indian raids because they bought stolen goods.

Corruption is using the power of the Government for one’s personal gain

The End of the Buffalo• Plains Indians faced a huge problem with the end of the wild

Buffalo.• The U.S. allowed the Army and Buffalo hunters to kill off the

Buffalo in North America.• There may have been 30 million buffalo in the 1850’s, by 1910,

a little over 1000 buffalo could be found in America• Plains Indians lost their way of life which included their homes,

food, clothes, tools and weapons with the buffalo gone.

The most valuable part of the Buffalo was its hide.

Bison hides were used for industrial machine belts, clothing such as robes, and rugs. There was a huge export trade to Europe of bison hides.

Buffalo hides were sold for big money back in the eastWith the end of the buffalo the remaining holdout plain Indians were forced onto reservations.

Pile of Buffalo Skulls in 1870

After 1870, the U.S. gave up on peace

policies and started the policy of removal.

• The U.S. Army sent thousands of soldiers west to deal with the Indians. William Tecumseh Sherman would be in charge of the western army.

• U.S. General during the Civil War who marched to the sea and burned Atlanta, Georgia to the ground.

• In 1871 he came to Texas to inspect Frontier Forts.

U.S. Army

Winchester Model 1873

1873 Winchester Model “The Gun that won the West”

In the early 1870’s a new invention the “repeating rifle” was invented.This weapon, along with the repeating revolver pistol, finally gave Texas Rangers and the U.S. Army an advantage over the Comanche and other natives.

Texas Rangers with Winchesters

Buffalo Soldiers • Freedman soldiers

who fought natives in the west were known as Buffalo Soldiers

• Native Americans called them this because of their bravery in battle.

• They guarded the frontier.

• Sherman ordered General Ranald Mackenzie to lead raids against Indians reducing their numbers on the plains of Texas.

• Texas Rangers also constantly patrolled west and south Texas searching for Indians. They considered any Indian an enemy and would attack if they found them.

General Ranald Mackenzie

Red River Wars

The 2nd battle of Adobe walls• In 1874 Quanah

Parker led 700 warriors and attacked a buffalo hunters camp at Adobe Walls.

• This is known as Second Battle of Adobe Walls

• The hunters held off the Indians with their long range rifles.

• The Red River War was launched by the U.S. Army in 1874 to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, and other Indian tribes from the Southern Plains and relocate them to reservations

• The U.S. Army sent soldiers in five directions and finally trapped the Indians in Palo Duro Canyon.

Palo Duro Canyon, the last stand

The Army burned several villages, killed over a thousand horses and destroyed the winter food supply.

• Quanah Parker, the Comanche and the rest of the Native Texans Tribes (including the Kiowa) were finally forced to surrender at Palo Duro Canyon in 1874.

• Quanah Parker then went on to tirelessly work to help his people adapt to the “white world”.

• Appointed by his old enemy Colonel Mackenzie as sole Chief of the Comanche, he worked hard to bring education and the ability to survive in the white man's world to his people.

Quanah Parker during his reservation days