The first real inroads to settlement on the Llano Estacado by Anglo-Americans began with the explorer-mapmakers. The first of these was Major Stephen H. Long. He is credited as probably the first Anglo-American to make contact with the Kiowa Apaches. His experiences with the Llano Estacado and it's barren landscape probably had a lot to do with him marking "Great American Desert" across the entire expanse of the Texas Plains. Future maps would have this designation for about 38 years.
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In 1840, Josiah Gregg was determined to establish a
better route from Santa Fe to the eastern part of the
United States. A veteran trader, Mr. Gregg began his
journey with 28 wagons, two cannons, 47 men, 200 mules,
300 sheep and goats, and an Indian guide. At San Miguel,
New Mexico, he loaded 600 bushels of corn for the
animals. His march took him over the Llano Estacado. |
On March 10 they set up camp on the Trujillo Creek in present Oldham County. There ensued that night an Indian battle with the Pawnees repeatedly attacking his wagon train and scattering their sheep. Later, they would lose the remainder of the sheep when a great Northwesterly wind blew up.
The company re-entered US territory on March 23 and reached Fort Smith, Arkansas on April 15, 1840. With a detailed journal of his route, he is credited with establishing the famous Santa Fe Trail across the dreaded Llano Estacado. When the California gold rush started in 1848, over 2,000 people traveled the route prior to 1849. Later still, the trail would be used by the old Tascosa to Mobeetie stagelines. The trail was used to such an extent that today, ruts from the wagons can still be seen from highways and are designated as such by historical markers.
In the 1600s, the name Comanche was a generic Ute term which was used for any warlike tribe. However, by the 1700s, the name Comanche was applied to a specific tribe, but they called themselves the Nern, or Nim-ma, meaning "The People".
The Comanches originally came from Idaho, Wyoming, and the neighboring states. Around 1700 they moved into the southern Great Plains area. There, they found the Apaches, the same tribes that Coronado had met in 1541. Having adopted Spanish ponies, the Comanches drove the Apaches out by 1725 and established control of a 240,000 square mile area which came to be known as the Comancheria. This area was bounded on the North by the Arkansas River, on the west by the Pecos, on the east by the Cross Timberland, and on the southwest by the Balcones Escarpment. It included all of the Llano Estacado.
By 1790, the Comanches became willing to form alliances with other Indian tribes to combat the appearance of the Anglo-Americans. In that year, they formed a pack with their arch enemies, the Kiowas and Kiowa-Apaches. As the American pressure on the eastern tribes grew, those tribes moved into the Comanche territories and were met with war by the Comanches. By the mid 1800s, the increasing influx of white settlers caused the Comanches to form further packs with the Osages, the Cheyennes, and even the hated Apaches. By then, Texas was the 28th state of the United States and that government now inherited the Indian problems.
By 1858, the newly elected Governor of Texas, Sam Houston, had run on a political platform of quieting the frontier Indians. He launched a vigorous attack on the Indian problem and by 1860, there was a sizable number of men available to fight Indians, including the rangers, minute men, and federal troops. With such forces available, it looked like the end of the Indians. But then came the Civil War.
Both the North and South made treaties with the Indians in order to free up fighters for the War. However, the Indians had no intention of holding themselves to these agreements as long as there were buffalo on the ranges and unprotected farms and ranches to raid. First the South made a treaty which failed and in 1863 the North made treaties which it failed to honor. These southern tribes, with the alliance of the northern tribes, consisting of the Cheyennes, Arapahoes and Sioux, began in 1964 attacking on the frontier heavier than ever. They stole thousands of horses, selling them to the army through Comancheros or Yankee traders. In fact, the attacks where so heavy that much of the emigration was stopped, and the country was actually depopulated.
Just before the Civil War, a son was born by a white captive, Cynthia Ann Parker, to the Comanche chief, Peta Nocona, of the Wanderers band of Comanches. The son, Quanah, was just 14 when the Civil War began, and would probably have not become the most famous Indian on the plains were it not for the war.
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Just after the Civil War, the Government fluctuated with it's Indian polices. Administered by Quaker Indian agents, the Quakers believed that honesty and kindness could solve the problem. This did not work, with Quanah and his Comanches roaming the Llano at will and causing havoc. By this time, Quanah was the chief of a band of Comanches called the Kwahadis. Finally, the government, encouraged by the Quaker Indian agent himself, decided to take action.
In the late 1860s, Fort Sill in Oklahoma and a string of other forts were established in order to keep the Comanches in check. Two years later in 1871, Colonel R. S. Mackenzie was sent from Camp Cooper northwest of Blanco Canyon was sent after Quanah. The ensuing battle of Blanco Canyon was not a great success because the Indians retreated to the Llano Estacado and cold weather prevented the army from pursuing. However, when raiding continued the next year, McKenzie was again sent against the Comanches and Quanah. This time, on September 29th, 1872, Mackenzie surprised and destroyed a Comanche camp, taking horses, mules, and a large number of prisoners. During the winter of 1872-1873, the Kwahadis band camped on the reservation near Lawton, Oklahoma, while they negotiated the return of their people in exchange for white hostages held by them. It was a peaceful time on the Texas Frontier.
| Things where not completely quite, however, for in 1872, Mackenzie had to pursue a band of New Mexican cattle rustlers, masquerading as Indians. While Mackenzie did not catch the thieves, he did rediscover an earlier route across the South Plains which had been discovered in 1541 by the Spanish. This was a safer route with watering holes which could be approached either up the Yellow House (Lubbock) or the Blanco canyons. The two routes came together near Sod House Spring in Lamb County and continued up the Black Water and Portales Draws to Fort Sumner in New Mexico. |  |
No sooner had the prisoners been released in June of 1873, that the Comanches renewed their raids in the Texas Panhandle. There were several factors driving the Plains Indians.
First, the Texans were taking over their lands and attempting to banish them to small reservations, far from the Buffalo Plains. Military posts were established to keep them away from their land. Also, every Indian wanted the glory of killing and looting the white intruders and they wanted revenge for their brothers that were killed by the whites in the raids. In addition, on the reservations, they were literally besieged by white thieves. White thieves from Texas and Kansas had depleted their livestock, white traders kept them in a constant state of poverty, befuddled with whisky so that they were easy marks for shysters. Government contractors were growing rich on the shoddy clothing and scanty, low-grade rations given the Indians. Finally, the railroads were cutting off the plains buffalo herds from their normal rangelands and bringing settlers and hunters who were rapidly depleting the buffalo herds with high powered rifles, leaving all but the hides behind.
So it was after the hard winter of 1874 on the reservations of Oklahoma, when the Indians were forced to kill their own horses for food, that the tribal leaders began talking about a last-ditch combined effort to drive the white men from their land.
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Assembling away from the reservation in June of 1874,
the southern tribes met in a great and unprecedented
effort to oppose the white man. The meeting, led by
Quanah Parker of the Comanches consisted of the Kiowas,
the Arapahoes, and Cheyennes. Notable Indian leaders
included Lone Wolf, Stone Calf, Satanta, Gray Beard, Big
Bow, White Shield, White Horse, Mow-way, Tai-hai-ya-tai,
Wild Horse, Isa-habeet, Howling Wolf, and others. Many of
these leaders had their own agendas for revenge. What
would follow would be one of the most amazing Indian
battles in the history of the U. S., the Second Battle of
Adobe Walls. |
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