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This text explores the Indian wars and the settlement of the Texas frontier, focusing on the conflicts, treaties, and the impact on American Indians like the Comanche. Learn about the Buffalo Soldiers, Quanah Parker, Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek, and the significance of the buffalo to Native Americans. Discover how westward expansion shaped the fate of Plains Indians and led to their forced relocation to reservations.
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The Texas Frontier • FRONTIER conflicts had existed in Texas for many years. • Texas continued to push toward the WEST, building towns and communities to complete their WESTWARD EXPANSION..
Factors leading to the expansion of the Texas frontier • Large amount of land • Large supply of wild longhorn on the Texas frontier • Demand for beef in the northern and eastern United States
Settlers Expand West • 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. Savage: Someone who is uncivilized.
Forts were established on the western frontier to protect the settlements
Effects of westward expansion on American Indians • Battles between Comanche, Apaches, Kiowas, and the U.S. Army • Forced on reservations in Oklahoma
The further west the settlers went the more they would come into conflict with Indians.
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.
The terms of the Treaty of Medicine Lodge • Indians would stop raiding & move to the reservation in exchange for food, clothing, & financial status
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
Buffalo Soldiers • African American soldiers who were in the 9th and 10th Cavalry, as well as in the 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments stationed in Texas. They were former slaves who fought during the Indian Wars. • Helped keep peace among American Indians in the West after the Civil War • Native Americans gave them this nickname for their bravery.
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.
Quanah Parker • His parents were Cynthia Ann Parker and Chief Peta Nacona. His mother was a captured by the Comanche as a small child and raised by them. • Last Chief of the Commanches • His tribe roamed West Texas • Assimilated to American culture and influenced other Native Americans to do the same.
What the Buffalo Meant to the Native Americans Paunch (stomach) made into water bags Sinews (tendons) and hair were made into bowstrings, rope, and thread Buffalo hide became clothing, saddles, robes, and covers for teepees Hoofs, horns and bones became ornaments, cups, and utensils Buffalo Poo (dung) was used as fuel for fires A Kiowa chief describes it this way: “The buffalo is our money … 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 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.” = Survival
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.
Buffalo hides were sold for big money back in the east With the end of the buffalo the remaining holdout plain Indians were forced onto reservations.
The End of the Plains Indians The railroad, the development of the hide industry during the 1800s, and the wholesale destruction of the buffalo guaranteed that the Native Americans would no longer have the means to survive
Pile of Buffalo Skulls in 1870 Buffalo skulls, mid-1870s, waiting to be ground into fertilizer
After 1870, the U.S. gave up on peace policies and started the policy of removal.
U.S. Army • 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.
1873 Winchester Model “The Gun that won the West” Winchester Model 1873 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
Red River Wars • 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
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.
Battle of Palo Duro Canyon • The U.S. Army trapped the Comanche in the Palo Duro Canyon, their winter home. • Flat land of High Plains allowed for them to be untouched for so long • This defeat forced the Comanche to reservations in Oklahoma.
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
End of the Indian Wars Indian Raids End Along the Rio Grande • Victorio and other American Indians begin raids into Texas from Mexico • U.S. Army troops, many of whom are buffalo soldiers, are stationed near the border to stop the raids • Raids stop when Mexican army joins the chase • Victorio – Apache Indian chief
The Results of the Indian Wars in Texas • Native Americans in Texas moved onto the reservations in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) or continued their fight in other states • With the Native Americans out of Texas and the threat of raids gone, settlers could move into West Texas and the Panhandle and establish their farms and ranches • Many new towns were established at this time in the Western half of the state • The cattle industry exploded… with the buffalo gone from the “Sea of Grass” cattlemen now had huge areas in which to raise cattle on their new ranches • The forts were no longer needed, so many were closed. • The American Indian population had decreased greatly by the 1880s.
