In the panhandle of Texas in 1874, , a party of non-Indian buffalo hunters armed with high powered, .50 caliber sharps rifles with telescopic sights capable of killing buffalo at 600 yards, set up camp at the abandoned trading post of Adobe Walls. The buffalo hunters were interested only in buffalo hides, so they left the meat to rot. According to the 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge, this area was for Indian use only, but the buffalo-hide hunters wanted to take advantage of the large buffalo herd there.
In his book Encyclopedia of American Indian Wars, 1492-1890, Jerry Keenan writes:
“The Indians, already upset by the increasing toll taken on the buffalo herd by hide-hunters, as well as at white horse thieves who raided their pony herds, were further angered by the nonarrival of their regular annuities, delayed by weather.”
Also at this time, a new Comanche medicine man, Eschiti (Coyote Droppings; also spelled Esa-tai and Isa-Tai) had emerged. It was reported that he was capable of vomiting up all the cartridges which might be needed for any gun; that he could raise the dead; that he was bulletproof and could make others bulletproof; that he could control the weather. His messianic message to the people was that he was sent by the Great Spirit to deliver them from oppression.
A war party of about 300 Comanche, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Arapaho warriors made preparations to attack the hide-hunters. The war party leaders included Tabananaka, Wild Horse, Mowaway, Black Beard, and a rising new leader, Quanah. The Indians were confident that Eschiti’s power would render the hunters’ guns useless. In his book The Last Comanche Chief: The Life and Times of Quanah Parker, Bill Neeley says of Eschiti:
“His medicine had foreseen the hunters asleep; they would not use their big guns, and his antibullet protection would never be put to the test.”
The warriors planned to attack at dawn. However, just as the war party prepared to attack the sleeping buffalo hunters, there was a loud crack which awakened them. The hunters, fearing that the ridge pole had snapped, were suddenly awake and scrambling around. Thus, instead of sleeping hunters, the war party encountered wide-awake hunters who quickly began returning fire.
The hunters settled down for the siege, and with plenty of ammunition and good marksmanship, they repelled the war party. In his book United States - Comanche Relations: The Reservation Years, historian William T. Hagan reports:
“Eschiti attributed the failure of his medicine to a member of the war party violating a taboo by killing a skunk.”
Some Cheyenne warriors had killed a skunk and Bill Neeley reports:
“Since skunk meat was a favorite of the southern plains Indians, this was not unusual, for hungry members of a large war party would eat whatever strayed into their path.”
Jerry Keenan writes:
“Disillusioned by the failure of Isa-Tai’s medicine to protect them and by the unexpectedly accurate return fire, the Indians were eventually driven off.”
One of those wounded in the battle was Quanah Parker. After his horse was shot out from under him, he crawled to a buffalo carcass for protection and was shot in the side. He then crawled to a thicket where he remained until another warrior rescued him.
This battle of Adobe Walls (the second at this site) began an Indian war known as the Red River War or the Buffalo War.
Army troops were called in to capture the war party, but movement was hampered by drought and by temperatures well over 100 degrees. Eschiti took credit for arranging the weather. The troops, however, were relentless and managed to destroy lodges and capture horses.
In the battle of Palo Duro Canyon, an American force of 700 was attacked by 75 Cheyenne warriors. The Indians were driven back to a steep wall of the canyon where the full force of about 500 warriors made their stand. The army had superior firepower, including Gatling guns and artillery.
Army troops at this time were armed with .45-caliber single-shot Springfield rifles. Many of the Indians had repeating rifles, such as the 16-shot, lever-action Henry and the .50-caliber Spencer. According to archaeologist Patricia A. Mercado-Allinger, in an entry in Scientific American Discovering Archaeology:
“The Spencer could fire more rounds in less time than the Springfield, but the single-shot rifle could reach farther across the plains to keep the enemy at bay. It may well have been the better weapon for its time and place.”
The army scattered the warriors under the command of Iron Shirt (Cheyenne), Poor Buffalo (Comanche), and Lone Wolf (Kiowa). There were few casualties (some estimate that only 25 Indians were killed), but the Americans killed more than 1,000 horses and destroyed the Indians’ winter food supply.
One of the most active Cheyenne war leaders during the Red River War was Medicine Water. His wife was Mochi, a woman warrior who had seen her family killed at the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and had pledged to carry out revenge for this massacre.
In his book Contrary Neighbors: Southern Plains and Removed Indians in Indian Territory, historian David La Vere writes:
“The Red River War was the last major conflict fought by the Indians of the Southern Plains, and while it is usually viewed as a war between the United States and the Southern Plains Indians, it also pitted removed and Prairies Indians against Plains Indians.”
In a similar vein, historian Herman Viola, in his book Warrior Artists: Historic Cheyenne and Kiowa Indian Ledger Art, writes:
“The Red River War marked a last desperate and hopeless resistance to the new order.”
More nineteenth-century American Indian histories
Indians 201: the 1832 Black Hawk War
Indians 201: The 1887 Crow uprising
Indians 201: The Kickapoo War against Texas
Indians 101: The United States invades Mexico to destroy a Kickapoo village
Indians 101: Sioux Indians and Black Hills gold 150 years ago, 1874
Indians 101: American Indian Reservations 150 years ago, 1874
Indians 101: American Indians in Oklahoma 150 years ago, 1874
Indians 101: American Indians and Christianity 150 years ago, 1874