Lesson 7: Quakers, Red Cloud, Southern Plains War, and a New President
Quanah, Chief of the Quahadi Comanches
Quanah, Quahadi Comanche Chief
By 1872, Quanah was beginning to make a name for himself as chief of the Quahadi Comanches. This band had never gone to a reservation for fear of being starved to death. But they were being wedged between two hard situations; the buffalo were quickly disappearing and Colonel Randal MacKenzie was hunting and killing the Quahadi--men, women, and children.
This situation called for the collaboration of traditional enemies. The Quahadi Comanches, the Kiowas, the Kiowa-Apaches, the Southern Cheyennes, and the Arapahos joined forces against their common enemy—the whites. Though they could only raise 700 warriors, their aim, with Quanah as their leader, was to destroy the white buffalo hunters.
By 1874 the hide hunters were ranging further and further south onto the Staked Plains to find what was left of the buffalo. This area, according to the Treaty of Medicine Lodge, was forbidden to white hunters, but the army gave its approval. As a base of operations, the hunters camped at the site of William Bent’s old trading post at Adobe Walls.
Bents Old Fort
On June 27, Quanah led his warriors on an attack against the twenty-eight hunters and one white woman camped at Adobe Walls. They had hoped to surprise the hunters but one of them saw the Indians coming. Still, Quanah’s force moved in, but it was a mistake. The hunters were armed with .50-caliber Sharps, and were expert marksmen.
Many Indians were hit, including Quanah whose wound was not mortal. For three days the Indians laid siege to the hunters’ camp, but it was no use. When the Indians left they carried with them fifteen dead warriors and many more wounded. The band split up but continued to carry death and destruction to the whites.
Quanah had a special reason for hating the whites. He had come from a loving family consisting of his father, Peta Nacona; a brother, Pecos; a sister called Flower; and his mother, Naduah.
In 1860, Peta Nacona died from an infected wound. Pecos contracted a disease and also died. Now all that was left of Quanah’s family was himself, his mother, and his sister. But by now, Quanah did not know where his mother and sister were.
Charles Goodnight
While his father had been away hunting, their camp had been attack by white men. Rancher Charles Goodnight helped take Quanah’s mother and sister captive. Naduah tried to escape from her white captors and return to her family, but she was caught and placed under guard. When Flower died Naduah, in true Comanche mourning tradition, slashed her breast, then starved herself to death.
For this cruel act, and other reasons, Quanah carried on his vendetta against the whites. This was an unusual situation because Quanah was half-white. His mother Naduah was known to her white captors as Cynthia Ann Parker. She was white and had been abducted by Peta Nacona when she was nine-years-old. She grew up and married Peta, and bore him three children. She had become a Comanches, and had lived with them for twenty-five years.
Another famous Texas woman was Margaret Borland. Three times she was wed and three times she became a widow. But still, she continued to run the Texas ranch her last husband had left her. She is said to be the only woman to lead a cattle drive. Want to know more? Follow the link below to:
Margaret Borland: The Lady Rancher At: Women of the West by Mary Trotter Kion http://www.mkionwritenow.com/page8.html
Source for this section:
Fehrenbach, T.R. Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans. Collier Books, New York, 1968.
