Quanah, shown here with three wives, refused to choose one and drive off the others.
Quanah, shown here with three wives, refused to choose one and drive off the others.
During the Civil War (1861–1865), 60,000 white men left Texas to fight in that war. The Comanche continued their war against the whites who had intruded into their homeland. They raided and burned their way through central Texas. The raiders followed a pattern. First they set up camp near their target. They left a change of horses there. Then they swooped in for the attack. Coming back to the camp, they rode on rocky ground to hide their trail. It took hours for the settlers to round up a relief force. By then the raiders, now on fresh horses, were miles away. They rode up to a hundred miles without stopping for rest or food. The Comanche killed hundreds of settlers. Farms and ranches turned into piles of charred ruins. After the war, an army officer said, “This rich and beautiful section does not contain as many white people as it did when I visited it 18 years ago.”1
Quanah fell in love with Weckeah, Chief Yellow Bear’s daughter. He was jealous when Tannap courted her. Tannap’s father offered Yellow Bear ten horses if Weckeah would marry Tannap. Quanah had only four horses. Friends offered to lend him a dozen more. Tannap’s father heard of the plan. He raised his offer to twenty horses. Yellow Bear was amazed. He had thought ten horses was a high price. He said Tannap could claim his bride in three days.
Quanah’s friends made a plan. Quanah would elope with Weckeah. The young warriors would go with them and start a new band. The lovers and the warriors stole from the camp. They rode all night. The next day, they split up. Each group went in a different direction. Yellow Bear did not know which trail to follow. The band met days later, miles away.
Quanah led his warriors on raids in west Texas. His band took many horses. Other warriors and their wives joined them. Within a year, Quanah led a band numbering 200 warriors.
The Comancheros were traders from New Mexico. They traded guns and supplies for horses. Texans hated the Comancheros. The traders provided the weapons the Comanche used to kill Texans. The Comancheros used to have trade fairs. Yellow Bear caught up with Quanah in the spring of 1867 at one of these trade fairs. Before fighting broke out, tribal elders proposed a truce. Neither side could afford to lose warriors. Quanah paid Yellow Bear and Tannap many horses. After being on their own for a year, Quanah’s band rejoined the Quahadi.
That summer Quanah was ill with high fevers. In the fall he was too weak to hunt or raid. He decided to visit the peace council at Medicine Lodge Creek in Kansas. The United States Congress had set up a commission to make peace with the Plains tribes. Quanah met Philip McCusker there. McCusker told him of the death of Quanah’s mother. For the first time, Quanah learned his mother’s surname. From then on, he called himself Quanah Parker.
The leaders of many Comanche bands signed the Medicine Lodge Treaty. They promised to stop attacking whites. They would go onto a reservation. In return they would receive goods, tools, and equipment for thirty years. Toshaway, a Yamparika leader, issued a warning. He said, “I shall wait until next spring to see if these things will be given to us. If they are not, I and my young men will return to our wild brothers to live on the prairie.”2
The whites made a mistake. They thought the Comanche leaders could speak for all their bands. No Quahadi had signed the treaty, so Quanah’s band was not bound by the treaty. He increased his attacks on the settlers. The other bands did not receive the promised goods. They too started raiding in Texas again. A party of 150 Comanche attacked a wagon train in May 1871. They tortured and murdered most of the teamsters driving in it. One man escaped. He made his way to Fort Richardson, headquarters of General Philip Sheridan. Sheridan ordered Colonel Ranald Mackenzie to put a stop to Comanche raiding.