Quanah’s house had more stars on its roof than any Army general wore on his shoulder straps.
Quanah’s house had more stars on its roof than any Army general wore on his shoulder straps.
Great herds of cattle roamed the South Plains. To get the beef to market, Texans had to drive their longhorn cattle north. The cattle trails to the Kansas railheads crossed Comanche land. Quanah charged the Texans one dollar per head. The tribe used the money to buy its own cattle.
When the railroad came to Texas, trail driving ended. Quanah knew the Comanche land was good for grazing. It covered more than three million acres. This was more than the tribe’s cattle needed. Quanah leased the extra land to Texas cattle barons. One Texan, Dan Waggoner, leased 650,000 acres. The leases brought in from $30 to $50 for each Comanche.1 But, the leases had to win approval from the government in Washington. Quanah went there to meet with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. He also lobbied Congress on behalf of his tribe.
David Burnett was one Texan who became Quanah’s close friend. He built Quanah a large home near Fort Sill. The white house was two stories and had 12 rooms. A wide porch lined three sides. On the red roof the builders painted 22 large stars. That was more than any army general had. Over the years, Quanah had eight wives. He once had five at the same time. He fathered twenty-five children. Four of his wives lived with him in the Star House. An official told Quanah to choose one wife. He should tell the others to go away. Quanah said, “You tell them which one I keep.”2 The matter ended there.
In the late 1880s, Quanah and father-in-law, Yellow Bear, visited Fort Worth, Texas. After a tiring evening, they returned to their hotel. Quanah did not turn off the gas. Instead, he blew out the light. In the morning, a maid found Yellow Bear dead. Quanah was unconscious. Despite the close call, Quanah recovered.
As time went by, whites wanted to settle on Comanche lands. They asked the government to break up the reservation. The October 1892 Jerome Agreement cut Comanche communal lands to half a million acres. Each Comanche was to receive 160 acres. They would share in a $2 million payment. The rest of the land would be open to white settlers. Quanah knew his tribe wasn’t used to owning land privately. His Texan friends also wanted to keep the pastureland intact. Quanah went to Washington to argue against the agreement. He said the Comanche who signed it did not speak for the tribe. He claimed that translators had lied about the treaty’s contents. His arguments influenced Congress. For ten years they did not approve the treaty. He also gained the tribe 480,000 acres more of communal land. In the end, however, the Comanche were stripped of thousands of acres of grazing land.
Quanah received many honors. He rode in Theodore Roosevelt’s Inaugural Parade in 1905. Later the president came to hunt with Quanah in Comanche country. Over the years Quanah’s band dwindled greatly. By the early 1900s, they numbered fewer than 1,200.
A few years later, Quanah fell ill with pneumonia. He sent for the tribal medicine man. The medicine man flapped his arms like the wings of the eagle. This messenger of the Great Spirit would carry Quanah’s spirit to the Comanche afterworld. Quanah died on February 22, 1911. He was the last chief of the Comanche. After Quanah, no one else held that title.
Quanah was always willing to tell the story of his people. Many accounts of his life appeared in dime novels and books of western lore.