Great Warriors II

For centuries, Native people had decorated prepared hides, including robes, clothing, shields, tipis and other items with artistic touches.  Painting with quills or wooden stylus using dyes from plants were the earliest mediums.  Later, as animal populations became scarce and tribes were increasingly confined to reservations, new mediums presented themselves.  Instead of hides, there was paper and or fabrics available.  For paint, there were water colors, chalks, and ink.  From this difference in circumstances came a new type of art, known as ledger art. A ledger is a large book in which financial or other records are kept.  Traders, missionaries and military officers often had supplies of them on hand.  Native artists found the paper useful for a far more decorative and perhaps psychological purpose.  Painting on hides held many meanings.  Calendars kept track of tribal histories.  Personal paintings could commemorate success in war, or interest in the spiritual.  As their world cha

Most Native tribes in North America didn't have a royal or noble class.  Even when leadership passed from father to son in patrilineal societies, or uncle to nephew in matrilineal ones, each man had to prove and keep proving his right to lead his people.  Naiche, c 1857-1919, the son of Cochise, made good his claim as the last hereditary leader of the Chiricahua, succeeding his father and his older brother Taza. Naiche in Apache means mischief maker.  He was the son of Cochise by his wife Dos-tes-y, meaning, Something Already Cooked in the Campfire, and born in the Chiricahua's home range of southern Arizona.  With Cochise as a father, Taza and Naiche would have received their warrior's training from the best, a man beloved by his people and feared by the Army and Settlers.  Naiche grew up to be tall and strikingly good-looking.  Army officer Britton Davis described him as being 6'1" and carrying himself as though he were a royal prince.  Naiche came to have 3 wi

The Civil War wasn't just a war between Whites over Black slavery.  Native tribes and Individuals from various tribes line up on either side of the issue.  The Five Southeastern Tribes had been, prior to Indian Removal, prosperous farmers and planters.  Many owned slaves and brought their slaves with them on the Trails of Tears.  Natives of other tribes did not own slaves.  Their allegiance to either the Union or Confederacy revolved around the ability of either government to protect their lands or perhaps to grant them more land, or lands they had lost.  To that end, when war broke out in 1861, Natives formed troops of infantry and cavalry just as quickly as did White volunteers, and brought their own skills to bear in the war effort. Some of these units were raised primarily in Oklahoma and composed of mounted cavalry from the Five Southeastern Tribes.  The most famous of these were the Cherokee Mounted Rifles, raised in Oklahoma by Col. Stand Watie, later a Brigadier General. 

Societies throughout time have used various methods of computing passing years in order to date certain events.  In ancient times, the years of each ruler's reign provided a handy reference.  Mesoamerican civilizations made calendars based on observations of the stars and celestial phenomena.  Europeans counted years from the reputed date of Jesus Christ's birth.  Native Americans in western North America also had a time-computation system that worked for them.  Many tribes calculated each year from the first snowfall to the first snowfall of the following year.  Each year was assigned a pictograph, and an assigned tribal elder would draw that pictograph on a buffalo hide.  Later, when buffalo became scarce, muslin, paper or other materials were used.  Based on a consensus with other tribal elders, a descriptive name would be assigned to that year.  For example, the year the stars fell might refer to a year with a significant meteor shower.  This method of computing time is ass

Native leaders in the American west faced a difficult choice when faced with European incursion onto their home and hunting range, fight or try to co-exist.  Some chose to make peace and cooperate with the Whites.  Whether that choice was a wise one or not is best left to the tribe involved to interpret. Ten Bears (c 1790-1872) first appears in the historical record in the 1840's, as the leader of the Barefeet group of the Yamparika or Root Eater division of the Comanche nation.  Later, Ten Bears became division chief of the Yamparika.  He was orphaned as a young boy when his family was killed in a Lakota/Sioux raid.  Years later, he became known for his daring strikes on Lakota camps and hunting parties.  A fierce warrior often had need of diplomatic skills.  Ten Bears was instrumental in making peace between the Utes and Comanche, and later forging an alliance between the Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne and Arapahoe.  He was the signatory of the 1853 Fort Atkinson Treaty.  In 1863, h

This small but beautiful range of mountains in what is now South Dakota is famous for its gold of a distinctive color, and many landmarks of national interest.  It is also sacred to the Lakota/Sioux people, the site of a minor gold rush, and the reason for the Great Sioux War of 1876-77. The Black Hills are so-called after the Lakota name for them.  It describes the dense forests on the slopes of these hills which make them appear black when seen from a distance.  Black Elk Peak is the highest rise in the Black Hills, at over 7200 feet.  Archaeology confirms the exists of Clovis cultures in the area.  Prior to contact, the Hills were home to the Arikara, Cheyenne, Crow and Kiowa.  In 1776, as the United States was busy fighting its war of independence from Great Britain, the Sioux migrated from Minnesota, took over the Black Hills from the Cheyenne and made these beautiful mountains part of their own culture.  Pursuant to the terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, the Black Hills

North America west of the Mississippi was home to hundreds of tribes, each speaking its own language.  Contrary to popular conception, they weren't always raiding and warring on one another.  Trade and diplomacy happened, alliances were forged and agreements made.  They had to communicate somehow.  The solution was a sign language first observed by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century.  The signs were a form of pidgin, a hybrid language that drew from the languages around it to form a means of communicating.  However, the sign language wasn't based on any particular language, but a commonly accepted vocabulary of signs for various words and ideas.  Its use spread from northern Mexico, throughout the Plains and Great Basin tribes and throughout central Canada above the Great Lakes. As with many Native languages, the number of sign speakers dwindled over the centuries.  Some tribes retained the sign language as part of their own culture, including Blackfoot, Sioux, Arapa

The Kiowa were a powerful Native tribe who ranged throughout the southern Great Plains in search of the buffalo.  Oral tradition places their origin near what is now Glacier National Park in Montana, just south of the border of Canada.  They drifted southward down the Rocky Mountains into Colorado by the 17th and 18th centuries.  Pressure from other tribes brought them to the southern plains by the 19th century.  The Kiowa name for themselves translate to principal people or real people.  During their time in Colorado, they shared land with the Arapahoe, who referred to them as the People by the River.  Their language is part of the Kiowa-Tanoan language grouping and they were also proficient in the sign language used on the Plains. Traditional Kiowa society is patrilineal.  They were semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers, supplementing their diet by trade with more sedentary tribes who practiced agriculture.  Like all the plains tribes, they were proficient in hunting and processing bu

As Natives mingled with traders and other early adventurers on the frontier, it was inevitable that their cultures would mingle through relationships.  Whether those relationships were based on love or need depended on the two people involved.  However, William Bent's relationship with Owl Woman seems to have been a power partnership based on two equal people bringing the best of both their cultures to their family and circumstances. Owl Woman, Mis-stan-stuf, was the daughter of White Thunder, a powerful Cheyenne war leader and medicine man.  Contrary to popular lore, this didn't make her a princess.  Most Native tribes in North American did not have royalty or aristocracy.  Being born into a certain clan or family might give someone status, but it wasn't always hereditary.  Men and women had to prove their rights to leadership.  White Thunder was the custodian of the Four Arrows, a sacred talisman in Cheyenne Society.  The arrows had been lost through conflict with the P

The Native victory at Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass on June 26, 1876 was a collaborative effort of several Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahoe leaders.  Two Moons, 1847-1917 was one of those leaders. Two Moons was born c 1847 in what is now Montana.  His father, Carries the Otter was an Arikara captive who married into the Cheyenne tribe.  Little is known of Two Moons' early life, or how he rose to prominence in his society.  However, he would lead Cheyenne war partiers in several key battles of the American west.  The first was the Battle of the Rosebud on June 17, 1876 against General George Crook, in the windup to the Little Bighorn.  Then, Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass on June 26, 1876.  Finally, less than a year later, Two Moons would lead his final war party at the Battle of Wolf Mountain on January 8, 1877.  There, he was defeated by General Nelson A. Miles and surrendered his band of Cheyenne at Fort Keogh in April, 1877.  A new chapter than began for Two Moons.  Deciding to make

Anyone looking over the vast plains of western North America, particularly the canyon lands of the Southwest, might think them a trackless wilderness.  To a practiced Native eye, however, there were trails all over these lands, used by tribes for a variety of purposes.  While Whites insisted on calling this trails war paths, much as they did on the eastern frontier, the paths served other purposes including allowing war parties easy access to and from enemies.  Tribes traded, allied and communicated with one another.  Some tribes were nomadic, following buffalo or other game to seasonal hunting grounds.  Access to water was always a critical problem.  Trails were a vital means of access in the wilderness. The Comanche Trail, Comanche Trace or Comanche War Trail was, in fact, a network of trails used by the Comanche during raids, seasonal hunting and trading.  The primary trail picked up at two crossings of the Rio Grande River, Boquillas and Presidio, joined at what is now Fort Stock

If centuries of disease, warfare, famine and disruption of their traditional societies and ways of life weren't enough injustice for Natives to suffer, the Dawes Act of 1887 and related legislation added to the misery.  The Dawes Act, also known as the Dawes Severalty Act or the General Allotment Act of 1887, was an act passed by Congress to reduce the amount of lands given to Natives through reservation treaties by providing each family a homestead allotment of 160 acres and full citizenship.  Or, that was how it was supposed to work. In the later half of the 19th century, Settlers had spread across the American west and land was becoming scarce.  Congressional policy makers began to look toward Native land to make up the shortfall.  White Settlers in Oklahoma were anxious to bring it into the Union as a state, which meant shedding the Indian Territory designation.  That was easier said than done.  For decades the federal government had signed various treaties consigning tribes

According to Arizona lore and the plot of the James Stewart movie Broken Arrow , a stage coach driver and post rider by the name of Tom Jeffords gets fed up with the Apache raids disrupting traffic on his mail lines in Arizona Territory.  So he heads into the Chiricahua Mountains to look up Cochise, walks into Cochise's camp and asks him to knock it off.  Impressed by Jeffords bravery, the two become friends and Jeffords talks Cochise into making peace with the White Man.  Did it happen?  A qualified yes. Thomas Jefferson Jeffords, 1832-1914, was born in Chautauqua County, New York, in what had once been Iroquois country.  As a boy, his family moved to Ashtabula, Ohio.  Tom worked as a sailor on the Great Lakes and even captained ships himself before deciding to follow a series of smaller gold rushes further and further out west.  He eventually ended up in New Mexico, working as a civilian courier at Fort Craig.  During the Civil War, Jeffords accepted a daring assignment, to r

On September 4, 1886, the Apaches who'd followed Geronimo for so many years and battles faced the worst day of their lives.  They surrendered their arms to General Nelson A. Miles of the United States Army, hoping to be sent back to San Carlos.  Instead, they were taken by train first to Fort Marion in Florida, and later to Alabama and even Oklahoma.  Most of them never saw Arizona again.  Fittingly, the place where this happened was known as Skeleton Canyon, or ironically, as Canon Bonita in Spanish, though the Apaches would have found nothing pretty about it. Skeleton Canyon lies 30 miles northeast of what is now Douglas, Arizona, in the Peloncillo Mountains which straddle the border between modern Arizona and New Mexico.  The Canyon is the portal for the Animas Valley of New Mexico, and the San Simon Valley of Arizona.  Because of its connection to these valleys and proximity to Mexico, it was a common conduit for cattle rustlers, outlaws, and the occasional honest drovers or

Some Native leaders won the respect of Whites while keeping the esteem of their people.  Red Cloud of the Oglala Lakota, 1822-1909, was a respected leader, warrior, diplomat and advocate for his people who stands in the same rank as Tecumseh, Osceola, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Geronimo, among others. Red Cloud was born in 1822, in what is now North Platte, North Dakota.  His mother, Walks as She Thinks, was an Oglala.  His father, Lone Man, was a Brule Lakota leader.  Sioux culture is matrilineal, meaning that a child took his mother's tribal membership and status from her.  Red Cloud's maternal uncle, Old Chief Smoke, provided his warrior's training and sponsored his rise in Oglala society.  After the deaths of Red Cloud's parents, Smoke raised Red Cloud as his own child.  Under Smoke's direction, Red Cloud began his career in skirmishes with Crow and Pawnee, gaining early experience.  Settlers began pouring into Wyoming and Montana.  Along with Cheyenne and

Sometime in 1800, a young Shoshone girl was captured in an enemy raid and taken into slavery.  The tribe who raided her village were the Hidatsa, a Sioan-speaking people living in what is now North Dakota.  Their name for themselves is Hiraaca, a word which may refer to willow.  The Mandan knew them as the Minataree, which has created confusion with another tribe of Natives, the Gros Ventre, who are sometimes also called Minataree.  Originally, the word Hidatsa applied to one of their original villages, before being applied to the tribe as a whole. Oral tradition states that what are now the Hidatsa came from the Devil's Lake region of North Dakota.  The Knife River area was their home range when Europeans first encountered them.  Originally, they were a powerful enough tribe that few other nations would challenge them.  A cholera epidemic in 1782 diminished their population and left them vulnerable to other tribes.  The Sioux attacked the village of Big Hidatsa in 1790, but the

In some tribes a woman was free to choose a warrior's path.  Just as with male warriors, she was responsible for shielding her people from harm, guiding them to safety, and fighting their enemies.  Lozen, the sister of Chihenne/Warm Springs Apache leader Victorio exemplified all of these qualities.  Lozen was born c 1840's in New Mexico, in the Chihenne Apache's home range.  Her brother, Victorio/Biduya was several years older than her.  How or why Lozen chose to become a warrior instead of a wife in mother isn't known today.  However, it may have had something to do with the fact that, in addition to being personally courageous and very cunning, Lozen had abilities above and beyond those of typical warriors.  According to tradition, she could sense the direction and proximity of enemies.  She would pray to the Apache deity and stand with her palms outstretched, turning in one direction or another until the palms tingled or changed color.  Time and again, she was righ

Ever since Colonial times, armies had turned traditional rivalry between tribes to their advantage in wartime.  One way to do this was by using warriors of one tribe as scouts against the other.  Familiar with the country, the enemy tribe's ways of doing battle, perhaps even their language or customs, these scouts provided valuable information.  When war broke out between the United States and the Sioux in 1876-77, the Army turned to members of the Arikara and Crow tribes to recruit scouts.  Some of these men would be unwitting witnesses to history. By 1876, the Crow were already living at Crow Agency Montana, and most were considered friendly as opposed to the "hostile" Sioux, Arapahoe and Cheyenne.  When the chance came to work with the Army against their traditional enemies, however, only a few Crow warriors stepped forward.  Among those who agreed to serve were 6 Crow scouts and 39 Arikara.  Custer generally worked with the Arikara, but as he prepared to set out for

Traders in western North America could either work for one of the larger trading companies, Hudson's Bay in Canada, or Astor's American Fur Company, or they could start their own firms.  The Bent brothers, Charles and William Bent, with their partner Ceran St. Vrain, decided to form their own company, trading with the Arapahoe and Northern Cheyenne.  They built several forts, Fort St. Vrain in Weld County, Colorado, Fort Bent in Otero County, and Fort Adobe, in Texas.  Built in 1833, Fort Bent was the westernmost point of White settlement on the Santa Fe Trail leading from Independence, MO, to Santa Fe, NM.  The Bents also had company stores in Santa Fe and Taos, bringing trade goods from the east, over the Santa Fe trail, to trade with Natives for furs, particularly buffalo pelts. Old Fort Bent was made of adobe and quickly became a stopping point for emigrants heading west, explorers, even units of the United States Army.  Traders such as the Bents, relying on their network

Colonial wars in North America were always grudge matches over territory, never mind what the Native inhabitants thought.  England, France and Spain bickered over pieces of what is now the United States until the American Revolution, 1775-1783, the Adams-Onis Treaty, 1819, and the Mexican War, 1846-48, put a stop to it.  Most of those battles were on the frontier east of the Mississippi and properly belong in Great Warriors Path.  However, part of the double battle of Cahokia, in present-day Illinois, and St. Louis, in present-Missouri, happened west of the Mississippi and as it involved the Sioux, is also featured in Great Warriors II.  The French lost territory two ways after the Seven Years War, 1756-1763.  Most of what had been New France, i.e., Quebec, the Maritimes, and the Old Northwest, went to England.  Louisiana, which included the Gulf States, went to Spain.  When the Revolution began in 1775, Britain saw an opportunity not only to punish some rebellious colonies, but take

Captivity narratives detailing the treatment/mistreatment of Settlers by Natives after capture, their eventual survival and return to White society, had been a popular genre of American literature since the first such written by Puritan preacher's wife Mary Rowlandson in the 17th century.  While early narratives tended to focus on the captive's faith in God, and God's protection of them throughout their ordeal, later narratives tended to play up the alleged brutalities of the Natives and the sheer grit and survival of the captive.  The narrative of Rachel Parker Plummer, captured by the Commanche in Texas, is one such example. Rachel was born in Crawford County, Illinois, the daughter of James W. Parker.  James and his wife had five children.  Rachel and two others survived to adulthood.  They were part of a large network of families that included Rachel's much young cousin, Cynthia Ann Parker.  While still in Illinois, at the age of 14, Rachel married Luther Plummer

This terminology appears often in western movies, novels and popular histories dealing with Plains tribes and their frequent conflicts with Whites.  Staked plain is a literal translation of the Spanish term, llano estacado.  The staked plain covers eastern New Mexico and Northeastern Texas, 33 counties in Texas and 4 in New Mexico.  A huge escarpment raises this area of the Great Plains up to 3,000 to 5,000 feet in a giant mesa formation.  Estacado in Spanish refers to a palisade, such as one would see around a fort.  The escarpment around this portion of the Great Plains gave the early Spanish explorers the idea of a palisade, hence the name. The stake plains have long hot summers and freezing cold winters.  The land is dry due to low rainfall and difficult to farm.  For soldiers sent here in the 19th century to track down Comanche, Kiowa, Apache and other tribes, a tour of duty could be a death sentence.  Hunger, thirst, and disease from dusty, unsanitary conditions claimed almost

In the movie She Wore a Yellow Ribbon , as John Wayne and his men try to figure out which tribe was behind the killing of travelers at a stage station, a scout gives his opinion that the arrow they're examining belonged to a Cheyenne Dog Soldier.  Cheyenne warriors were a constant nemesis to United States troops patrolling the American west, and vice versa.  The Dog Soldiers or Dog Men, one of their elite military forces, were their special ops. Cheyenne society recognize two traditional forms of governments, the Council of Forty-Four, and the six military societies.  The Council included four chiefs from each of the ten Cheyenne bands, plus four responsible elders.  The heads of the military societies were responsible for leading their men in battle, maintaining order and discipline among their men and the tribe as a whole, and advising in decisions regarding war.  The Dog Soldiers were known as the most aggressive and most effective of the societies, recognized by their colorfu

Before riding into battle or out on the hunt, or for ceremonies and special occasions, Plains warriors took care to dress themselves in their best regalia.  While some adornments had a personal significance, or may have had military meaning, other items were religious in nature.  One item that was both adornment and religious was a hair drop.  A hair drop was, as its name suggests, an ornament made of hair, be it horsehair or human hair.  It was not, as some people believe, from the scalp lock of an enemy.  The hair would be braided or tied with other ornaments such as feathers, quills, beads, links of silver, sometimes even the tail of a buffalo.  Some hair drops could be over 2 feet long.  The ornament was then tied into a man's hair and worn down the side.  It was a valued personal item, and sometimes viewed as a talisman to bringing good luck or invulnerability in battle.  Some hair drops have become collector's items today.    

Native command structure during campaigns and battles differed significantly from European-American structure.  While White armies generally had a sole commander who crafted the strategy and took credit if the battle was won, Native forces were led by command teams of several leaders who jointly decided strategy and shared credit equally.  The Battle of Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass, June 25-26, 1876, is often boiled down in history to Custer versus Crazy Horse/Sitting Bull.  However, other leaders from various Sioux bands as well as Arapahoe and Cheyenne also participated in the strategy and leadership that gained victory for their side.  Gall, c 1840-1894, a Hunkpapa war chief, has gotten little credit over the years for some key surveillance and maneuvering that tipped the balance for the Natives. Gall was born in what is now South Dakota.  He was orphaned early and dependent on others for food and other necessities.  He received his name Gall, or Phizi, meaning Gall Bladder, after

By the time of the American Civil War the captivity narrative was a common genre in American fiction.  Fiction, because many accounts of captivity of White settlers by Natives that were once factual, including those by Mary Jemison, Hannah Dustin and other, had gone through several editions.  Editors added in additional details, often distorting the original narrative.  The capture of a young Mexican boy in Arizona in 1861 added a new wrinkle to the captivity cycle.  His capture would spark a war with the Apaches that lasted over 25 years in some of the most brutal fighting in the west. Mickey Free, 1847-1914, was the son of Jesusa Martinez and Santiago Telles.  Telles refused to marry Jesusa, so her son was often known by her name as Feliz Martinez, in addition to his father's name of Telles.  Rumors, but not fact, indicated that Felix was in fact half Apache, but likely that was a detail added later in his life.  Eventually, Jesusa and her children moved in with an Irish ranche