Great Leader: Ten Bears of the Comanche, c 1790-1872
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, he led a delegation to Washington to try to gain further concessions for his people, but without success.
In November, 1864, Col. Christopher "Kit" Carson attacked a Kiowa village near where Ten Bears was encamped. He rallied his warriors and led a counterattack on Carson. During the raid, one of his sons was killed. In 1865, Ten Bears, along with two of his sons, Wolf's Name and Little Crow, signed a treaty creating a reservation for the Comanche of the entire panhandle area of Texas. When Texas became a state, state leaders nullified this agreement, again sparking tension with the Comanche. The Comanche agreed to a reservation in Oklahoma at the 1867 Medicine Lodge Treaty. In 1868, Ten Bears and his warriors were camped near Black Kettle's Cheyenne when troops under George Armstrong Custer attacked Black Kettle's village. Ten Bears rallied warriors to counterattack Custer in aid of the Cheyenne, but it was too late to stop the slaughter of many Cheyenne men, women and children in an episode that further blackened Custer's name.
In 1872, Ten Bears attended another delegation to Washington. He died after his return and was buried at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Rumors, unfounded by history, was that the Comanche rejected Ten Bears because the trip to Washington was unsuccessful, but this is unfounded by history. At the Medicine Lodge Treaty Parley, he gave a speech, as follows:
My heart is filled with joy when I see you here, as the brooks fill with water when the snow melts in the spring; and I feel glad, as the ponies do when the fresh grass starts in the beginning of the year. I heard of your coming when I was many sleeps away, and I made but a few camps when I met you. I know that you had come to do good to me and my people. I looked for benefits which would last forever, and so my face shines with joy as I look upon you. My people have never first drawn a bow or fired a gun against the whites. There has been trouble on the line between us and my young men have danced the war dance. But it was not begun by us. It was you to send the first soldier and we who sent out the second. Two years ago I came upon this road, following the buffalo, that my wives and children might have their cheeks plump and their bodies warm. But the soldiers fired on us, and since that time there has been a noise like that of a thunderstorm and we have not known which way to go. So it was upon the Canadian. Nor have we been made to cry alone. The blue dressed soldiers and the Utes came from out of the night when it was dark and still, and for camp fires they lit our lodges. Instead of hunting game they killed my braves, and the warriors of the tribe cut short their hair for the dead. So it was in Texas. They made sorrow come in our camps, and we went out like the buffalo bulls when the cows are attacked. When we found them, we killed them, and their scalps hang in our lodges. The Comanches are not weak and blind, like the pups of a dog when seven sleeps old. They are strong and farsighted, like grown horses. We took their road and we went on it. The white women cried and our women laughed.
But there are things which you have said which I do not like. They were not sweet like sugar but bitter like gourds. You said that you wanted to put us upon reservation, to build our houses and make us medicine lodges. I do not want them. I was born on the prairie where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no inclosures [sic] and where everything drew a free breath. I want to die there and not within walls. I know every stream and every wood between the Rio Grande and the Arkansas. I have hunted and lived over the country. I lived like my fathers before me, and like them, I lived happily.
When I was at Washington the Great Father told me that all the Comanche land was ours and that no one should hinder us in living upon it. So, why do you ask us to leave the rivers and the sun and the wind and live in houses? Do not ask us to give up the buffalo for the sheep. The young men have heard talk of this, and it has made them sad and angry. Do not speak of it more. I love to carry out the talk I got from the Great Father. When I get goods and presents I and my people feel glad, since it shows that he holds us in his eye.
If the Texans had kept out of my country there might have been peace. But that which you now say we must live on is too small. The Texans have taken away the places where the grass grew the thickest and the timber was the best. Had we kept that we might have done the things you ask. But it is too late. The white man has the country which we loved, and we only wish to wander on the prairie until we die. Any good thing you say to me shall not be forgotten. I shall carry it as near to my heart as my children, and it shall be as often on my tongue as the name of the Great Father. I want no blood upon my land to stain the grass. I want it all clear and pure and I wish it so that all who go through among my people may find peace when they come in and leave it when they go out.
(Source: Wikipedia).
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, he led a delegation to Washington to try to gain further concessions for his people, but without success.
In November, 1864, Col. Christopher "Kit" Carson attacked a Kiowa village near where Ten Bears was encamped. He rallied his warriors and led a counterattack on Carson. During the raid, one of his sons was killed. In 1865, Ten Bears, along with two of his sons, Wolf's Name and Little Crow, signed a treaty creating a reservation for the Comanche of the entire panhandle area of Texas. When Texas became a state, state leaders nullified this agreement, again sparking tension with the Comanche. The Comanche agreed to a reservation in Oklahoma at the 1867 Medicine Lodge Treaty. In 1868, Ten Bears and his warriors were camped near Black Kettle's Cheyenne when troops under George Armstrong Custer attacked Black Kettle's village. Ten Bears rallied warriors to counterattack Custer in aid of the Cheyenne, but it was too late to stop the slaughter of many Cheyenne men, women and children in an episode that further blackened Custer's name.
In 1872, Ten Bears attended another delegation to Washington. He died after his return and was buried at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Rumors, unfounded by history, was that the Comanche rejected Ten Bears because the trip to Washington was unsuccessful, but this is unfounded by history. At the Medicine Lodge Treaty Parley, he gave a speech, as follows:
My heart is filled with joy when I see you here, as the brooks fill with water when the snow melts in the spring; and I feel glad, as the ponies do when the fresh grass starts in the beginning of the year. I heard of your coming when I was many sleeps away, and I made but a few camps when I met you. I know that you had come to do good to me and my people. I looked for benefits which would last forever, and so my face shines with joy as I look upon you. My people have never first drawn a bow or fired a gun against the whites. There has been trouble on the line between us and my young men have danced the war dance. But it was not begun by us. It was you to send the first soldier and we who sent out the second. Two years ago I came upon this road, following the buffalo, that my wives and children might have their cheeks plump and their bodies warm. But the soldiers fired on us, and since that time there has been a noise like that of a thunderstorm and we have not known which way to go. So it was upon the Canadian. Nor have we been made to cry alone. The blue dressed soldiers and the Utes came from out of the night when it was dark and still, and for camp fires they lit our lodges. Instead of hunting game they killed my braves, and the warriors of the tribe cut short their hair for the dead. So it was in Texas. They made sorrow come in our camps, and we went out like the buffalo bulls when the cows are attacked. When we found them, we killed them, and their scalps hang in our lodges. The Comanches are not weak and blind, like the pups of a dog when seven sleeps old. They are strong and farsighted, like grown horses. We took their road and we went on it. The white women cried and our women laughed.
But there are things which you have said which I do not like. They were not sweet like sugar but bitter like gourds. You said that you wanted to put us upon reservation, to build our houses and make us medicine lodges. I do not want them. I was born on the prairie where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no inclosures [sic] and where everything drew a free breath. I want to die there and not within walls. I know every stream and every wood between the Rio Grande and the Arkansas. I have hunted and lived over the country. I lived like my fathers before me, and like them, I lived happily.
When I was at Washington the Great Father told me that all the Comanche land was ours and that no one should hinder us in living upon it. So, why do you ask us to leave the rivers and the sun and the wind and live in houses? Do not ask us to give up the buffalo for the sheep. The young men have heard talk of this, and it has made them sad and angry. Do not speak of it more. I love to carry out the talk I got from the Great Father. When I get goods and presents I and my people feel glad, since it shows that he holds us in his eye.
If the Texans had kept out of my country there might have been peace. But that which you now say we must live on is too small. The Texans have taken away the places where the grass grew the thickest and the timber was the best. Had we kept that we might have done the things you ask. But it is too late. The white man has the country which we loved, and we only wish to wander on the prairie until we die. Any good thing you say to me shall not be forgotten. I shall carry it as near to my heart as my children, and it shall be as often on my tongue as the name of the Great Father. I want no blood upon my land to stain the grass. I want it all clear and pure and I wish it so that all who go through among my people may find peace when they come in and leave it when they go out.
(Source: Wikipedia).
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