Great Warriors II

People throughout history have honored their bravest fighting men by including them in elite warrior societies.  The Persian Immortals, the Knights of the Roundtable, and Charlemagne's Paladins to name a few.  Plains tribes also had elite societies of warriors, and among the Kiowa there was no more elite than the ten warriors who made up the Koitsenko. Warrior training started early for Plains boys.  Among the Kiowa, a boy or youth would join the Rabbit Warrior society and begin their training.  As they grew into manhood and proved themselves in battle or on the hunt, they were eligible for membership in 5 adult warrior societies, some of which still exist among the Kiowa.  Members of these five societies took the lead in battle, on the hunt, and in guarding their people on the camp or trail.  These men were also called Dog Soldiers, though they aren't to be confused with the elite Cheyenne society and later tribal band, the Dog Soldiers.  Ten select...

Rivers of ink have been spilled over the Battle of the Little Bighorn/Greasy Grass and what Custer failed to do to save himself and his men.  Twelve years before, an experienced Indian Fighter showed how an outnumbered force of cavalry could protect themselves against a numerically superior force of skilled Plains warriors and live to tell the tale. The Santa Fe Trail was the main artery linking trade and settlement between St. Louis, Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Part of the trail led through Comanche and Kiowa country and they were not happy.  They were aware that the settlers were not only occupying their hunting and home ranges, but also slaughtering buffalo and other game animals that were their basic food supply.  Commanche, Kiowa and Plains Apache warriors felt justified in raiding wagon trains and either killing settlers or taking them captive.  American authorities viewed the Natives as hostile enemies to be eradicated or contained.  In 186...

The Apache tribes most people are familiar with are centered in Arizona and New Mexico, where their descendants live today.  However, another tribe of Apache became closely allied with the Kiowa, becoming known as Kiowa Apache or Plains Apache.  The Apache are an Athabaskan people, linguistically diverse from the Kiowa.  In the beginning of the 18th century, the Kiowa and Plains Apache were living in the area upper Missouri River, where the two tribes likely formed an alliance for protection.  The Plains Apache tribe wasn't large and in 1780, their population was estimated at 400.  The Kiowa Apache immigrated to the Southern Plains in the 19th century.  Along with the Kiowa and Comanche, they figured in the battles against encroaching settlement, particularly the First Battle of Adobe Walls in 1864.  They were signatories to the Medicine Lodge Treaty in 1867.  They agreed to remove to Indian Territory, enduring the hardships of adapting to life ...

The last Kiowa war chief led his people to victory in one of the key battles of the American west, and showed just how far he was willing to go to keep his own freedom.  Satanta, from the Kiowa words for White Bear, was born the son of Red Tipi and a Spanish woman who had been captured by the Kiowa and adopted into the tribe.  His father was a noted warrior and leader and it was only natural that his son would follow in his footsteps.  Early in life, Satanta became known both as a bold and daring warrior and a great speaker, able to persuade others through his oratory.  Satanta first enters the historical record in 1864, at the First Battle of Adobe Walls.  The combined Kiowa, Apache and Comanche forces were under the overall command of Kiowa Principal Chief Dohasan, who led a Native command team composed of Satank, Guipago and Satanta, among others.  Satanta led several charges against Kit Carson's New Mexico volunteers.  At some point in the battle...

The Caddo were a confederation of tribes of the Southeast, in what is now Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.  As such, their history spans both the period of the early American frontier, and of the American west.  Prior to European contact, the Caddo were among the Mississippian cultures, building some of the more complex mounds in the southeastern region.  The were connected to the Wichita, Pawnee and Kitsai, who also spoke Caddoan languages.  By the time of Hernando de Soto's expedition in 1541, the 18 or so tribes of the Caddo Confederacy had grouped themselves into three main divisions, the Natchitoches in what is now Louisiana, the Haisinai, in what is now Texas, and the Kadohadocho, who lived near the border of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.  De Soto had apparently not learned his leasson from his encounters with Tuskaloosa and what would become the Choctaw Nation.  His troops clashed with the Tula, a Caddo band near present-day Caddo Gap, Arkansas....

In 1540, two Spanish armies learned the hard way what happens when Native people were pushed too far.  In 1540, Hernando de Soto and his men were trapped in Mabila, somewhere in present-day Alabama, surrounded by angry Mississippian Natives under Tuskaloosa.  Likewise, in New Mexico, the forces of Francisco Alvarez de Coronado were battling Tiwa-speaking Puebloans on the banks of the Rio Grande near what is now Bernalillo, New Mexico.  Both of these incidents would be Native victories. The Spanish had a standard operating procedure when encountering Native peoples, capture and use as hostages any who spoke enough Spanish to act as interpreters, then demand foodstuffs, bearers and women to provide services before moving on to the next village and repeating the cycle.  Coronado had come into New Mexico seeking cities of gold.  He believed that the Zuni Hawikah, one of the pueblos believed to contain gold.  When it was found that there was no gold, a fight b...

Prior to the Battle of Fort Dearborn in August, 1812, Black Partridge of the Potawatomi attached great significance to the peace medal given him by General Anthony Wayne during the negotiations for the Treaty of Greenville in 1795.  He refused to join Tecumseh, an unpopular move with many in his tribe, because he wore the medal.  Later, when forced to lead his warriors against Captain Nathan Heald's garrison at Dearborn, he returned the medal to Heald with an ominous warning of what was about to happen. Exchanging medallions or peace medals, as they were informally known, was nothing new by 1812.  European traders and representatives of England, France and other colonial powers had presented tribal leaders with medals signifying initial meetings, treaties or other important occasions.  They were given as commemorative coins, with no hole at the top.  Natives took the coins, perforated them to accommodate a leather string, ribbon, or other decorative ...

Mixed race Natives provided a valuable link between indigenous and European cultures trying to co-exist on the American frontier and in the west.  One of these was Jesse Chisholm, a mixed-race Cherokee born in what is now Tennessee.  His mother was Martha Rogers, the daughter of a Cherokee leader, John Rogers.  Jesse's father, Ignatius Chisholm was a trader of Scottish descent.  The Rogers family moved voluntarily to Oklahoma in the decades before the Trail of Tears and forced removals.  In 1826, Jesse joined a prospecting party, and helped blaze a trail from what is now Wichita, Kansas, to Fort Gibson and Fort Towson, in Oklahoma.  In 1834, he was a guide with the Dodge-Leavenworth Expedition, one of the earliest contacts between the Army and Plains tribes. Like his father before him, Jesse entered into the trading business.  He married a woman named Eliza Edwards.  Her father owned a trading post near the junction of the Canadian and Little Ri...

The Spanish conquistadors found incredible wealth in South and Central America with the Mesoamerican empires such as the Inca, Maya and Aztec.  They expected to find such wealth in North America and were sorely disappointed.  What they found instead was land, which could yield treasure of a different sort in the shape of crops and plenty of people to farm them, willingly or not.  Beginning in the late 16th century, Spanish outposts cropped up in what is now Florida, Texas, New Mexico and Texas. The Spanish reach would extend as far as South Carolina, but those missions wee short-lived.  With exploration came settlement, as well as missionaries, both of which proved deadly and disastrous for the Native populations. The Spanish utilized a land-grant system called the encomienda to disburse large parcels of land to wealthy adventurers who had the capital and influence to bring settlers onto the land.  These land grants also entitled the encomendero to the se...

Prior to the Civil War, members of the Five Southeastern Tribes, had owned black slaves.  Slaves, both from other tribes and from White masters, found a ready escape in Florida with the Seminoles.  While some Seminoles did own black slaves, for the most part they welcomed blacks to live among them and intermarry with Natives.  Mixed race Seminole leaders, such as John Horse, were trusted colleagues of Seminole leaders such as Osceola and Coacoochee, fighting for what they considered their homeland, too.  John Horse eventually agreed to lead his people to Oklahoma, under a promise that they would not be returned to slavery.  However, once in Oklahoma, White slave catchers began taking blacks and mixed race Natives back into slavery.  John Hors led his people from Oklahoma and down into Mexico to escape enslavement.  Many became scouts for the Mexican Army. Following the Civil War, the U.S. government turned its attention to Texas, where tribes such as...

Most people think of Indian Wars as being something that only happened in the 19th century.  True, most conflicts with Native peoples had ceased by the 1880's, with the Apaches being among the last major opponents.  However, unrest continued to flare into the first decades of the 20th century.  One of these hot spots was Indian Territory itself, the soon-to-be State of Oklahoma. The treaties made with the Five Southeastern Tribes during the era of Indian Removal had promised them self government on their land, which was held in common among members of the tribe as a whole.  As White settlers poured into Oklahoma and prepared for admission as a state, something had to be done to entice more settlers to the area and curtail the rights and powers of the various tribes.  Under the guise of assimilating Natives to White society, the government came up with the idea of allotting each family their own plot of land similar to a homestead and, in 1895, began surve...

People marvel at the magnificent architecture of Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, Hovenweep and Canyon de Chelly and wonder where the people went who made such spectacular dwellings and ceremonial sites.  For decades, the answer was that they simply disappeared, possibly due to pressure from other tribes, disease, drought, or in the more outlandish renditions, ancient astronauts.  In fact, the descendants of these people are still among us, living in unique villages in three states, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. Most people refer to these cliff dwelling pre-contact Natives as Mogollon, Hohokam and the Anasazi.  However, the word Anasazi is Navajo and, since the Navajo were the traditional enemies of the modern Pueblo peoples, the term is considered offensive to some.  Ancestral Puebloans is more the more neutral term.  Around the 8th-11th century in European reckoning, extensive climate change involving drought and conflict with incoming tribes forced grou...

Many Native tribes in North America live far away from their ancient homelands and much tangible evidence of their ancient pasts are lost.  The Pueblo people of Acoma, near Albuquerque, New Mexico, have managed to buck that trend.  The Acoma inhabit three villages that make up their pueblo, Old Acoma or Sky City, which sits atop a mesa, and two villages below the mesa, Acomita and McCarty's.  Oral tradition states that they've been living on this mesa for nearly 2,000 years.  Modern archaeology can account for at least 800 years of continuous habitation, a personal best by an standards. The Anglo-Spanish name Acoma was borrowed from a Pueblo word of which the exact meaning has been lost today.  Some sources indicate that it may related to words meaning a Place of Preparedness, or a Place That Always Was, or possibly People of the White Rock.  The Spanish mission established here was San Esteban de Acoma.  Many people speak their ancient language in a...

Spanish explorers or conquistadors entered new territory for gold, glory and God, in that order.  Wealth from new lands, along with the honor of having discovered them was paramount.  And, by the way, saving the souls of the inhabitants was important, too.  Nowhere was this hierarchy of priorities more evidence than the legends of the Seven Cities of Cibola and another legend regarding Quivira.  And, like all good legends, there's some grains of truth in the tales. Legends of lost cities and the wealth that lay waiting to be discovered are as old as time.  Europeans yearned for the riches of Prestor John, a supposed Christian civilization in Africa.  Marco Polo's travels in China inspired endless speculation of the wealth of India, China and Arabia, which led to the need for a shorter route to reach these lands.  Hence the need for a Northwest Passage around the gigantic landmass that is North America.  Having encountered North America mere...

A Native leader gained prominence through his skills in war and hunting, his wisdom in council and force of personality.  It also helped to be at the right place at the right time, and to be related to other powerful leaders.  Mangas Coloradas, c 1793-1863, had all of the above. Mangas was a Bedonkohe Apache by birth, who later married into the Mimbreno division of the Apache.  The Mimbreno controlled hunting and home range from the Rio Grande in Texas through southwester New Mexico.  Mimbreno leader, Cuchillo Negro, became Mangas mentor and may have also been his brother-in-law.  In time, Mangas became father-in-law to Cochise of the Chiricahua, Victorio of the Mimbreno/Warm Springs Apache, and Kutbhalla/Caballero of the Mescalero.  Mangas name was the Spanish word for Red Sleeves, a translation of an Apache name referring to a pink shirt.  Mangas got his start in raids against the Mexicans.  The Apaches hated the Spanish and the Mexicans for m...

European fur traders had to work years to develop trust and a working relationship among the tribes they encountered.  Those who were successful in doing so were also valuable explorers, guides, interpreters and agents between Native peoples and the federal government.  Manuel Lisa, 1772-1820, was one of those who filled this gap. Manuel Lisa or Manuel de Lisa, was born in 1772 in New Orleans, Louisiana Territory, while it was under Spanish occupation.  Little is known of his early life or how he got into trading with Natives, but by 1789, while still in his teens, Manuel was working as a trader along the Mississippi River.  He established an early trading post at New Madrid, Missouri and later moved operations to the Wabash River.  By 1796, he had married a young widow from New Orleans.  He established his wife and family in St. Louis, Missouri.  While still married to Polly Chew, Lisa in 1814 established an alliance with Omaha leader Big Elk by mar...

The Antelope Band of the Arapaho were also known as the Long Legs because they frequently moved camp.  Black Coal was born into this band c 1840.  How he rose to prominence among his people isn't known, except that great Arapaho leaders usually came from the Antelope Band.  He earned his name after a fight against the Utes, which he won.  He returned to camp and rolled in the ashes of a bunt out campfire until he was covered in black, the color of victory.  Later, he would lose 3 fingers in a fight against the Army, and was also known as Fingers Cut off. Black Coal continued his rise in his society, and was part of the treaty parleys at Fort Laramie which led to the 1868 Treaty.  In 1871, he became Principal Chief of the Northern Arapaho.  In 1874, two women in the town of Lander, Wyoming were killed and the Arapaho were blamed.  Captain Bates took a detachment of the 2nd Cavalry to locate and subdue any hostile Natives in retaliation for the mu...

Some Native tribes defined their home and hunting ranges in terms of landmarks that had sacred significance.  For the Utes, a major landmark of their homeland is a range of mountains in what is now Montezuma County, Colorado known collectively as Sleeping Ute Mountain.  This mountain is actually a small range of peaks which collectively take the profile of a sleeping warrior or chief, from a headdress of feathers down to the toes of his moccasins. According to legend, a great warrior, possibly of divine origin, laid down to recover from wounds obtained in a battle and fell asleep.  The profile runs on the north-south axis and begins with Marble Mountain, the facial profile and headdress, Black Mountain.  Ute Peak forms the warrior's arms folded over the chest.  This peak is one of the more easily recognizable mountains in the State of Colorado.  Horse Mountain forms the ribcage.  Hermano Mountain is the knees, with two smaller peaks forming...

One of the earliest Native revolts in the American west wasn't against the U.S., but against the Spanish, and it took a truly great leader to pull it together.  Po'Pay or Pope, c 1630-1688 was a religious leader of the Tewa living at what is now San Juan Pueblo or Ohkay Owingeh.  How he rose to prominence isn't recorded, but the effects of his leadership would shake Spanish New Mexico to its core for years to come. The Spanish had occupied what is now the Rio Grande area of New Mexico since 1598 and they'd shown little respect or diplomacy to the Natives.  In addition to demands for land and food stuffs, they'd also demanded that the various tribes give up their Native ceremonies and ways of worship.  While some Pueblo did convert to Christianity, most saw no harm with also carrying out traditions that they'd practiced since the dawn of time.  Missionaries saw matters differently and continued to crack down on Native practices.  Occasionally, one Pueblo b...

The story of Sacajawea's reunion with her family and tribe during the Lewis and Clark Expedition is a familiar one, told from her vantage point.  However, her brother, Cameahwait, by this time chief of the Salmon Eater band of the Lemhi Shoshone would have also had feelings in the matter. Little is known of Cameahwait's life or how he rose to a position of authority among his people.  Apparently, he was several years older than Sacajawea.  In their society, siblings and cousins are often considered the same relationship and spoken of in the same words.  Some sources suggest that they may have been cousins, or even half-siblings.  No matter what the exact familial rank, their actions when they met up again suggested a close family bond.  When Sacajawea was 12 and her brother much older and already an established warrior, the Hidatsa raided their hunting camp.  Four men, four boys and some elderly and children were killed.  Sacajawea and some othe...

One of the more dramatic scenes of Dances With Wolve s is the buffalo hunt, with Lakota warriors (and Kevin Costner), chasing a herd of buffalo across the prairie shooting with bows and arrows (and a rifle/carbine) as the women of the tribe hurried to begin the process of dressing the fresh meat.  Such hunts were possible after Plains tribes acquired the horse from Spanish traders and integrated it into their cultural practice, but bison have been an integral part of Native life long before the horse.  How did hunts happen before then 18th century? Plains tribes relied on landmarks known as buffalo jumps.  These were cliffs, bluffs or other precipices sharp enough and steep enough that buffalo could be stampeded off them with a sure chance of breaking legs or necks and becoming incapacitated long enough to be finished off with arrows or spears.  Each tribe knew where in their hunting range such buffalo jumps could be found.  They also took advantage of the ter...

The Arapaho are an Algonquian-speaking people closely allied with the Cheyenne and Lakota.  Sources differ on the etymology for the word Arapaho.  It may have come from a Pawnee word for trader, or from a Crow word for tattoo.  The Arapaho refer to themselves as people of our own kind.  They Cheyenne referred to them as people of the sky.  The Lakota and Assiniboine referred to them as Blue Sky people.  The Caddo knew them as the pierced-nose people.  Tribes who disliked the Arapaho for various reasons, such as the Ute and Pawnee, at times referred to them as dog-eaters.  Like many other Plains tribes,, the Arapaho oral tradition placed them in the Great Lakes area, what is now Manitoba and Minnesota.  They were eventually forced westward along with the Cheyenne by the Ojibwe during the turbulence of the 17th century Beaver Wars.  Once on the plains, the Arapaho acquired horses and learned to use dogs as pack animals to drag travois....

Sometimes the ironies of history are poetic, like the idea that Custer may have met his match, not courtesy of Crazy Horse's bullet, but at the hands of a woman.  The woman in question, Buffalo Calf Road Woman, c 1850-1879, had already distinguished herself at the Battle of the Rosebud on June 17, 1876, but if she helped finish off Custer on June 26, 1876, she had a personal best by anyone's standards. Buffalo Calf Road Woman was the sister of Cheyenne Chief Comes in Sight.  Her husband was another distinguished Cheyenne warrior, Black Coyote.  She and Black Coyote had two children.  How or why Buffalo Calf Road Woman chose a warrior's path is not known, but on June 17, 1876, her courage turned the battle for the Native side.  As the combined Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho advance stalled before George Crook's troops, her brother, Comes in Sight, was gravely wounded and left on the battlefield.  Buffalo Calf Road Woman road into the middle of the fight and ...

One of the perks of being a member of Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery was having a landmark named in one's honor.  Mountains, valleys, rivers and geologic formations were named for the men of the Corps, their commanders, dignitaries, and even a few girlfriends back home.  Sacajawea was honored with Bird Woman's River, now Sacajawea River, in Ferguson County, Montana.  Her small son, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, was also honored with a sandstone pillar near what is now Billings Montana, Pompey's Pillar. During their journey to the Pacific Coast, the Corps of Discovery split, trying to find the source of the Missouri River and a navigable waterway that would take them closer to the Rocky Mountains and the home range of the Shoshone people.  Lewis traveled along what is now the Marias River, named for his fiancée at the time.  William Clark took along Sacajawea and her baby.  The group traveled up the Yellowstone River, finding a large round formation of ...

The only son of Sacajawea of the Shoshone and Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian fur trapper who may have been mixed-race himself, became a man of many talents.  Throughout his life, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, 1805-1866 was a trapper, trader, scout, guide and interpreter as well as a mayor, prospector and hotel operator.  He was also educated, well-traveled in Europe and America, and spoke English, French, Spanish, German and several Native languages including his mother's Shoshone. The life of this remarkable man began in 1805 at Fort Mandan, near present-day Washburn, North Dakota.  Toussaint Charbonneau had signed on with the Lewis and Clark expedition as a hunter, interpreter and guide, but the real draw was his pregnant teenaged wife, Sacajawea, a Shoshone by birth.  Lewis and Clark knew they would need to trade horses from the Shoshone to make it over the Rocky Mountains and they would need an in with the tribe when the time came.  Sacajawea went i...