Tribal Passages

THE YOUNG SOLDIERS’ FACES fell as their commander raced up, screaming at them.

“What are you men doin’ back here? Didn’t you hear the bugle? We was waitin’ for you to come in and help us catch the Comanche and Kiowa that just raided this area.”

Their red-faced captain spoke up. “We did, but a few minutes later we heard another bugle tellin’ us to retreat. I didn’t know which one was right, so I sent word to you to give us some direction.”

The commander shook his head in disgust. “Guess that devil Satanta got us again. It was him you heard blowin’ that second bugle. Now, him and his friends are way ahead of us, and we might not ever get back the captives they took.”

This kind of scene likely played out several times in the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s when the Kiowa war chief Satanta sowed confusion and violence throughout Indian Territory, Texas, and beyond. He employed a United States Cavalry bugle, which he had stolen in one of his many raids, in his devious acts.

FEARED KIOWA WAR CHIEF SATANTA.

ROBERT LINDNEUX’S 1936 PAINTING, “THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE, OCTOBER, 1864.”

Satanta was likely born between 1815 and 1818 when the Kiowa ranged between the North Platte in present day western Nebraska and the Canadian River in present day north Texas and central Oklahoma. His baby name was “Big Ribs” because of the huge physique he was born with, which he maintained throughout his life. Later he received his adult name, Set-t’-ainte, meaning “White Bear,” which the whites changed to Satanta. Kiowa tradition says he earned the name when he killed a white bear.

He began attracting attention in the 1850s for his part in intertribal warfare, in particular, targeting the Cheyenne and the Ute. He also played a part in negotiating treaties with the United States Government. Satanta was a formidable presence, as well as a skilled orator, and his words were often quoted in eastern newspapers:

“I hear a great deal from the gentlemen the Great Father sends us, but they never do as they say. I have heard you intend to settle us on a reservation near the mountains. I don’t want to settle. I love to roam the prairies. There, I feel free and happy, but when we settle down, we grow pale and die.”

The Civil War provided the Kiowa with a perfect opportunity to raid, especially in Texas. Northern officers reportedly told the Kiowa to “do all the damage they could to Texas because Texas was at war with the United States.” Satanta was feared and hated throughout Texas.

The year 1864 was a particularly bloody year for Satanta. He raided in west Texas, killing several whites and carrying off one woman into captivity. When he joined other plains tribes in raids into Colorado, their actions led to a tragedy. Many innocent Cheyenne and Arapaho women and children were killed at the Sand Creek Massacre because the United State Volunteer Cavalry blamed them for the Colorado raids that Satanta and his allies conducted.

October of 1864, one of the worst raids occurred in Young County, Texas. A mixed band of around 600 Kiowa and Comanche attacked multiple households, scalping and killing several and kidnapping women and children. Although he didn’t lead the raid, Satanta participated. Witnesses reported that he was there blowing a bugle to signal the war party members.

In still another raid, Satanta kidnapped members of the Box family. During this time, Satanta complained that Agent Jesse Leavenworth was breaking the treaty of 1865 by withholding presents due to the Kiowas. Leavenworth replied that he had been ordered to keep the goods until Satanta released the

Box family. In the end, Satanta expressed satisfaction with the ransom paid for their return and commented that trafficking in white women was more profitable than horse stealing.

According to author J’Nell Pate in Kiowa Defiance: Chiefs Satanta and Stank and the War on the Southern Plains, from Indian Leaders, Oklahoma’s First Statesmen, Satanta was described as a murderer and a kidnapper by both the military and the civilians along the Texas-Oklahoma frontier. His manner of speaking changed according to his mood and circumstances. One day he bragged about his violent actions and made statements, such as, “All the country… belongs to the Indians… you have no right to it, and you must leave.”

Two months later he proclaimed, “I don’t want war at all. I want peace.”

Possibly the most important conference between the Southern Plains Indians and the Army was held at Medicine Lodge Creek in October of 1867. Acting as the acknowledged leader of the Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, and Cheyenne for this meeting, Satanta did most of the talking. In one of his speeches, he said, “The white man grows jealous of his red brother. He once came to trade. He now comes as a soldier. He now covers his face with a cloud of jealousy and anger and tells us to be gone, as the offended master speaks to his dog….”

Nevertheless, Satanta knew he had to give in. His people would starve without the food and supplies that they would only be given if they signed the treaty. He reluctantly signed the treaty.

The tribes agreed to give up their nomadic lifestyle and confine themselves to living on reservations. The government promised to sustain them until they learned an agricultural lifestyle.

A year later, in 1868, General Phillip Sheridan held Kiowa chiefs Satanta and Lone Wolf and two Apache chiefs hostage as insurance that their people would move to Fort Cobb and later to the reservation. Satanta and his son had attempted to escape during the removal but were captured. Sheridan threatened to hang Satanta and Lone Wolf if the Kiowa didn’t commence moving the next morning. The Kiowa moved, but Sheridan kept the two chiefs captive for several weeks before finally releasing them. Angry and bitter, Kiowa leaders, Satanta, Lone Wolf, Timbered Mountain, and Big Bow, left the reservation in 1869.

MAJOR GENERAL PHILIP SHERIDAN, FAMED CIVIL WAR VETERAN AND U.S. ARMY COMMANDER OF THE MILITARY DIVISION OF MISSOURI.

After arresting Satanta, General Sheridan made a statement about him, which appeared in The Galveston News on May 27, 1871. Sheridan stated that when Satanta came to Ft. Sill for his rations, he bragged to Agent Tatum about leading a recent raid on some teamsters at Salt Creek Prairie, Texas, killing seven men. When questioned further by Sheridan, Satanta confirmed the same story that Sheridan had heard from witnesses at Ft. Richardson. The only difference was Satanta wouldn’t admit that anyone was tied to a wagon wheel and burned. “But as Gen. McKenzie found the body, it does not admit of dispute.”

Sheridan said that he arrested Satanta and others concerned in the raid “on the spot.” He added that the authorities now held Satanta, Santauk (Santank), and Big Tree, “three as influential and bad Indians that ever infested any land.” He assured his readers that they would be held in military authority until they could be turned over for “trial and disposal by the rightful civil tribunal.”

Sheridan’s plan did not go as smoothly as he hoped. Riding with one guard in the back of a wagon, on the way to trial at Jonesboro, the old Kiowa chief Santank pulled a blanket over his head and sang his death song. He gnawed and tore at his wrists until he could slip from the manacles. When he was free, he stabbed his guard with a knife that was concealed in his breechcloth, and the guard jumped from the wagon. Santank grabbed the guard’s rifle and tried to fire it, but it jammed. He was shot and killed by an officer who was riding beside the wagon. Satanta and Big Tree were taken on to Jonesboro where they soon would be tried.

SATANK, ALSO KNOWN AS SITTING BEAR, WAS A HIGHLY-RESPECTED KIOWAWARRIOR, MEDICINE MAN, AND WAR CHIEF.

During Satanta’s trial, defense lawyers reminded the jury of the numerous wrongs Indians had suffered at the hands of white men. The prosecution offered the testimonies of survivors and officers who had first-hand experience with Satanta’s raid at Salt Creek Prairie. One of the wounded survivors recalled the actual raid, and General McKenzie described the mutilated bodies he had found at the site.

When the judge gave Satanta the opportunity to speak, he promised to “withdraw his men from Texas and wash out the spots of blood and make it a white land.” He also threatened, “If you kill me, it will be a spark on the prairie—make big fires—burn heap.”

Both men were found guilty and sentenced to hang on September 1, 1872, but different officials voiced their fear of reprisals if the verdict was carried out. Texas Governor Edmund J. Davis agreed and commuted their sentences to life imprisonment over the protests of many Texas citizens. By November 1,

1872, the two were serving time in the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville where they were assigned to work in a chair factory.

Governor Davis of Texas soon made a deal with Satanta, offering him a pardon if he would use his influence to make peace between the warring tribes and the Texans. On October 5, 1872, The Galveston News reported on a conference that was held in St. Louis, in which Satanta addressed several leaders from various tribes. During his speech, he declared, “My father in Texas had told me big talk and has told me to say to you that the Comanche must keep their young men at home…. I have been told that if I can keep your young men out of Texas I shall be liberated, and they have asked me to use my influence with the braves of the Kiowas. I want you to listen to my words and make friends with the Texans.”

Governor Davis received a lot of criticism for pardoning and paroling Satanta and Big Tree. On October 7, 1873, the Austin-American Statesman reported that the frontier newspapers were “full of accounts of Indian depredations immediately following the Ft. Sill arrangement and the release of Satanta and Big Tree….” The article went on to describe repeated raids that led to stolen horses and murdered men. It ended by affirming “it was high time for Governor Davis to rearrest Satanta and Big Tree.”

Satanta, Big Tree, and most of their Kiowa and Comanche allies left their reservations in 1874. Spring of 1874 erupted with several violent confrontations. The Kiowa, Comanche, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho attacked some buffalo hunters in June at Adobe Walls near the Texas Panhandle. Reports differ as to whether Satanta took part in this attack. By the fall of 1874, the army had organized the biggest force to ever appear on the southern plains, totaling over 3,000 men. With this force, they drove the wandering Indians back to their reservations.

Satanta was arrested and sent back to Huntsville. Later, charges were dropped against Big Tree, and he was allowed to live out his life on the Kiowa reservation where he eventually served as a Baptist minister.

Despondent, Satanta struggled with illness and loneliness. About four years after his imprisonment, on October 11, 1878, he managed to open the arteries of his neck and legs. He was found and taken to a hospital where his wounds were bandaged. Later, as he lay on the second floor of the building, he dragged himself to a window and plunged to the ground. He was taken back to the prison, but he died the next day.

The Galveston Daily News on October 15, 1878, reported “The noted Kiowa chief Satanta has gone to the happy hunting ground.” The article then described the manner of Satanta’s death.

The last official Kiowa Sun Dance was held during the summer of 1889 at the usual meeting place, east of present-day Carnegie, Oklahoma. The next Sun Dance, in the summer of 1890, was interrupted by the arrival of Government Agent Charles E. Adams, backed up by a battalion of Fort Sill soldiers. He ordered the Kiowa to leave the area and never stage another Sun Dance. The government had outlawed the dance because it was deemed to be too barbaric and harmful to the participants.

If Satanta had been there, he may have connived a way to have the Sun Dance, anyway, but by 1890, Satanta had made his final escape from the soldiers and their rules. However, as the greatest Kiowa trickster, Satanta left behind the stolen bugle to keep his memory alive in the minds and hearts of his people.

Each year, around July 4, a multitude of Kiowa meet at Carnegie like they once met to undergo the Sun Dance ritual. Now, they meet together to reminisce, fellowship, and dance. Typically, on the last day of their pow wow, they bring out the Kiowa war trophies. One of these is the cavalry bugle that Satanta brought back from one of his raids. If it is raining, someone covers the trophies with plastic, but everyone attending can still see them, hear the stories of how they were procured, and remember Satanta and other great and daring Kiowa leaders of the past.

—REGINA MCLEMORE is a retired educator of Cherokee heritage. Her great, great grandmother, Susie Christie Clay, survived the Trail of Tears in 1839.