red river war of 1874-1875 clash of cultures in the texas panhandle

A Texas Travel Guide

TEXAS HISTORICAL COMMISSION

Red River Warof 1874-1875

Clash of Culturesin the Texas Panhandle

During the 1870s, an epic struggle for controlof the Southern Plains pitted Native Americansagainst the U.S. Army. For almost two centuries,Europeans and Euro Americans had interactedwith bands of Comanche, Kiowa, SouthernCheyenne, and Arapaho. Some relations weremutually beneficial, as those involving trade.But violent conflicts intensified as moreand more whites moved westward into nativeterritory in the early 1800s.

To end the clash of cultures, the U.S. Armyresolved to force the Indians onto reservations inIndian Territory (now Oklahoma). e ensuing

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Red River Warof 1874-1875

Clash of Culturesin the Texas Panhandle

Battles Lost, Battles FoundThe Red River War Battle Sites Project

Headdress of Ervin “Buck”Chapman, grandson of AmosChapman (scout who survivedBattle of Buffalo Wallow) andMary Longneck Chapman(granddaughter of CheyenneChief Black Kettle).Courtesy Wolf Creek Heritage Museum.

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Red River War of 1874–1875 proved a turbulentturning point in the history of the frontier.

A score of battles and running skirmishesraged across the plains and canyons with some3,000 soldiers engaging up to 700 Indianwarriors. Several pivotal battles took place inthe Texas Panhandle during the summer andfall of 1874. Outnumbered and outgunned,native warriors and their families spent monthsrunning and fighting. After decisive Armyvictories, Southern Plains Indians gave up theirfree-roaming way of life and by June of 1875began new lives on the reservation.

e war’s end also meant new lives forfarmers and ranchers who quickly settled WestTexas. Towns grew and prospered, and somebattle sites were lost or forgotten.

In 1998, the Texas Historical Commissionobserved the 125th anniversary of the conflictby launching the Red River War Battle SitesProject. Archeological fieldwork conducted from1998 to 2003 used metal detectors to locate andunearth battlefield artifacts at six battlegrounds—Red River, Lyman’s Wagon Train, BuffaloWallow, Sweetwater Creek, Palo Duro Canyon,and Round Timber Creek. e project alsouncovered long-forgotten maps and records inthe National Archives and elsewhere.

e fieldwork and archival researchconfirmed battleground locations and verifiedmuch that was already known about the RedRiver War. Project findings also shed new lighton what really happened during 10 tensemonths on the high Panhandle Plains.

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Unearthing Archeological SecretsThe Red River War Battle Sites Projectconducted unprecedented fieldworkfrom 1998 to 2003 to determine thelocations and chronology of six keybattles. Much was already knownabout some battle sites, but thelocation of others was not clearfrom the military records, maps, ormemoirs of those involved.

Field teams used metal detectorsto unearth some 3,700 metal artifactsthat lay relatively undisturbed for

more than 125 years. The artifacts—mostly cartridges, cartridge cases,and bullets from Army and Indian weapons—were carefully collected,catalogued, and conserved.

A global positioning system receiver pinpointed each artifact’slocation, and the data was overlaid onto topographic maps using acomputer-mapping program. Such precise battleground informationclarified fighting positions and tactics. Some battlefields proved largerthan expected, suggesting that combatants engaged in runningskirmishes covering many miles.

Analysis also suggests that fewer Indians participated and weremore poorly armed than Army records indicate. Metal projectile pointsand rifle balls found at the sites show that native warriors often foughtwith obsolete, close-range weapons—such as muskets, muzzleloaders,and even lances and bows and arrows. Soldiers, by contrast, werearmed with long-range rifles and high-powered artillery.

Project leaders matched fieldwork findings with long-missingdocuments uncovered through historical research. In the end,the collaboration between archeologists and historians revealedcompelling new details about a decisive moment in West Texas history.

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For centuries, Plains Indians traveled on footto hunt buffalo for food, clothing, and shelter.ey became accomplished horsemen after17th-century Spanish explorers first broughthorses to the Llano Estacado (Staked Plains).

Comanche and Kiowa bands migratedto the Southern Plains in the 1700s, laterjoined by Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho.e confederation of tribes developed araid-and-trade network across Texas, Mexico,and New Mexico.

On raids against enemy tribes and settlers,mounted warriors rounded up horses, mules,and sometimes human captives. is plunderwas traded, along with buffalo hides, toFrench, American, and Comanchero tradersfor manufactured goods such as cloth, metal,beads, and guns. e raids also offered warriorsa chance to earn respect and influence withintheir band through acts of daring.

By the mid-1800s, a rising tide of Americansettlers and buffalo hunters encroached onnative lands. Wagon trains headed westwardalong the Santa Fe Trail enroute to California’sgold fields. To protect settlers and travelers,frontier regiments formed, and the U.S.government established military forts. eArmy abandoned the forts during the CivilWar, and Indians intensified raids to drive thesettlers from their homeland.

After the war, the federal governmentconvinced some tribes to sign the MedicineLodge Treaty of 1867. e treaty called forIndians to halt raids and relocate to reservationsin Indian Territory, where they would getgovernment provisions and guns. Compliantbands would be allowed to continue seasonalhunts of any buffalo remaining south of the

Arkansas River. (Federal officials did not explainthey had no authority over Texas land, whichwas state-owned.)

Within months, the U.S. governmentfailed to provide adequate provisions, andmany Indians left the reservations hungry andfrustrated. Some warriors stayed on thereservation but continued raids into Texas.

In early 1871, the commanding general ofthe Army, William T. Sherman, narrowly escapedone such raid, known as the Warren WagonTrain Massacre. Gen. Sherman dispatched the4th Cavalry under Col. Ranald S. Mackenzieto capture the chiefs who led the attack.Over the next two years, Col. Mackenziepursued other Indian bands across thePanhandle Plains but failed to drive themfrom their stronghold.

By the spring of 1874, commercialbuffalo hunters established a tradingpost named Adobe Walls. Havingdepleted northern bison herds,they took aim at southernherds to supply anever-growing U.S.and foreign marketfor hides.

Struggle for the Southern Plains

Native American shield made from an 18th-century Spanishshield and reputedly found at Yellow House Canyon.Courtesy Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.

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BuffaloLifeblood of the PlainsFor centuries, Plains Indians hunted bison (or buffalo), usingvirtually every part of the animal—meat for food, fur forclothing, hides for tepee shelters, bones for tools, and evendried dung for fuel. They also traded hides for other itemsthey needed. The buffalo became the sacred center of PlainsIndian culture.

By the 1870s, a new tanning process made buffalo hidesvaluable for use as machinery belts in burgeoning industriesin the United States and Europe. Powerful new weapons,especially the Sharps .50-caliber rifle, allowed hunters tokill thousands of buffalo a day. After depleting herds on theCentral Plains, hunters led by Josiah Wright Mooar movedinto Indian hunting grounds in the Texas Panhandle. TheU.S. Army encouraged the buffalo slaughter as a way to drivenative people onto reservations in Indian Territory.

Before the 1870s, some 50 million buffalo roamed theGreat Plains. Within a decade, the buffalo were almost extinct.Buffalo bones littered the plains, and newly-arrived settlersloaded them on railcars bound for fertilizer factories.

In 1878, pioneer Panhandle rancher Charles Goodnightand wife Mary Ann saved a small herd as breeding stockthat later helped reintroduce buffalo to YellowstoneNational Park and elsewhere. Progeny of the Goodnightherd comprise the Texas state bison herd on view at CaprockCanyons State Park near Quitaque.



Outraged Comanches and Kiowas led byQuanah Parker attacked the post in June, butthe hunters’ skillful marksmanship repelledthe strike. Alarmed by the attack on AdobeWalls, Gen. Sherman and Gen. Philip H.Sheridan devised the Indian Campaign of1874. e military resolved, once and forall, to remove all Native Americans from theTexas Panhandle.

To carry out the campaign, the Armyenlisted cavalry, infantry, and artilleryunits—some 3,000 troopers in all—armedwith the latest long-range rifles and artilleryweapons. White frontiersmen and friendlyIndians—including Delaware, Ute, andTonkawa—served as scouts to find the enemyhiding along countless bluffs and ravines.

e U.S. Army had never faced such anagile opponent. Armed with rifles—plus

traditional lances and bows and arrows—themounted warriors were masters of guerilla warfare.

e warriors, on the other hand, had neverfaced such a large, well-armed and well-suppliedforce in their homeland. Nor had theyexperienced the new Army strategy of burningIndian camps, killing their horses, and starvingtheir families into submission.

e military campaign called for columnsof troopers and supplies to converge from fivedirections on Indian camps along the headwatertributaries of the Red River.

Lt. Col. John W. Davidson led companiesof the 10th Cavalry and 11th Infantryheaded west from Fort Sill in Indian Territory.Marching north from Fort Griffin, Texas, werecompanies of the 9th Cavalry, 10th Cavalry,and 11th Infantry, under the command ofLt. Col. George P. Buell.

Before the 1870s, some 50 million buffalo roamed the Great Plains.Within a decade, the buffalo were almost extinct.

U.S. Army LeadersGen. William T. Sherman believed Indian rights should not haltwhite expansion across the frontier. He had helped convinceSouthern Plains tribes to relocate to reservations, and heaimed to keep them there. In 1871, the West Point graduatenarrowly escaped the Warren Wagon Train Massacre. Afterimprisoning the perpetrators, he employed Civil War-era“scorched earth” policies to crush native resistance.

Col. Nelson A. Miles, a consummate military man whoworked his way up the ranks, led the first major battle of theRed River War. Miles achieved a partial victory at the Battle ofRed River on August 30, 1874. Within days, some of his menalso fended off Indian sieges at the battles of Lyman’s WagonTrain and Buffalo Wallow.

A top West Point graduate, Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie, ledthe war’s last decisive engagement, the Battle of Palo DuroCanyon. “Bad Hand,” as Indians called Mackenzie (for a CivilWar injury), destroyed Indian villages in Palo Duro Canyon onSeptember 28, 1874. Demoralized Indians drifted back to theirreservations. Miles missed the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon,because of supply train delays; yet troops under his commandengaged warriors in coming days at the battles of RoundTimber Creek and McClellan Creek.

Miles and Mackenzie remained Indian fighters across theWest until native resistance ended. Miles eventually becamegeneral in chief of the Army and led the Spanish-AmericanWar. A war-weary Mackenzie returned to Texas where hesuffered a nervous breakdown and spent his final days in aninsane asylum in New York. Gen. Sherman retired in 1884 andbecame famous for saying, “War is hell.”

Col. Nelson A. Miles led the first major battle of the Red River War.

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Courtesy Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.

Maj. William R. Price led companies of the8th Cavalry from Fort Union, New MexicoTerritory. Companies of the 10th Infantry, 11thInfantry, and 4th Cavalry marched northward,from Fort Concho, Texas, under the commandof Col. Mackenzie.

From the north, at Fort Dodge, Kansas,came Col. Nelson A. Miles and companiesof the 6th Cavalry and 5th Infantry.ese 650 troopers won a partialvictory on August 30, 1874, in thecampaign’s first fight, the Battleof Red River. ey pursued a largeband of Southern Cheyenne across35 square miles of the lower PaloDuro Canyon. Soldiers killed as many as25 Indians, but the remaining warriors held offthe Army until their families could escape ontothe open plains. Several native camps lay inruins, leaving a clear message that the Armywould prosecute the war to the fullest.

Indians struck back less than two weekslater near the Canadian River. On September 9,Comanche and Kiowa warriors—led by ChiefsLone Wolf, Big Tree, and Satanta—attacked 36supply wagons sent by Col. Miles to restockprovisions. Some 400 Indians laid siege to 66soldiers commanded by Capt. Wyllys Lyman.To prove his courage, one brave rode four timesthrough the entrenched Army camp withoutbeing harmed. e Battle of Lyman’s WagonTrain brought the first Army losses of the war,one soldier and two civilian teamsters.

On the morning of September 12, a groupof 125 Indians left the wagon train siege and

happened upon a small detachment of foursoldiers and two scouts searching for Capt.Lyman. Stranded on open ground, the sixbesieged men were quickly wounded butfound cover in a depression where buffalohad wallowed. e Battle of Buffalo Wallowremained a stalemate throughout the day,

though one soldier was killed.Native fighters broke off

the sieges of Capt. Lyman’swagon train and the buffalowallow after word reachedthem of nearby movement

by Maj. Price and the 8thCavalry from Fort Union.

Before that eventful September12 was over, a large group of Comanche andKiowa left the wagon train siege but engagedMaj. Price and 110 men at the Battle ofSweetwater Creek. e Indian attack divertedthe Army’s counterattack from nearby Indianfamilies who fled toward Palo Duro Canyonwhere they joined other bands for winter camp.

Army scouts discovered the winter camptwo weeks later. By daybreak on September 28,Col. Mackenzie and soldiers from Fort Concho,Texas, made their way to the canyon rim.Companies of the 4th Cavalry and 10th and11th Infantries descended the escarpment andsurprised the panicked villagers. Advancingtroopers gave chase several miles up the canyonbefore warriors and their families scattered.e Battle of Palo Duro Canyon left the wintercamp burned and more than 1,000 Indianhorses killed. Unable to survive the approaching


AR IS HELL

Panhandle winter, many demoralized Indiansdrifted back to the reservations.

roughout the fall and winter, numerousskirmishes continued as military patrolspursued native holdouts. On November 6, apatrol of the 8th Cavalry under 1st Lt. HenryJ. Farnsworth engaged Indians near Cheyenne

Chief Grey Beard’s village on the NorthFork of the Red River. More than 100warriors overpowered 1st Lt. Farnsworth

and his 28 men, who retreated up RoundTimber Creek and returned to their supply camp.ey left two dead soldiers on the battlefield.

Two days after the Battle of Round TimberCreek, Lt. Frank D. Baldwin and a detachmentof infantry and cavalry troops accidentally foundChief Grey Beard’s relocated village at the head-

waters of McClellan Creek. e troops destroyedthe village and rescued two captive white girls,Julia and Adelaide German, providing a surpriseending to the Battle of McClellan Creek.

Relentless military pressure and a lack offood forced more Indians into Indian Territoryover the coming months. e final holdouts—Chief Quanah and his band of KwahadiComanche—had hidden from Army troopsfor a year after their surprise attack on buffalohunters at Adobe Walls. On June 2, 1875, thislast band of free-roaming Southern Plains Indiansfinally surrendered at Fort Sill, Indian Territory.

After his surrender, Chief Quanah—the sonof Comanche Chief Peta Nocona and Anglocaptive Cynthia Ann Parker—took his mother’smaiden name and adapted to reservation life.


The Kiowa ledger drawing (above) is probably a depiction of the Buffalo Wallow battle. Medal of Honor (left) is that awarded to Billy Dixon.Ledger drawing courtesy Texas Archeological Research Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin. Medal courtesy Panhadle-Plains Historical Museum.

Opposite page: Buffalo hide was used to encase this Native American shield madefrom an 18th-century Spanish shield. It was reputedly found at Yellow House Canyon.

Courtesy Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.

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Native American LeadersTwo of the principal Indian leaders during the Red River Warwere Kiowa War Chiefs Lone Wolf (Guipago) and Satanta (WhiteBear). In the early 1870s, Lone Wolf and Satanta launched raidsincited by a medicine man named Mamanti, the so-called OwlProphet who used messages from a magical owl skin to predictIndian victories. It was Mamanti who convinced the Indians thatthey would be safe if they took refuge in Palo Duro Canyon.Mamanti’s predictions proved wrong, and the Red River Warof 1874–75 secured the frontier for white settlement.

For his role in the Indian uprising, Satanta was sentencedto life in a Huntsville, Texas, prison where he died in 1878 afterjumping from a second-story window. After returning to thereservation in 1875, Lone Wolf and Mamanti were among 72Indian leaders incarcerated at Fort Marion, Florida. Mamantidied soon after arriving at the Florida prison, likely fromdysentery. Lone Wolf contracted malaria while in prison anddied four years later in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).

Kiowa War Chief Lone Wolf (Guipago)


Courtesy Panhandle-PlainsHistorical Museum.


Despite government efforts to Americanizereservation Indians, many maintained importantancestral traditions, which survive today.

e Red River War opened the way formillions of cattle to cross the Texas Panhandleenroute to busy Kansas railheads. Cattlemensuch as Charles Goodnight and T. S. Bugbeeestablished huge ranches in the Panhandlethat gave rise to a modern cattle industry.Goodnight also saved a small herd of southernbison from extinction, and their offspring nowlive at Caprock Canyons State Park nearQuitaque, Texas.

Farmers turned the open prairies intoimmense fields of cotton, wheat, and othercrops. By 1890, railroads connected the regionto distant markets, allowing new railroadtowns to thrive. By the 1920s, airplanes andautomobiles traveled where, less than 50 yearsearlier, nomadic Indians battled determinedsoldiers in the Red River War.

Except for portions of the Battle of PaloDuro Canyon site in Palo Duro Canyon StatePark, as well as the Adobe Walls and BuffaloWallow sites, which are owned by thePanhandle-Plains Historical Society, the otherRed River War battle sites are on privateproperty. But thanks to cooperative landownersand generous donors, the Texas HistoricalCommission’s Red River War Battle Sites Projectdiscovered 3,700 artifacts and 1,200 pages ofdocuments to chronicle the war. Many of theseartifacts and much of the information remainson public view at more than a dozen museumsand heritage sites in the region (see pages 17–24).e efforts of archeologists, historians, historicalgroups, and museums help keep alive the realstory of the epic struggle that changed the faceof the Texas Panhandle.

This Adobe Walls exhibit at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum inCanyon, Texas, includes a horned medicine headdress, war shield, and tippedlance belonging to Eschiti (White Eagle), who joined Comanche Chief Quanahin convincing native allies to attack buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls.


With federal troops removed from Texas during the Civil War,Indians increased raids on settlers. To quell the attacks, in1864 several hundred New Mexico Volunteers under Col.Christopher “Kit” Carson battled several thousand warriorsnear the Canadian River at an abandoned trading post calledAdobe Walls.

A decade later, professional buffalo hunters established atrading post near Adobe Walls as their headquarters on theSouthern Plains. e presence of buffalo hunters in theirmidst outraged Indian leaders already alarmed by dwindlingherds. Comanche prophet Eschiti incited the leaders byclaiming supernatural powers to defeat the whites.

Eschiti and a young Comanche named Quanahgathered 200 warriors for battle. Quanah wanted revengefor previous attacks on his Kwahadi band. Early on June27, 1874, the Indians rode against 28 men and onewoman holed up at Adobe Walls. Long-range weapons,such as the Sharps .50-caliber rifle, allowed theoutnumbered hunters to defend their position.eir skillful marksmanship shocked the nativesinto retreat.

According to legend, a hunter named BillyDixon felled a mounted Indian nearly a mileaway. Ten weeks later, Dixon would also shoothis way out of the Battle of Buffalo Wallow.

e Second Battle of Adobe Wallsproved the spark that ignited the Red RiverWar. After the attack, the Army vowed topermanently force the Southern Plainstribes onto reservations.

The Battles of Adobe Walls

Background image is a detail of a peyoteblanket once owned by Quanah Parker;the blanket is located in the SwisherCounty Archives and Museum inTulia, Texas. Inset image is ofQuanah Parker.

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Springfields vs. Spencers Weapons of the Red River WarMost artifacts found by the Red River War Battle SitesProject were weapon cartridges, cases, and bullets.Modern firearms identification analysis of the artifactsrevealed how armaments affected the war’s outcome.

After the Civil War, government agents gaveIndians surplus weapons, such as the .50-caliber Spencerrepeating rifle. In 1874, the Army adopted .45-caliberSpringfield rifles and carbines for frontier duty. TheArmy’s Springfields were single shots that had to bereloaded after each shot, whereas the Indians’ Spencersfired seven rounds before reloading. The apparentmismatch was more than offset by the firing-rangeadvantage of the Springfield (800 yards) over the Spencer(400 yards). The long-range Springfield effectivelythwarted native hit-and-run tactics and close-rangecombat where the Spencer had the advantage.

Archeological fieldwork found four Army cartridgesfor each Indian cartridge (most of which were Spencertypes not manufactured after 1866). Warriors had toconserve scarce ammunition during skirmishes withsoldiers and, to a large degree, fought with traditionalbows and arrows.

In several battles, the Army also employed artilleryincluding the mountain howitzer, a cannon called theParrott rifle, and the .50-caliber Gatling gun in its firstuse after the Civil War. Though not well suited for roughPanhandle terrain, the artillery nevertheless had adebilitating psychological effect.

In the end, converging Army columns of well-armedtroops left Indian fighters no option but to surrender andresign themselves to life on the reservation.

Below: Wagon ruts dating from 1840 are still visible on theFort Smith-Santa Fe Trail in Amarillo, Texas.

Artifacts from the Second Battle of Adobe Walls—anevent that precipitated the Red River War —includeunspent cartridges piled by a buffalo hunter as he fendedoff Indian attack. Courtesy Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum.

For decades, a nomadic warrior culture reignedsupreme on the Southern Plains. e Red RiverWar of 1874–75 ended that domination andremoved southern tribes to Indian Territory,leaving the region at peace for the first time inhalf a century.

American farmers and ranchers quicklysettled the Texas Panhandle. e Western Trailsupplanted the Chisholm Trail as the maincattle trail to northern railheads. Cattlemenestablished huge ranches, some of which are stillin existence. Farmers laid out farms and tappedunderground water to turn the prairies into anagricultural wonder. Railroads arrived in the1880s, opening distant markets for farm andranch products. New towns popped up alongexpanding rail lines, and the Panhandle sawunprecedented development, especially afteroil was discovered in the 1920s.

Even after the Red River War officiallyended, the clash of cultures between Euro

Americans and Native Americans continued.U.S. government policy sought to replace nativeways with American ideas of education, religion,and land use. On and off the reservations, PlainsIndians assimilated into modern society whilemaintaining many of their ancestral traditionsand beliefs.

e Red River War was relatively brief, withfew combatants killed—25 to 50 Indian warriorsand fewer than 10 soldiers. As a result, theintense struggle has received only passingattention by historians of the American West.e Texas Historical Commission hopes toawaken interest in the war through new findingsby the Red River War Battle Sites Project. efieldwork resulted in the listing of the battles ofSweetwater Creek and Lyman’s Wagon Train inthe National Register of Historic Places. Futurearcheological fieldwork and historical researchmay uncover more about this epic struggle thatchanged the face of the Texas frontier.

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A New Era

James Coverdale, a volunteer at Perryton’s Museum of the Plains, is a great-great-grandson of Kiowa Chief Two Hatchet (1842–1902).

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1 . BORGER, Hutchinson County

2. CANADIAN, Hemphill County

3. CANYON, Randall County

4. CLARENDON, Donley County

5. CLAUDE, Armstrong County

6. CROSBYTON, Crosby County

7 . LIPSCOMB, Lipscomb County

8. MIAMI, Roberts County

9. MOBEETIE, Wheeler County

10. PAMPA, Gray County

11 . PERRYTON, Ochiltree County

12 . QUITAQUE, Briscoe County

13 . TULIA, Swisher County

Legacy of the Red River War

Many battlefield and frontier artifactschronicling the history of the TexasPanhandle are on public view at 13museums and heritage sites in theregion. This important cultural heritageis described in the following pages.


An Adobe Walls exhibit at the Hutchinson County Museum displaysa buffalo hunter’s trading post, and shows tools and trade goodstypical of the era.

The River Valley Pioneer Museum in Canadian features anexhibit on the Battle of Lyman’s Wagon Train.

1. BORGER, Hutchinson County Located near the Canadian River, state historicalmarkers pinpoint the site of an 1840s adobe tradingpost called Adobe Walls. Frontiersman Kit Carsonfended off an Indian attack at this site in 1864.A decade later, Quanah Parker attacked a largebuffalo hunting camp during the Second Battleof Adobe Walls, igniting the Red River War.e historic site is now owned by the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, which offers periodicinterpreted tours.

During the 1874 battle, sharp-shooting buffalohunter Billy Dixon reportedly shot a mountedwarrior nearly a mile away. Dixon later served asan Army scout and homesteaded at Adobe Wallsbefore becoming Hutchinson County’s first sheriff.

e Hutchinson County Museum displaysDixon’s monocular field telescope, his 1859percussion revolver, and a Sharps rifle similar tothe one he used for the “shot of the century.” Otherinteresting Red River War artifacts include Indiantrade goods and patent medicine bottles found atAdobe Walls, an Army cartridge box, and a corporal’sjacket. e Native American exhibit shows a Kiowaboy’s buckskin war shirt (ca. 1870), as well asmoccasins from four Southern Plains tribes—Kiowa,Comanche, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho.

2. CANADIAN, Hemphill Countye high-rolling prairies around Canadian witnesseda dramatic siege on September 9–14, 1874. AnArmy wagon train led by Capt. Wyllys Lyman wasattacked by Kiowa and Comanche searching for awarrior taken prisoner—a red-headed, white-skinnedKiowa named Tehan (“Texan”). As a boy, Tehan hadbeen captured by Indians and adopted by medicineman Mamanti. Recaptured by Capt. Lyman’s men,Tehan managed to escape during the wagon trainattack and joined the Indian siege.

e longest battle of the Red River War endedwhen natives spotted Maj. William R. Price and his8th Cavalry nearby. Indian Chiefs Lone Wolf, Satanta,and Big Tree headed to Palo Duro Canyon—familiesin tow—where they set up winter camps.

e River Valley Pioneer Museum displaysartifacts found at the site of the Battle of Lyman’sWagon Train. e exhibit features lead bullets fromIndian rifles and metal points from their arrows.Army artifacts include cartridges and bullets fromColt revolvers and Springfield rifles. Also

displayed are wagon train supplies—a knife, crushed ration cans, muleshoes, and a horse picket-line stake.

e museum boasts a largecollection of photographsshowing the settlers andcowboys who settledthe county.

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Now located at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, this 1870s cabin is made oftimber from Palo Duro Canyon. It was originally built by Leigh Dyer, the Panhandle’sfirst farmer after the removal of Indians during the Red River War.

From the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, acradleboard used by Quanah Parker's wife, Toonicey.

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3. CANYON, Randall CountyAt dawn on September 28, 1874, Col.Ranald S. Mackenzie and the 4th Cavalrylaunched a surprise attack from the rimof Palo Duro Canyon on Indian villagesstrung out along the river below. As inprevious battles, Cheyenne, Comanche,and Kiowa warriors held off advancingtroops long enough to allow theirpanicked women and children to escape.Col. Mackenzie ordered native lodgesburned and almost all Indian horses werecaptured and later shot. e beleagueredIndians returned to the reservations inIndian Territory, and the Battle of PaloDuro Canyon proved the turning pointof the Red River War.

Today, the battlefield lies within the30,000-acre Palo Duro Canyon State Park.An interpretive center outlines the battle,along with the canyon’s natural and culturalheritage. e canyon floor features a replicaof the dugout camp of legendary cattlemanCharles Goodnight, who started thePanhandle’s first ranch in the canyon. Eachsummer, the park amphitheater hosts “Texas,”an outdoor musical drama retelling the story ofIndians and pioneers who lived and fought there.

e colorful history of the Texas Panhandleis vividly recaptured daily on the campus of WestTexas A&M University at the Panhandle-PlainsHistorical Museum. e People of the Plainsexhibit reveals how Southern Plains tribes adaptedto changing conditions. Another exhibit showsIndian artifacts—including a bonnet, shield, and

lance from White Eagle (Eschiti)and buffalo hunters’ weaponsand provisions found at the Battleof Adobe Walls site. A nearbyexhibit details the Comancheros—Hispanics from New Mexico whotraded with Plains Indians in anelaborate trade network.

Rotating exhibits from the nativearts collection feature beaded bags,moccasins, buckskin dresses, andgourd rattles from peyote rituals.A rare hybrid artifact may havebeen used in the Red River War—an 18th-century Spanish shieldencased in a Comanche shieldcover that still bears bullet holesand bloodstains.

A large firearms collection boastsan 1873 Winchester rifle owned byComanche leader Quanah Parkerand a plains rifle used by Goodnight.e Red River War weapons exhibitcompares military and Indian firearms.

Elaborate exhibits and interactivedisplays chronicle how the Panhandle developed inthe decades following the Red River War. PioneerTown examines life on a changing frontier througha mock livery, saloon, schoolhouse, and authenticpioneer cabin. Two floors detail the burgeoningpetroleum business, beginning with the 1920s oilboom. A recreated car dealership, diner, and movietheater examine advances in transportation after thehorse-and-buggy days.


4. CLARENDON, Donley Countye Army’s relentless campaign to round up PlainsIndians continued in the fall of 1874. On October9, Lt. Col. George P. Buell and his Fort Griffincommand struck a small Indian village northwestof today’s Clarendon, along the Salt Fork of theRed River. Farther upstream, they burned severalhundred lodges in three more villages.

ree years after the Red River War, Irishlandowner John Adair partnered with Texascattleman Charles Goodnight to establish theJA Ranch in Palo Duro Canyon. A Methodistminister laid out the nearby “Christian colony”of Clarendon, and rowdy JA cowboys gave thebar-less town a new nickname, “Saints’ Roost.”After Adair died in 1885, his wife, Cornelia, ranthe ranch, and in 1910 opened the Adair Hospitalto care for ranch hands.

e historic hospital now houses the Saints’Roost Museum, a repository for county artifacts.e Red River War room displays photos andinformation on key military and Indian leaders.Other exhibits outline the lives of Goodnight andCornelia Adair. Museum grounds feature a restoredcowboy bunkhouse and the 1887 Fort Worth &Denver Railroad depot.

5. CLAUDE, Armstrong County Charles Goodnight grew up on the Texas frontier—first hunting with Indians, and then fighting themas a Texas Ranger. He blazed cattle trails and, rightafter the Red River War, established a ranch in thePalo Duro Canyon. Goodnight introduced Herefordcattle, and wheat farming to the region and eveninvented the chuck wagon. e fascinating lifeand times of the “Father of the Panhandle” unfoldsat the Armstrong County Museum.

In 1877, Goodnight incorporated his ranchinto a partnership with John Adair to form the JARanch, which grew to more than one million acres.An extensive exhibit captures the colorful story ofthe Panhandle’s first cattle ranch, still operated byAdair descendants.

After the Red River War, Goodnight befriendedComanche Chief Quanah Parker and other Indianleaders and staged occasional buffalo hunts on hisranch for the former warriors. e museum displaysa Kiowa bow and arrow from the last such hunt.Another display explains how Charles and MaryAnn Goodnight helped save the last of the SouthernPlains bison herds. Another exhibit covers the basicsof the battles of Red River and Palo Duro Canyon.

In the nearby community of Goodnight, themuseum hosts tours of the partially-restored 1887Goodnight home, located a short drive fromGoodnight’s grave.

Red River War exhibit at the Saints’ Roost Museum features photosof Army and Indian leaders and a replica cavalry uniform.

Comanche beaded purse at the Armstrong CountyMuseum, given by a wife of Chief Quanah Parker

to the housekeeper of Charles Goodnight.


6. CROSBYTON, Crosby CountyIn 1871, southeast of present Crosbyton, Col.Ranald S. Mackenzie launched his first campaignagainst the Comanche heartland. Skirmishes aroundBlanco Canyon failed to drive Kwahadi ChiefQuanah and his warriors to the reservation. Col.Mackenzie returned to Blanco Canyon in 1874,where he set up a supply camp for his militarycolumn from Fort Concho, Texas, during the RedRiver War.

Exhibits in theCrosby County Pioneer

Museum chronicle Col. Mackenzie’scareer and the Battle of Blanco Canyon. A displayon the 4th U.S. Cavalry features 1870s McClellansaddles and the tombstone of Pvt. William Max,who died at the 1874 supply camp.

Soon after the war, buffalo hunters killed nearlyall of the region’s remaining buffalo. Early settlerand freighter Hank Smith shipped wagonloads ofbuffalo tongues and bones for sale at Fort Griffin,Texas. He even used the bones to mark the roadto Estacado, the first seat of Crosby County. emuseum details his life through a large collectionof Smith family relics, including his 1876 Sharpsbuffalo rifle.

e museum’s Wayne J. Parker Center forNative American Studies features a researchlibrary and photographs of Indians whoexperienced the Red River War. e museumalso holds 23,000 Indian artifacts collected byWayne Parker, Quanah Parker’s fourth cousin.Relics range from prehistoric pots to arrowpointsmade from Army cartridge cases.

7. LIPSCOMB, Lipscomb County During the bison slaughter of the 1870s, hunters setup “hide town” camps along Wolf Creek. Buffaloskinners cut hides from buffalo on the prairie andleft the carcasses to rot. In camp they staked out theuntanned “flint” hides and treated them with arsenic.After scraping away any tallow, camp workers foldedthe hides for shipment to eastern markets. e WolfCreek Heritage Museum interprets the life of thebuffalo hunter through displays of scrapers, cleavers,and knives used at hide town camps.

Amos Chapman was a half-white, half-Indianfrontiersman who worked as a scout for settlersheaded west and for the Army during the Red RiverWar. After the Red River War, Chapman moved toIndian Territory where he lived with his wife, MaryLongneck, the adopted daughter of CheyenneChief Stone Calf. eir grandson, Ervin “Buck”Chapman, eventually returned to the Panhandle tolive in Lipscomb County. His headdress remainson display, recalling the county’s native heritage.

Other exhibits showcase artifacts from earlysettlers—including a leather fly net used toprotect horses, a bear skin robe from Germanimmigrants, and the sidesaddle of 12-year-oldAugusta Bell Mugg, who rode to Lipscombfrom the Guadalupe Mountains in 1893.

The Sharps “Old Reliable” buffalo rifle is typical of thoseemployed to bring down buffalo by the thousands.


8. MIAMI, Roberts County Twenty-five miles east of present Miami, AmosChapman and fellow scout, Billy Dixon, rodewith four soldiers of the 6th Cavalry on a fatefulSeptember 12, 1874. Surprised by 125 warriors,the six men took cover in a buffalo wallow andheld off an intense Indian siege throughout theday. All six later received the Medal of Honor—one posthumously—for action in the Battle ofBuffalo Wallow.

e heroic fight captured national attention,and artist Frederic Remington immortalized it in

“e Last Stand.” at workinspired a painting by Richardompson, which recalls thebattle at the Roberts County

Museum. A nearby diorama captures the fight’sintensity, and a case displays period Army weapons.

Before Dixon died in 1913, his wife, Olive,wrote her famous husband’s biography. Olive Dixonlived in Miami for 20 years, working as a newsreporter and raising money for the granite monumenterected in 1925 at the Buffalo Wallow site.

Housed in an 1888 railroad depot, the museumalso features archeological displays of Paleoindianprojectile points found locally, as well as otherdisplays of local fossils and mammoth bones. Earlysettlement comes to life in a four-room pioneerhouse, barn, and blacksmith shop.

9. MOBEETIE, Wheeler CountyOn September 12, 1874, Maj. William R. Pricebattled Kiowa Chief Lone Wolf along SweetwaterCreek just north of town. e Battle of SweetwaterCreek sent warriors retreating but also divertedmilitary attention from nearby Indian families.

e Red River War ended in June 1875, andthe Army established a new fort on SweetwaterCreek to protect buffalo hunters, settlers, and cattledrovers coming to Texas. Fort Elliott was served byAfrican American troops called Buffalo Soldiers,including West Point’s first black graduate, HenryO. Flipper. A nearby buffalo hunter’s trading postbecame Mobeetie, the Panhandle’s first town. esettlement attracted saloons and gamblers such asBat Masterson who killed a man over a poker game.To maintain order, Capt. George W. Arringtonarrived with the Texas Rangers. e lawman laterbecame Wheeler County sheriff and lived in thetwo-story stone jail, now the Old Mobeetie JailMuseum, where frontier artifacts are housed.

A mock frontier town surroundsthe old jail and original Fort Elliott

flagpole. Exhibits chronicle the lives ofthe Indians, buffalo hunters, soldiers, and

settlers who struggled for control of theplains. A new visitor center, housed in a

1923 school, chronicles the Red River Warthrough displays and paintings by Texas artist

Kenneth Wyatt.

10. PAMPA, Gray County In the months following the pivotal Battle of

Palo Duro Canyon, the Army fought warriorsin several more skirmishes, including two in

Gray County. e Battle of Round Timber

This U.S. Army service revolver, typicalof those used during the Indian wars, canbe found at the Old Mobeetie Jail Museum.

Roberts County Museum features a diorama of the Buffalo Wallow battle.


Creek occurred on November 6, 1874, nearCheyenne Chief Grey Beard’s village on the NorthFork of the Red River. Roughly 100 warriorsambushed 1st Lt. Henry J. Farnsworth, forcing hisscouting party to retreat. Two days later, a wagontrain led by Lt. Frank Baldwin charged Chief GreyBeard’s relocated village. Villagers fled the fighting,and as soldiers searched the deserted camp, theyfreed two white captives, sisters Adelaide and JuliaGerman, who had been taken two months earlier.e Battle of McClellan Creek would be the lastmajor struggle of the Red River War.

With fighting on the wane, in early 1875,Army Maj. James Biddle set up a cantonmentof soldiers to guard the Indian Territoryborder. Maj. Biddle’s Camp Cantonment wasabandoned when Fort Elliott was establishedlater that year. e Gray County battles and thestory of Camp Cantonment live on in elaborateexhibits—complete with battlefield artifacts—atthe White Deer Land Museum.

Housed in the 1916 headquarters of an earlyland development company, the museum alsoshowcases period artifacts that chronicle the livesof warriors and soldiers.

11. PERRYTON, Ochiltree CountyBefore the arrival of Plains Indians or Spanishexplorers to the Texas Panhandle, a unique NativeAmerican farming community flourished alongWolf Creek in a complex called the Buried City.ese Plains Villagers lived from A.D. 1200 to

1500 in semi-subterranean pit houses and stone slabhouses. An exhibit at the Museum of the Plainsdetails the archeological fieldwork done over manydecades at the Buried City and displays artifactsfrom the site.

Other native exhibits feature a replica tepeeand period Indian trade goods—such as metalarrowpoints, ornamental cones and tinklers, andcast-iron cookware. A reproduction of the AnnualCalendar of the Kiowa retraces tribal history from1833 to 1892. Originally painted on buffalo hideby Little Bear (Set-t'an), the calendar shows keyhistorical events—such as an 1833 attack onAmerican traders, the 1861–62 outbreak ofsmallpox, and the 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodgenegotiations. Perryton artist James Coverdale, thegreat-great-grandson of Kiowa Chief Two Hatchet,created the deer hide replica.

Some 10,000 historical artifacts at the museumchronicle the cultural heritage of the Texas andOklahoma panhandles. e museum groundsfeature an 1899 Santa Fe depot, a 1906 Victorianhome, and a 1908 general store.

These artifacts at the White Deer Land Museumare from the Battle of McClellan Creek.

A replica Kiowa Indian calendar from the Museum of thePlains features pictographs painted on tanned deer hideto chronicle 60 years of Kiowa history.


12. QUITAQUE, Briscoe CountyMillions of buffalos roamed the Southern Plainsfor millennia, hunted first by nomadic peoples onfoot, then by horse warriors who built a culturearound them. In the 1870s, new markets for buffalohides attracted hundreds of hunters who reducedsouthern herds to near extinction within a decade.In 1878, pioneer cattleman Charles Goodnight andhis wife, Mary Ann, preserved a small buffalo herdon their Palo Duro Canyon ranch. roughout the20th century, the Goodnight buffalos helped revivethe breed at Yellowstone National Park and elsewhereacross the plains.

In 1996, the remaining Goodnight herd wasgiven to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Departmentand became the official state bison herd at the15,000-acre Caprock Canyons State Park. e park’snew visitor center offers exhibits on how the buffalofits into the native prairie ecosystem, and a nearbyopen-air platform provides sweeping views of thecanyon. e 80 or so bison at the park descendedfrom the Goodnight herd. A new breeding programaims to improve genetic diversity in the state herdwhile maintaining the three genetic markers thatmake them “Goodnight buffalos.”

e park’s Lake eo is situated near an ancientbison kill site where 10,000-year-old Folsom

projectile points havebeen found.

13. TULIA, Swisher CountyToday, 15 miles east of town, boaters ply the watersof Mackenzie Reservoir in Tule Canyon where,in 1874, the lake’s namesake, Gen. Ranald S.Mackenzie, ended the Red River War’s most pivotalbattle at nearby Tule Creek.

Mackenzie set up camp in Tule Canyon beforehis September 28 surprise attack on Indian villagesin nearby Palo Duro Canyon. Once the Indians hadfled in panic, Mackenzie’s men burned the villagesand drove the captured Indian horses back to theTule Canyon camp. e next day, the troops pickedout the best 376 horses and killed the remaining1,048. Left largely on foot and with few provisions,the Plains Indians returned to the reservations.

One of Mackenzie’s 4th Cavalry subordinates,Capt. Robert G. Carter, later chronicled andmapped Mackenzie’s exploits. A reproductionof one of Carter’s maps rests alongside otherIndian-era artifacts at the Swisher County Archivesand Museum.

e museum also details the life of the lastfree-roaming Comanche chief, Quanah Parker.e Red River War ended in June 1875 afterChief Quanah and his followerssurrendered at Fort Sill, IndianTerritory. On the reservation,he became a successfulbusinessman and native leader.

Caprock Canyons State Park is home to the official state bison herd, offspring of wildSouthern plains bison saved from extinction by early rancher Charles Goodnight in PaloDuro Canyon. This animal remains an important symbol of Native American culture.

This program is made possiblein part by a grant from

Humanities Texas, the stateaffiliate of the National

Endowment for the Humanities.

All photos by Randy Mallory unless otherwise credited.

red river war of 1874-1875 clash of cultures in the texas panhandle

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