Bands of Delaware, Shawnee, Kickapoo, Caddo, Uchee, and Kanchati had for a number of years occupied the valleys of the Blue, Boggy, and Washita (9) and the country west as a common hunting ground, before the Choctaw had removed about the Kiamichi River and the Chickasaw had been assigned that country; they and vagrant bands of Cherokee, while claiming to be employed in hunting on those streams, were engaged in stealing the livestock of the Chickasaw who ventured to settle there; they were also employed in trafficking with the Comanche for horses stolen from white people in Texas, thereby provoking intrusions of Texans bent on punishing them.
When called on by the Chickasaw to remove from their country, the intruders insolently replied with threats of reprisal against the immigrants, Indians and whites. (10) The alarmed traders located on Blue River hastily removed their property to the Depot on Boggy River and united in guarding it. (11) An appeal for troops was made by the Chickasaw agent and in April General Arbuckle sent two companies of dragoons under Capt. B. D. Moore, (12) to the Chickasaw country, and the next month another was sent to reinforce him. A conference was held with representatives of the tribes involved, but before military operations were begun, the Delaware, Shawnee, and Kickapoo, with the consent of the Creeks, removed on to the land of the latter. (13) These Indians located convenient to the mouth of Little River where there was an abundance of beef, and as they were destitute and suffering for
(9) Washita was "a small turgid river, called by the
Indians Bahachaha, and by the French Fauxoacheta; some call it the Missouri
branch of the Red river" (American State Papers "Indian
Affairs," I, 729)
(10) Arbuckle to Atkinson, March 11, 1841, AGO, OFD, 92 A 41.
(11) Arbuckle to Jones, March 21, 1841, AGO, OFD, 100 A 41.
(12) Benjamin D. Moore was born in Kentucky; appointed from Illinois medshipman
in the United States Navy on February 2, 1829; resigned in 1833, having been
appointed November 6, 1832, lieutenant in the Mounted Rangers; first lieutenant
in the First Dragoons September 19, 1833; captain June 15, 1837; killed December
6, 1846, in the battle of San Pasqual, California.
(13) Arbuckle to Jones, May 19, 1841, AGO, OFD, 72 A 41.
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food, Captain Moore by his repeated requests induced General Taylor to have corn, beef, and salt issued to them. (14)
In the summer after the departure of the dragoons the necessity for a military force to protect the Chickasaw Indians and maintain peace in their country was again emphasized by the people of Texas. Armed bands of Texans invaded the Chickasaw country in pursuit of Koasati Indians living there, killed two Indians and destroyed their village on the Washita River. (15) It was charged that the Indians had stolen some horses in Texas. "James R. O’Neal, Chief Justice Elect, County of Fannin" learned that these Indians were near Shawneetown, and was told by "Captain David Wall, a part Chickasaw living in the Nation, and a perfect gentleman, that the party of Indians alluded to were Boluxies, which are nearly the same as Cushattees, both having sprung from the Creeks." A few weeks later a company of sixty or eighty armed Texans commanded by Wm. G. Cooke crossed the Red River and proceeded above the Washita Rover committing depredations as they proceeded. Their object, they said, was to intercept a trading party of Cherokee Indians reported to be headed by a white citizen of the United States, carrying forth packs of ammunition to trade to the hostile Indians on the Brasos River in Texas. (16)
These events terrified the immigrant Indians. With the withdrawal of military restraint the Indians lately removed began drifting back again into the country of the Chickasaw, stealing their horses and slaves. Thus, between their red and white neighbors there was no security or happiness for the peace-loving Chickasaw in their new country; and they repeatedly called on the Government to redeem its nine-year-old promise to protect them against those outrages and make their new home secure and peaceful.
General Arbuckle as early as January 14, 1838, urged the immediate construction of a fort at or near the mouth of the Washita River to protect from the wild Indians the recently arrived Chickasaw immigrants
(14) Taylor to Jones, July 8, 1841, AGO, OFD, 207 T 41;
Taylor to Armstrong, September 22, 1841, AGO, ORD, Second Military Department, Fort
Smith Letter Book, A (8).
(15) Alberson, the Chickasaw Chief, told Major Hitchcock that the Texans also
killed some Boluxy Indians in the Chickasaw country.
(16) Affidavit of J. G. Jowett: Smith to Jones, Texas State Library, Indian
Affairs, "Republic of Texas, Indian Affairs," Box 31, No. 3061.
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and the Choctaw who desired to extend their settlements in that direction; but his recommendation had been ignored for four years. (17) The general announced his intention to remove his headquarters from Fort Gibson to Fort Smith in May, 1841, (18) but before he did so, Gen Zachary Taylor was ordered from Baton Rouge to relieve him. Delayed by the low stage of water in the Arkansas, General Taylor did not reach Fort Gibson until Jule 27, when he relieved General Arbuckle of the command of that department. Taylor was not pleased with the accommodations at Fort Gibson and as General Arbuckle had begun improvements on those at Fort Smith. Taylor decided to establish himself at the latter place, which he did early in July. (19)
Arbuckle had directed Captain Moore (20) in command of the troops from Fort Gibson, to notify the intruding Indians to vacate the Chickasaw country, except those who had corn growing who were to be permitted to remain until fall; he was then to examine the country on Red River between the Blue and Washita for a suitable site for a military post. (21) Soon after General Taylor assumed command at Fort Smith, he urged the War Department to establish the military post on the Washita that had been in contemplation. (22)
Instructions were issued on August 14 to General Taylor and on September 25, after receiving a letter from Col. James Colbert, one of the Chickasaw commissioners, he left Fort Smith with a military escort to select a site for the proposed post. (23) He went by the way of Fort Gibson and Fort Towson and examined the country on both sides of Washita River for eighteen or twenty miles above the mouth and
(17) Arbuckle to adjutant general, January 14, 1838, United
States House Document No. 311, Twenty-fifth Congress, second session, P.
38.
(18) Arbuckle to Jones, April 10, 1841, AGO, OFD, 122 A 41.
(19) Taylor to Jones, July 8, 1841, AGO, OFD, 207 T 41. Taylor to Hitchcock,
July 28, 1841, Zachary Taylor Papers, Book 29, No. 18, Library of
Congress, manuscript division.
(20) Arbuckle to Moore, May 19, 1841, AGO, OFD, 72 A 41; Moore returned by
way of Fort Towson and arrived at Fort Gibson June 17, with Company C; he left
Fort Gibson July 19 and took post at Fort Wayne July 21.
(21) Moore reported from "Depot of Boggy" and "the Former Depot
on Boggy" in May 1841, ibid.
(22) Taylor to Jones, July 21, 1841, AGO, OFD, 215 T 41.
(23) Taylor to Armstrong, September 22, 1841, OIA.
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decided upon the site recommended by Captain Moore; ". . . it is situated on a high well timbered ridge, with an extensive rolling prairie on the east, and within one mile and a half of the Washita, and from seventeen to twenty miles from Red River, and about one hundred miles above Fort Towson. An abundant supply of Building Materials, fuel and Hay can be obtained near this point, for use of the garrison . . . P. S. Whenever boats can ascend Red River as high as the mouth of Washita it will be navigable or can easily be rendered so high as the point selected for a military post." (24)
General Taylor, April 14, 1842, ordered Capt. G. A. H. Blake with company A of the Second Dragoons at Fort Towson to take position at the new station (25) on the Washita River; (26) the captain, with his fifty-eight officers and men, arrived at the site on the twenty-third and made the station permanent. (27) The next month General Taylor visited there and found the Dragoons engaged in erecting summer quarters at the new post, (28) which he proposed to call Fort Washita. (29) However he did not plan to begin erection of quarters and stables before autumn, (30) though in the summer some concern was occasioned by efforts of Texans to induce the Choctaw and Chickasaw to join them in warfare against the wild tribes on the western frontier of Texas. (31)
In the following December Fort Washita was garrisoned by Maj. T. J. Fauntleroy with two companies of the Second Dragoons and one company of the Sixth Infantry. (32) The site of the post was a strategic
(24) Taylor to Jones, October 24, 1841, AGO ORD, Western
Division, Fort Smith Letter Book A (8).
(25) This was near where Colonel Dodge established his Camp Washita for his
Dragoon expedition in 1834.
(26) Taylor to Jones, April 17, 1842, AGO, OFD, 127 T 42.
(27) AGO, "Regimental Returns." Blake reported that the site was near
the Chickasaw Agency (AGO, OFD, 197 B 1842, "Reservation File").
(28) The site of the proposed fort was visited by General Hitchcock in February,
1842. A mile from there he saw men engaged in erecting a building to be used for
the Chickasaw agency (Hitchcock, ibid., 165)
(29) Taylor to adjutant general, May 31, 1842, AGO, OFD, 166 T 42.
(30) Taylor to adjutant general, March 12, 1842, AGO, OFD, 91 T 42.
(31) Indian ofice to war department, July 29, 1842, OIA.
(32) United States Senate Document No. 1, Twenty-seventh Congress, third
session, pp 210, 415. For Washita was designated as an army post October 8,
1842, by "orders No. 17, headquarters, second military department, Fort
Smith, Arkansas." A post office of the same name was established at Fort
Washita November 4, 1844, with Samuel C. Humes postmaster.
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one located as it was on the trail from Texas to the Edwards trading post and beyond, along which passed large numbers of white and Indian traders, trappers, hunters, warriors and other adventurers, many of whom made the fort a stopping place. The movements of these people and the news they brought from distant points enabled the officers of the garrison to keep in touch with conditions and events over a large extent of the surrounding country. For some reason the war department in 1843 proposed to abandon the post to the dismay of the Chickasaw who protested loudly against it. Their agent Upshaw who was stationed there, requested Major Armstrong to see General Taylor "as soon as possible, and convince him if he is not already, that the post of Washita is the most important post in the Indian Country; when I got here today the place was full of Shawnees Caddoes; Maj. Lear will tell you of the large numbers of the various tribes that are daily coming here." General Taylor saved the fort for the emigrant Indians by the vigorous letters he sent to Washington in their behalf: (33) "I am clearly in favor of retaining the position on the False Washita, " he said, "for the following reasons: It bears immediately upon the numerous predatory bands who live by the chase, who here approach nearest to the Chickasaws, and against whom the latter nation, by every consideration of humanity and policy, is entitled to our protection. The establishment of the Post has invited many Chickasaws to move into the desirable position of their country, commanded by it, who were before deterred by the plundering expeditions of the wild bands referred to. Some of the bands in the neighborhood, Delawares, Shawnees, etc., have once been removed from the Chickasaws lands by military force, and the same wholesome restraint is still needed to keep them in their proper places."
It was thereupon wisely decided to retain the post and Lieut. Col. W. S. Harney, reached Fort Washita on June 11, 1843, and assumed command the next day. The fort marked a distinct advance of the frontier, providing important contact and communication with the native Indians to the West theretofore negotiated from Fort Gibson
(33) Taylor to adjutant general, March 29, 1843, AGO, OFD, 97 T 43; ibid., April 12, 1843, 114 T 43, Agent Upshaw reported from Boggy Depot April 4: "When I got here today the place was full of Shawnee and Caddoes . . . large number of the various tribes . . . are daily coming in here" (Upshaw to Armstrong, April 4, 1843, OIA, "Misc. Upshaw, 1843")
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and Fort Towson, which now became of diminishing importance. Within a few months an expedition of forth-five dragoons and two officers with three Chickasaw accompanied Agent Upshaw from Fort Washita to the wild Indians in the west in search of two boys taken captive in Texas. (34)
Construction of the buildings at the fort dragged and it was not until the summer of 1844 that a substantial degree of progress was reported by Lieut. D. G. Rogers in charge of the construction. Three sets of temporary quarters had been repaired for the use of the privates; they contained mess houses built of logs, with stone chimneys, and sheds adjoining for mess rooms. There were also log huts for the camp women attached to each set of quarters. The officers’ quarters were well built: "The frame is the best and most substantial that I have ever seen erected -- the shingles are of black walnut -- the foundation of shell limestone. The inside work is of black walnut . . . The buildings will be good fifty years hence." The commissary storehouse was twenty-eight by eighty feet in size. The officers’ mess house and kitchen was built of logs hewn on both sides, plastered on the inside and finished with black walnut. There were also a dragoon stable, quartermaster’s stable, bakehouse, and other quarters. The spring on which the garrison relied had been so badly damaged by floods that a large stone cistern was constructed to catch the rain water. A number of other buildings were contemplated. Ash and walnut saw logs were hauled eight to ten miles and sawed with whipsaws; framing timber was brought two or three miles and stone the same distance. (35) However, the next year the new commander of the garrison asked for another post adjutant to take charge of the building. He said that since 1842 many contracts had been made but no adequate results had been achieved. The buildings had not been constructed according to any rational plan or design and there was not a building suitable to be used by an officer or a company, he said. (36)
(34) Harney to Jones, June 12, 1843, AGO, OFD, 134 H 43. Fort
Washita was located about twelve miles east of what was called the small Cross
Timbers on the route followed by wild western tribes crossing the Chickasaw
country on their way between Texas and the country to the north.
(35) Rogers to Jesup, October 1. 1844, QMG, "Hall of Records," Book
25, p. 65.
(36) Maj. G. Andrews to quarter master general, November 30, 1845, ibid., Book
26, p. 73.
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"Camp Mason is situated on Little River within the Creek country; there Col. A. P. Chouteau has a trading house. I have directed Majr. Chouteau to inform the Delawares & Shawnees to repair to their own country; they are considered the best warriors amongst the Indians; and are disposed to war; they hunt on through the western prairies, to the Trinity, and through Texas, occasionally returning to their homes in the Summer. The Osages are held in great terror by the Comanches. But few of the late Emigrant Creeks have gone out as far as Camp Mason. From the number of Indians, their feelings and dispositions, together with the information given in Majr. Chouteau’s letter, I shall not be surprised if we have some difficulties in the West." (11) The southwestern country seethed with rumors and threats of hostilities from the prairie instigated by their resentment at encroachment of the immigrant tribes and by Mexican agents.
Early in 1837 the Comanche Indians proposed to sweep the country of intruding hunters and traders. One Delaware had escaped from a Comanche village with his wife and child, through the "earnest intercession of two Wacos who had accompanied them, but not without the loss of his horses of which he was publickly dispoiled. A very small party of Shawnees have met with similar treatment . . . The Delawares at present in this country are collecting the scattered parties for the purpose of forming stronger encampments, being apprehensive of danger . . . and also for the purpose of sending their women and children to the Kansas river." (12)
The western part of the domain granted to the immigrants included the prairie country claimed and hunted over by the western Indians who had threatened hostilities to the Choctaw and Creek hunters they encountered there and early in 1837 actually captured a number of their horses. Mexican agents were frequently reported among the western Indians inciting them to war against the whites and eastern Indians. Some of the latter had furnished the Comanches with ample provocation: "Last March a Delaware named Jonathan who resides in the Shawnee town near the Senecas, in company with a coloured Delaware man named Jack, who resides at the Sugar Loaf on Poteau, passed Coffees with about Sixty head of Comanche horses which he
(11) Armstrong to commissioner of Indian Affairs, February
13, 1837, OIA
(12) Chouteau to Armsgrong, February 1, 1837, OIA.
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knows to have been stolen by them. Jonas Shaw a Delaware informed me that he saw the same men about eight miles from this place [Fort Gibson] on the 25th of last month. They had the horses at that time and had undoubtedly stolen them; complaints have almost daily been made to me of the predatory incursions of the Pawnee Mahaws, upon almost all the different tribes." (13) Lieut. A. B. Van Benthuysen of the Mounted Gunmen of Texas Pursued a party of Indians to the vicinity of Fort Smith. On his return near the Forks of the Brazos he met a party of Cherokee on their way to the Comanche Indians with powder and lead to exchange for horses and mules; they were piloted by seven Kichai Indians. (14)
There was considerable disagreement and confusion at Fort Gibson as to the actual situation on the prairies due to the difficulty of obtaining authentic information. The veteran Col. William Whistler in command at Fort Gibson at the time, contributed his opinion: "Little reliance can be placed upon the reports of Indian hunters and traders, who return from the prairies to the West; as they are easily alarmed, and are misled by their fears. The western line of the Choctaws not being defined, that tribe claims, as belonging to it, the hunting grounds of the wild tribes; and collision may ensue, in consequence of their conflicting claims. The False Washita would form a natural boundary for some distance, and an ample territory would thus be secured to the Choctaws. Should the wild tribes meditate hostilities, they cannot approach us except through the settlements of the semi-civilized tribes adjacent, and could be easily repulsed as they are badly armed & from their system of warfare, dread fighting in timber or forest land." Whistler thought it important to retain the friendship of the immigrant Delaware, Kickapoo, and other Indians who "would thus form a barrier to the white settlements, which could never be penetrated by the Indians of the Prairies, who are insignificant as foes, unless united with the neighboring tribes." (15)
At this time there were living in Texas "south of the San Antonio Road in the Countries of Nacogdoches & Liberty . . . the Coochatees, Alabamas, Baluxies and Muskogees, the three former of about 50 and
(13) Ibid., May 22, 1837, OIA, Western
Superintendency, A, 1837.
(14) Houston Telegraph and Texas Register, December 23, 1837, p. 3, col.
I.
(14) Whistler to adjutant general, July 15, 1837, OIA, Western
Superintendency, W 283.
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the latter of about 3 years residence in Texas, all originally from the "Creek Country" of the U. S. They speak a similar dialect are about 150 warriors in number, mostly hunters . . . These Indians have no communication with the tribes of the Prairies whom they dread and with whom they have been at variance . . . The Huanies and Choctaws live in the Counties of Nacogdoches and Shelby on the waters of the Arroyage and Patroon. They are of the old Choctaw nation, have resided in Texas about ten years, are of pacific feelings and are about 40 in number and have no pretentions to soil; among them are a few Chickasaws of similar character.
"The Keichi, Tywacoanies, Wakhos and Tiwash or Pawnies are Indians of the Prairie, hunt together for a living travel altogether on horseback, armed mostly with the Bow and Lance; what fire arms they have are smooth bores, or traders guns of little value and seldom used. They run from place to place, move with great celerity & are but little dependent on Civilized man for necessary articles. They are now at war with this Republik. Their number is about 500 warriors, despicable soldiers but formidable rogues and for 5 years past have carried off white women and children as prisoners.
"These Indians reside mostly on the Beadwaters of the Trinity, Brassos and Colorado, and are on good terms with both the Comanches and the northern Indians living within the limits of Texas. Of the Comanches your committee know but little; they are however the natural enemies of the Mexicans whom they contemptuously demoninated their Stock Keepers and out of which nation they procure slaves. They are roving Indians, live on Game, and have many horses. Their arms are the Bow & Lance. They are not hostile to Texas and a treaty may be made with them.
"The people called the Lipans, Karankways and Tonkaways your committee consider as part of the Mexican nation . . . . These tribes usually denominated "northern Indians" are the Kickapoos, Shawnees, Delaware, Potawatamies & Minominies; they reside in the County of Nacogdoches and are hunters; with a few exceptions among the Delawares and Shawnees, all are excellent hunters and marksmen, well armed, about 500 in number and roam the Prairies in perfect confidence. They are of about 8 years residence in Texas.
"The Cherokees . . . live in the County of Nacogdoches on the waters of the Augustine, Neches, & Sabine rivers; they are about 220
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in number, are farmers & hunters, raise stock, have some domestic manufactures, and read and write in their own language. Their War Chief is called Bowles, their civil Chief is called Big Mash . . . They are a branch of the old nation of that name . . . settling . . . about fifteen years since in Texas. They are good riflemen, and have elevated views of their own importance and claims. They also appear desirous of taking the lead and forming a union of the different tribes in Texas. They trade with and are now in continual communication with the Prairie Indians with whom until the commencement of our revolution they were at war." The committee, as part of this long report (16) recommended the rejection of the treaty negotiated by Sam Houston with the Cherokee Indians of Texas on February 23, 1836, which recognized the rights of these Indians to the land in Texas occupied by them.
Reports continued to reach Fort Gibson of the presence of Mexican emissaries among the western Indians, and there was much complaint of the depredations of the "Pawnee Mohaw" [Skidi] Indians who had stolen "horsed and mules, and in some instances nearly destroyed whole towns; the Wee-chee-tahs and Wacos in particular have suffered from their hostile incursions, nor have the Osages escaped them."
(17) During the succeeding winter they were roving through the country in the vicinity of the Canadian River "with no other purpose than that of stealing horses; and have invariable done so, without regard to what tribe they belonged. A few nights since they stole eight head from a party of Delawares who are encamped within sight of this place. They are certainly the most lawless and michevious tribe of the west." (18)
(16) Committee to President of Texas Republic, October 12,
1837, Report on Indians in Texas and treaties made, Texas State Library.
(17) Chouteau to Harris, Fort Mason, November 25, 1837, OIA C 510.
(18) Ibid., May 1, 1838, OIA C 683. In 1842 Chickasaw Agent Upshaw
reported that there were 5,000 roving bands of Indians settled within eighty
miles west of Fort Washita (Report of Commissioner of Indian affairs for 1842).
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"The remnant of the Cherokees who were there, were in a most distressed condition. The family of Bowles, who were all there, would not come into camp until the Commissioners purchased clothes for the women and children. Accustomed to the decencies of life, they were unwilling to show themselves to civilized people in their state at that time. There were about 30 Cherokees who composed all of the tribe once settled in Nacogdoches county, who still remain apart from the main tribe resident in the United States.
"They had been nearly denuded of property by the command under Gen. Tarrant in 1841, when on the Trinity. They have now just returned from Mexico, where they had been stripped of their remaining property by theft. They were without horses, clothes or effects of any sort.
"The fate of this tribe has been unfortunate indeed. First driven from the fair lands upon which they had cultivated in Nacogdoches county, and where they had drawn around themselves the comforts, and many of the luxuries of civilized life. Drawn into a contest . . . their chief and the father of a large family, whose character commanded the esteem of a large number of the citizens of the country who knew him, slain in the first contest for their homes -- his body barbarously mutilated -- an act which the dauntlessness of his bearing in the battle, if no other cause or impulse of decency, generosity, or humanity, should have prevented, for he fell in the rear of his retreating men, exposing to the last his body to the assailants -- they have been driven to the wild prairies of the North, cast down, comfortless, homeless, and miserable.
"The year after this dispossession and the death and misery which it caused, they were found by Burleson upon the headwaters of the Colorado; there had probably established themselves to depredate upon the settlements, and there the destruction among them was for greater then before. The wife and daughter of the brave old chief were captured, and his eldest son and a large number of the tribe were killed . . . subsequently they were broken up again in ‘41, when Gen. Tarrant made his expedition to the upper Trinity; and here at last we find them at this treaty ground -- but lately robbed of the very last vestige of property by people which ranks itself as a nation, free, powerful, and proud, but which is far beneath these Indians. . .
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General Tarrant described the daughter of Bowles as a very intelligent woman.
"The General ascribes great merit to the exertions of Col. Williams and Lewis Sanches of Nacogdoches county and Jim Shaw a Delaware, by whose efforts the tribes were finally brought in, and who acted as interpreters between the parties. He also expresses much indebtedness to Roasting Ear, McCulloch, and Louis, chiefs of the Delawares, and Estacayucatubbe, principal chief of the Chickasaws, who were very influential and unremitting in their efforts to consummate the treaty. The last signed the treaty through motives of friendly interest, there being no difficulty with his tribe." (19)
James Logan, of Arkansas, Creek agent, had spent fourteen years of his early life among, the Shawnee, Delaware, and Piankashaw Indians and was familiar with their principal men, their language, customs, and manners. These Indians, he said, were in the habit of making distant excursions into the prairies and often obtained information of a varied and interesting nature. From them he learned that seven Mexicans had lately held a council with a large number of Tawakoni, Caddo, Kichai, Cheyenne, and other Indians near the headwaters of the San Antonio River, and that such councils had been held annually at different points. (20)
In 1844 whites murdered three Delaware Indians who were hunting on the south side of the Red River not far from the mouth of the Blue. Jesse Chisholm and two other man went to the scene of the killing and secured some of the horses and personal effects which they
(19) The Northern Standard (Clarksville, Texas),
October 14, 1843, p. 2, cols. 1, 2 and 3.
In 1822 it was reported by Jose Felix Trespalaios, governor of the Province of
Texas, that the Cherokee living in Texas under the leadership of Richard Fields
numbered 100 warriors and 200 women and children. "They support themselves
by their own labor and dress in cotton cloth which they themselves weave; they
raise cattle & horses and have fire arms. Many of them understand the
English language -- they will be useful to this province. In fact they are
already helpful in preventing exportation of stolen stock to the U. S. and in
apprehending evil doers caught on the road" (Trespalacios at Bexar, to
Sopez, Novemeber 8, 1822, University of Texas, "Bexar
Archives"). Terrell wrote: "Ish-ti-uka-Tubby has rendered us very
efficient service in bringing about this treaty. I have found him a man of
excellent sense -- and a gentleman in his bearing and deportment. Be pleased to
say to him that we entertain a proper sense of the aid he has rendered us."
(Terrell to Upshaw, September 30, 1843, OIA, "Misc. file U 179").
(20) Logan to Crawford, OIA, Western Superintendency, A 1734.
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brought to the Chickasaw agent; on the way back they "met many of the friends & relations of the unfortunate Delawares that had been killed." They continued to the Canadian River where they "held a council with some Delaware, Shawnee, Kickapoo & Creeks living there -- then started west for the Kechies, Wacos & others," and "at Big Spring Camp near Towwoceaney" they made a written report of the affair to President Sam Houston." (21)
The wild Indians of the prairies continued to infest the country set apart to the Chickasaw Indians and involved it in their savage practices. Many of them resorted there with prisoners captured in Texas and negotiated for their ransom. Enterprising members of the emigrant tribes, including the Choctaw, Israel Folsom, had built up a substantial trade with a Chickasaw named Ish-tic-i-u-ka-tubby, who ransomed a ten year old white boy named Thomas Pearce held captive by the Comanche Indians; his father, mother, and sister had been killed by the Caddo Indians. The Chickasaw delivered the white boy to the agent, A. M. M. Upshaw, at his agency near Fort Towson, and said he would return to the Comanche Nation and recover all the captive women and boys there who were in a wretched condition, if the Texans would pay him. Upshaw reported the matter to President Lamar of Texas. (22)
The same year Richard Blanton went to the Chickasaw country where he "ransomed his sister Mrs. Tidwell, and her two children who were taken captive by a party of 18 Kichai Indians, on 2d July last from
(21) Williams, Chisholm, and Watson to Houston, October 9,
1844, Texas State Library, "Indian Affairs," No. 3152, file box
32. Chisholm signed his name as did the others. Though the murderers were
captured by other whites and hanged, the friends of the murdered men would not
believe it and insisted on being permitted to tomahawk an equal number of Texans
(Upshaw to Armstrong, September 3, 1844: report of commissioner of Indian
Affairs for 1844).
(22) Upshaw to Lamar, June 18, 1840, Texas State Library, ibid., No.
3111. Five years later Armstrong and Upshaw wrote the commissioner of Indian
Affairs that "Ish-ti-u-ka-tubby had never been compensated by any person
either for taking care of the boy or the purchase money he gave to obtain his
liberty from the Commanches. The boy has been restored to his country; and
justice and humanity require that the Indian should be paid" $300 claimed
by him, the price current for ransomed white children (Armstrong and Upshaw to
Crawford, March 14, 1845, OIA "Misc. File" U 179).
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a Stroud settlement on the Brasos river in Texas. Her husband was murdered & scalped in her presence & after robbing the house & all its contents they took her & her 3 small children. Her infant sickened and died. She was to be put to death, but a Delaware trader bought her & brought her to the Chickasaw Nation. While among the Kichai she saw a white boy 8 or 10 years old, who could not speak a word of English. There are also a great many remaining slaves on the frontier of the Chickasaw Nation."
The Chickasaw country continued to furnish a harbor for these raiders of Texas and four years later, in 1844, the Wichita Indians brought to their village in the Chickasaw Nation two boys whom they had taken prisoners on the Trinity in Texas in February or Match " . . . at the time that their father, mother, and two children were murdered in the most shocking manner, the lady had her limbs cut off at the body;" Agent Upshaw reported this information brought him by Captain Ish-tic-i-u-ka-tubby. In the autumn, under the direction of General Arbuckle, Lieut. A. R. Johnston (23) left Fort Wichita with Mr. Upshaw and a detachment of Dragoons and went to the Wichita Mountains to find the Wichita Indians, who denied all knowledge of the missing boys. (24)
Mrs. Nancy Simpson, a widow of Austin, Texas, on November 3, 1844, sent her children out to tend the cows on the bank of the Colorado River near the Simpson home. Jane, thirteen years old, was of slight stature, with hazel eyes, black eyebrows and lashes, fair complexion and auburn hair; her brother Thomas was eleven, well developed, dark of complexion, with black eyes, eyebrows, lashes and hair. They were only a few rods from the house and about noon Mrs. Simpson heard their screams that brought her running to the door to witness four Indians dashing off with them. The alarm was immediately given and pursuit
(23) Abraham Johnston was born in Ohio and was graduated from
the United States Military Academy July 1, 1835; he served with the First
Dragoons at Fort Leavenworth, Fort Gibson, Fort Wayne, and Fort Washita; and in
the War with Mexico, being engaged as aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Kearny
in the Combat of San Pasqual, California, where, while gallantly leading a
charge against the enemy’s Lancers, he was killed December 6, 1846 at the age
of thirty-one; the interesting journal kept by him from September 25, 1846 to
December 4 is included in United States House Executive Document No. 41,
Thirtieth Congress, first session, pages 567 to 614.
(24) Arbuckle to Jones, September 9, 1845, AGO, OFD, 47 A 45.
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was made by some of the men. The next day thirty-four members of the militia of Bastrop and Travis counties commanded by Allen A. M. Jackson started out and spent eight days traveling over the rocky country interviewing bands of peaceful Indians but they could learn nothing of the captive children. T. H. Williams and B. Sloat in the Texas Indian service also headed parties in a vain search. Jackson addressed a communication to Pierce M. Butler, Cherokee agent at Fort Gibson, telling him about the affair and begging him to use the facilities of his agency to secure news of the children and communicate it to the Texas consulate at New Orleans. It was supposed that the children had been carried north of the Red River and the Indians who came to the trading settlements near the post might bring some news of them. The Texas legation in Washington presented the matter to the secretary of war and solicited the aid of that branch of the Government in securing the rescue of the children. (26) Orders were thereupon given General Arbuckle at Fort Gibson to attempt their recovery, but his efforts availed nothing.
The Indians who lived or ranged north of Red River were unusually active at this time in their depredations in Texas. (27) In March a Delaware Indian named Bill Connor brought to Fort Gibson and delivered to Governor Butler a boy named Gillis Doyle. He had been captured by the Comanche Indians about four years before when he was out with his father and other men on the bank of the Colorado River securing rock. The Indians killed three of the men but the boy thought his father escaped. . .(He was ransomed for $300 - which was the going rate for white children)
(26) Raymond to secretary of war February 11, 1845, OIA "Western Supt'y,
office, 1845." In "Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas" by John
Henry Brown, it is stated (p.102) that Thomas was ransomed a year or two after
his capture by a trader at Taos, New Mexico; and that his sister was killed and
scalped by her captors only a short distance from her home. The author calls her
"Emma", but "Jane" is the name given her at the time by
Jackson, the captain of militia in his letter to Cherokee Agent Butler.
(27) It was reported that the Osage had twelve white children they had bought
from the Comanche, who had stolen them from their homes in Texas and Mexico
(Arkansas Intelligencer ((Van Buren)) July 12, 1845, p. 1, col.5). From this
time until the Civil War the Osage continued to purchase Mexican captives from
the Comanche and hold them in bondage (Drew to Manypenny, April 31, 1854, OIA,
"Neosbo" D 578: Dorn to Dean August 4, 1855, ibid.; Dorn to Rector,
July 3, 1857, ibid.,
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Submitted by Sandi Carter & Marlene Clark
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