1. Cultures in Conflict A visual history of the Frontier Wars in Texas
Created by: Kristi Fleming
Murchison Middle School
Spring 2007

2. The final stand of the Plains Indians in Texas
Drawing of the Adobe Walls Battle – June 1874
One of the battles of the Red River War. Quanah Parker led 100s of warriors from 5 Native American Nations against 29 Anglo buffalo hunters in a failed effort to take over the camp. The battle was a crushing spiritual defeat for the Native Americans. However, the Natives increased their attacks on West Texas settlements and kept fighting in order to protect their land and stop the killing of the buffalo. Over the next two months they killed over 190 settlers across 5 states.
Quanah Parker
Led the Comanche at Adobe Walls
Battle of Palo Duro Canyon – September 1874
The major battle of the Red River War. It was a small battle, but it represented the last effort of the Natives in Texas to stand up against the American military and the advancement of the whites. The battle ended in the confinement of the Plains Indians to reservations in Indian Territory.
Red River War
The final stand of the Plains Indians in Texas
Colonel Mackenzie, 4th Cavalry
The leader of the U.S. Army at Palo Duro
Lone Wolf
One of the chiefs defeated at the Battle of Palo Duro

3. What the Buffalo Meant to the Native Americans
Paunch (stomach) made into water bags
Sinews (tendons) and hair were made into bowstrings, rope, and thread
Buffalo hide became clothing, saddles, robes, and covers for teepees
Hoofs, horns and bones became ornaments, cups, and utensils
Buffalo Poo (dung) was used as fuel for fires
A Kiowa chief describes it this way: “The buffalo is our money … the robes we can prepare and trade. We love them just as the white man does his money. Just as it makes a white man feel to have his money carried away, so it makes us feel to see others killing and stealing our buffaloes, which are our cattle given to us by the Great Father above.” =
Survival

4. Using Buffalo to Destroy the Native Americans
General Philip Sheridan
Instrumental in instituting the policy of killing the buffalo to kill the Indians
Shooting Buffalo on the Line of the Kansas-Pacific Railroad, c. 1870
By promoting in Congressional testimony the hunting and slaughter of the vast herds of American Bison on the Great Plains and by other means, Sheridan helped deprive the Indians of their primary source of food. Professional hunters, trespassing on Indian land, killed over 4 million bison by When the Texas legislature considered outlawing bison poaching on tribal lands, Sheridan personally testified against it in Austin, Texas. He suggested that the legislature should give each of the hunters a medal, engraved with a dead buffalo on one side and a discouraged-looking Indian on the other.

5. Charles Rath J. Wright Mooar
Buffalo Hunter
Between , the American bison, or buffalo, was reduced in numbers from 60 million to a mere handful. By 1900 there were only two small wild herds in all of North America, numbering only 550 animals. This change was accelerated in the last 40 years of the 19th century by the coming of the buffalo hunter and thousands of land-hungry settlers.
J. Wright Mooar
Buffalo Hunter

6. The End of the Plains Indians
Buffalo skulls, mid-1870s, waiting to be ground into fertilizer
The End of the Plains Indians
The railroad, the development of the hide industry during the 1800s, and the wholesale destruction of the buffalo guaranteed that the Native Americans would no longer have the means to survive
Rath & Wright's buffalo hide yard, showing 40,000 buffalo hides baled for shipment. Dodge City, Kansas, 1878

7. The Results of the Frontier Wars of Texas
Native Americans in Texas moved onto the reservations in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) or continued their fight in other states
With the Native Americans out of Texas and the threat of raids gone, settlers could move into West Texas and the Panhandle and establish their farms and ranches
Many new towns were established at this time in the Western half of the state
The cattle industry exploded… with the buffalo gone from the “Sea of Grass” cattlemen now had huge areas in which to raise cattle on their new ranches
The forts were no longer needed, so many were closed.