Chapter 3

Some setting of the stage.

‘The Only Good Indian, is a Dead Indian!’

I wanted to give you readers a brief recap of what attitudes about Indians were like in Texas, after 1865. Remember that ‘History’ is always written by the winning side. If you have any doubts of that, try to read anything bad about the Allies, or anything good about the Axis from WW II.

Oh, you might also consider why Indians are still on Reservations, and are considered to have no rights in the USA, let alone in South America.

During the War of Northern Aggression (called ‘The Civil War’ up North), some Indian tribes attempted to align themselves with what they believed would be the winning side. This was not lost on anyone traveling West, because the US Army was not able to protect the ever expanding frontier.

The well known Comanche tribes were the most troublesome to the early Texas settlers, and were also the most feared. Their mobility and horsemanship made them seem to be everywhere, at least in the eyes of the Texans.

Comanche fought hard to maintain power in the region they controlled. They began to expand both militarily and economically, spreading over the southern plains at a speed the White settlers did not expect. The Comanche and Kiowa were famous for their raids, and they became notorious for kidnapping white women from their homes or towns.

In the years of 1861 to 1866 the Comanche and Kiowa pushed white settlements back more than 100 miles along the Texas frontier. This served to increase tensions between the white settlers, other Indians and any Plains Tribes the White’s met up with.

Although several Indian tribes occupied territory in the area, the most powerful nation was the Comanche, known as the “Lords of the Plains”. Their territory, the Comancheria, was the most hostile and deadly to the Spanish, Mexicans, and, the Texans, and had been so for a long time.

After 1865 there came a resurgence of the Comanche. The Comanche Campaign is a general term by the United States government to control the Comanche tribe. Between 1867 and 1875, military units fought against the Comanche people in a series of battles until the Comanche surrendered and moved onto their reservation.

The Treaty of Little Arkansas in 1865, ‘gave’ (like it was not theirs already) the Comanche tribe a piece of land made up of parts of Oklahoma and Texas. This region, was called the Comancheria, even in its diminished state, now also called an ‘Indian Reservation’,.

The Comanche had signed a treaty with the Confederacy, and when the end of the war came, they were now doubly damned and forced to swear loyalty to the United States government at Fort Smith. In 1875, the last of The Plains Indians, the Comanches, surrendered and the rest moved to the Fort Sill reservation in Oklahoma.

I was so confused now, that my hastily made plan soon proved to be like shit. Everywhere I thought of going was pretty much the same thing: a bad choice. Sure Dallas was a big town, a very big town. The problem was, any girl worth her salt was either at home, already attached, or was more than likely a ‘working girl.’ Those who were ‘available fillies,’ were available for a reason, making them less than the ideal mate I was looking for.

Don’t get me wrong, I knew I was already much older than the men and boys on the prowl; but I was counting on the fact I was a born and breed Texan and had served the ‘Cause’ with everything I had. I found out that all that got me nothing in Dallas.

I went to the source of all wisdom for advice. No, although several of the working girls would have be much more pleasant, ‘Pete the barkeep’ took pity on a poor Reb Major, and gave me some of his Pearls of Wisdom. He told me not to find an ugly woman, per se; but, in-effect, to fall in love with a woman who would love me back, and not give me concern for those times I could not be around. The idea that if I laid claim to some filly that another man would want; ‘as sure as shootin’, the minute I was out of sight, some man would rope and hog tie her or steal her away. Not the kind of relationship trust is based on. Nor was that kind of woman, no matter how good she may look, that I wanted for a wife.

I didn’t like what Pete had said, but the more I thought about it, the more that what he had said made sense. Damn, this was not going to be as easy as I had hoped it might be. My other plan, riding out to every ranch to see what or who might be available, was met with my own analysis that it was not very palatable even to try. Texas was pretty damned big, and the ranches were not very close together.