Red River War 1874
The Red River War of 1874
During the summer of 1874, the U. S. Army launched a campaign to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indian tribes from the Southern Plains and enforce their relocation to reservations in Indian Territory. The actions of 1874 were unlike any prior attempts by the Army to pacify this area of the western frontier. The Red River War led to the end of an entire way of life for the Southern Plains tribes and brought about a new chapter in Texas history.
A number of factors led to the military's campaign against the Indians. Westward-bound settlers came into conflict with the nomadic tribes that claimed the buffalo plains as their homeland during the nineteenth century. To provide a measure of …show more content…
government proved largely empty. Food was inadequate and of poor quality, while reservation restrictions were all but impossible for the Indians, who were used to roaming over the plains at will, to understand or accept. By late spring of 1874, discontent lay heavy on the reservations. As conditions continued to worsen many of the Indians who were still there now left to join with the renegade bands who had returned to the Texas plains. Among the Indians there was talk of war and killing, and of driving the white man from the land.
During the spring of 1874 a leader and prophet for the Indians emerged in the person of Isa-tai of the Quahadi Band of Comanches. Isa-tai's medicine was viewed as being very strong and he was doing his best to incite a war against the whites. Because the majority of Indians now saw themselves as being in a desperate situation with the only alternative to starvation being war, it took little persuasion by Isa-tai to convince the Indian leaders they must strike back at the whites. Thus, a plan was formed that the Indians would attack and destroy the new settlement of buffalo hunters at Adobe …show more content…
Army to make plans to subdue the Southern Plains tribes once and for all. The new policy called for enrollment and protection of innocent and friendly Indians at their reservations, and pursuit and destruction of hostile Indians without regard for reservation or departmental boundaries. The primary objective of the military campaign of 1874 was the removal of the Indian groups from this area of Texas and the opening of the region to Anglo-American settlement. General Philip Sheridan later characterized the military operations as "not only comprehensive, but the most successful of any Indian Campaign in this country since its settlement by the
During the summer of 1874, the U. S. Army launched a campaign to remove the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indian tribes from the Southern Plains and enforce their relocation to reservations in Indian Territory. The actions of 1874 were unlike any prior attempts by the Army to pacify this area of the western frontier. The Red River War led to the end of an entire way of life for the Southern Plains tribes and brought about a new chapter in Texas history.
A number of factors led to the military's campaign against the Indians. Westward-bound settlers came into conflict with the nomadic tribes that claimed the buffalo plains as their homeland during the nineteenth century. To provide a measure of …show more content…
government proved largely empty. Food was inadequate and of poor quality, while reservation restrictions were all but impossible for the Indians, who were used to roaming over the plains at will, to understand or accept. By late spring of 1874, discontent lay heavy on the reservations. As conditions continued to worsen many of the Indians who were still there now left to join with the renegade bands who had returned to the Texas plains. Among the Indians there was talk of war and killing, and of driving the white man from the land.
During the spring of 1874 a leader and prophet for the Indians emerged in the person of Isa-tai of the Quahadi Band of Comanches. Isa-tai's medicine was viewed as being very strong and he was doing his best to incite a war against the whites. Because the majority of Indians now saw themselves as being in a desperate situation with the only alternative to starvation being war, it took little persuasion by Isa-tai to convince the Indian leaders they must strike back at the whites. Thus, a plan was formed that the Indians would attack and destroy the new settlement of buffalo hunters at Adobe …show more content…
Army to make plans to subdue the Southern Plains tribes once and for all. The new policy called for enrollment and protection of innocent and friendly Indians at their reservations, and pursuit and destruction of hostile Indians without regard for reservation or departmental boundaries. The primary objective of the military campaign of 1874 was the removal of the Indian groups from this area of Texas and the opening of the region to Anglo-American settlement. General Philip Sheridan later characterized the military operations as "not only comprehensive, but the most successful of any Indian Campaign in this country since its settlement by the