Killing Crazy Horse

by Bill O'Reilly

  “I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes,” Lincoln states, trivializing Blackhawk’s acts of defiance. “And although I never fainted from the loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry.”

  Chief Blackhawk is imprisoned briefly in Virginia, where he languishes for one month. Upon his release, he is stripped of all authority among the Sauk and allowed to return to his tribe, who are now living on the banks of the Iowa River. Blackhawk dies in 1838, a broken man.

  He will not be the last.

  Chapter Five

  JANUARY 8, 1834

  FRONTERAS, MEXICO

  DAWN

  The truce is over.

  The morning desert air is bone cold. Chokonen warriors completely surround a small Mexican military presidio. The Indians have been here before, sometimes taking hostages, other times stealing cattle. Today they have come for the horses. There are at least fifty in small corrals. The plan is to steal as many as possible, then drive them north, into the Chiricahua Mountains, where the tribe makes its home.

  The leaders this morning are Pisago and Relles, two of the group’s most audacious fighters. Among the younger Indians is Cheis—“Oak”—a warrior in his late twenties with a perfect Roman nose. His ears are pierced with steel hoop earrings in the belief that he will hear better. Long black hair, which he grooms fastidiously, falls to his shoulders. The son of a tribal leader, Cheis has been targeted for power and trained in the art of war since the age of seven.

  The Chokonen have not yet encountered white American settlers. That conflict is still twenty years away. It is the Spanish and then the Mexicans who have intruded upon the tribe’s lands for almost three centuries, building their forts and Catholic churches wherever they settle. The two have waged war for just as long. It is from these enemies that the Chokonen tribe has learned the art of torturing captives in a most horrific fashion. Cheis is a kind man, but as a warrior he is a student of this new knowledge and capable of inflicting pain and mutilation when needed.

  For the last fifty years, the Chokonen and Spanish peoples have been at peace. But relations have been strained since Mexico gained its independence over a decade ago. Tired of new treaties that limit their freedom of movement, starve their people, and seek to make them dependent on Mexican alcohol, Indian tribes throughout this desert region are in revolt. The uprisings take the form of raiding parties. Theft among tribe members is forbidden, but stealing from an enemy is a traditional part of the Chokonen lifestyle. It is a rite of passage for a young man to take part in raids. Indeed, until a boy has shown courage in four such excursions, he cannot call himself a warrior.

  Moving quickly and stealthily on horseback, the Chokonen approach the Presidio of Santa Rosa de Corodéguachi, as the adobe fort is formally known. Each Indian is armed with a hunting knife and rifle. Some also carry a bow and arrow.

  The presidio is built into the base of a hill, facing outward at the desert. Roughly fifty Mexican soldiers live in the barracks. These Caballería de las Fronteras—“cavalry of the frontier”—give the presidio its more commonly used name.

  The warrior Cheis, standing almost six feet tall and weighing a lean 175 pounds, is keen to distinguish himself this morning. He must be aggressive and appear fearless, willing to kill the enemy and take a scalp if that is required to complete the mission. Cheis has honed himself for battle through long-distance running, wrestling, riding, and becoming an expert marksman. As a young man, one test of his mettle was to run many miles with a mouthful of water—but not swallow a drop. He abstained from sexual relations until the tribe declared him a warrior and still practices a strict regimen of self-control that forbids gluttony, drunkenness, and dishonesty.

  Cheis is not alone. His tribe’s warriors all adhere to this code. For that reason, and for their utter ruthlessness in war, they are widely renowned and just as widely feared. The Zuni tribe calls Cheis’s people “enemy.” Their word for that term is “Apachu.”

  The Yuman tribe refers to them as “e-patch,” or “man.”

  The Mexicans blend both terms together, giving the tribe of Cheis the name that will become infamous: “Apache.”1

  * * *

  The surprise is complete. Even as Mexican soldiers pour out of their barracks, half-dressed, fifty prime horses are being galloped away from Fronteras.

  But not every horse has been stolen. Mexican captain Bernardo Martinez rallies a small group of his men to follow the Apache band east, where they have completely disappeared into a notch in the mountains.

  The pursuit is a grave mistake. Anticipating they will be followed, the Apache have halted their flight to hide in the pink soil and low shrubs just a half mile from the presidio. Captain Martinez gallops into this trap, only to be shot dead. Three other Mexican soldiers are also killed and scalped before the others are driven off.

  It is not the goal of the Apache to take land or forts from their enemy. But through terror and intimidation they hope to encourage the Mexicans to abandon any claims to lands that have long belonged to the Apache tribes. In this way, they are like Blackhawk and his Sauk Indians. But the Apache band, also known as the Chiricahuas, will not bend so easily to the white man.

  So now, rather than merely herding their spoils north to their homeland, young Cheis and his band maraud through northwest Mexico. The ranch of a man named Narivo Montoya is plundered of food and livestock until there is nothing left to steal. Eight Mexican settlers unlucky enough to be traveling down the same road as the Apache are shot and scalped, their bodies left to bloat in the desert sun. The town of Chinopa is destroyed. Knowing that stealing the local cattle will slow them down, the Indians simply butcher those they wish to eat, then set the others loose into the wilderness.

  Six tribal leaders on horseback in ceremonial attire (l to r): Little Plume (Piegan), Buckskin Charley (Ute), Geronimo (Chiricahua Apache), Quanah Parker (Comanche), Hollow Horn Bear (Brulé Sioux), and American Horse (Oglala Sioux). Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, circa 1900.

  The Apaches eventually return home to the Chiricahua Mountains, located in present-day Arizona. Their families await them on the small ranches where the Indians can raise their livestock, grow mescal, and feed their horses. There will be no more raiding until the need for more provisions becomes apparent. Or, should the Mexican Army find them, the Apache will once again take up arms to fight for their land.

  Cochise’s Head, a rock formation in Arizona named after the chief of the Chiricahua Apache, circa 1950

  This deadly back-and-forth will continue for decades, defining daily life for Cheis and the members of his tribe. In time, Mexicans will no longer be the enemy, replaced instead by Americans continuing their western settlement. By all accounts, Cheis is a happy man during peacetime, raising his sons and taking just one wife, believing all the while that it is possible to avoid warfare. Ultimately, he makes peace with the Mexicans, and later with the new wave of settlers. For a time he even sets aside his warrior training and makes a living providing firewood to a local American stagecoach company.

  But war is inevitable. By then, Cheis will be the leader of his tribe. He will also be known by another name: Cochise.

  And until the day he dies, Cochise will never suffer defeat in battle.

  Chapter Six

  MAY 19, 1836

  FORT PARKER, TEXAS

  10:00 A.M.

  Seventy-eight-year-old John Parker knows he may soon be facing death. On this warm spring morning, a band of Native Americans numbering in the hundreds gallops toward his family’s fortress. Even their women are on horseback. Parker was warned that this moment was coming. Yet he is a prideful man and ignored those messages. Now Parker, and perhaps his entire family, are just moments away from paying for his foolishness.

  It was two years ago when Congress passed a law making it illegal for white men to settle west of the Mississippi River. If necessary, the U.S. Army is authorized to arrest anyone found in violation of the 1834 Act to Regulate Trade and Intercours
e with the Indian Tribes, and to Preserve Peace on the Frontiers. Passed into law two decades after the massacre at Fort Mims, this legislation fulfilled Andrew Jackson’s long-held ambition to permanently separate Indians and whites by creating a Native American sanctuary west of the Mississippi.

  But settlers like Parker, who treat the Indians with contempt and believe the land is theirs as a gift from God, do not respect the U.S. government or any laws that may inhibit their ambitions. So while John Parker’s fort and eighteen-thousand-acre farm is more than four hundred miles west of the Mississippi, he has made sure this new law does not apply to him. For Parker no longer resides in the United States of America but in the Republic of Texas, a sovereign nation that declared its independence from Mexico just two months ago.1

  John Parker was born in Maryland and grew up in Virginia. In his youth, he fought in the Revolutionary War, battling Native American tribes loyal to the British alongside Daniel Boone. The legendary frontiersman made such an impression on Parker that upon marrying Sarah “Sallie” White in 1779, he named his first son Daniel. John and Sallie Parker moved to Georgia in 1785, seeking to escape the Indian attacks that bedeviled Virginia and its governor, Patrick Henry. Parker made a name for himself for his bravery fighting Indians but longed to flee the hostilities. From Georgia the family traveled to Tennessee, then on to Illinois. John became a widower in 1825, but remarried soon after to a woman whose name is also Sallie, though she is known most frequently as Granny.

  The relocation to Texas came three years ago. Enticed by the prospect of free land, John Parker migrated south with a caravan of thirty oxcarts, bringing his grown children, their spouses, and his grandchildren to this vast land of rolling hills and thick oak forests. Parker’s homestead is not just any western settlement but absolutely the westernmost location of any fort in the Republic of Texas. The closest white settlement is sixty miles east. And because Parker no longer resides in the USA, he does not enjoy the protection of the U.S. Army. In the event of an Indian attack, the refuge they have built is their only hope to stay alive. The one-acre stockade is designed to repel any assault. Blockhouses, an ample number of gun ports, and walls fifteen feet high make this a true fortress. The front gate has been extensively reinforced so that it is bulletproof.

  In all, six families made the journey to Texas with John Parker. More than half are women and children. Fifty-seven-year-old Daniel Parker is not among the Parker clan, having parted ways with his father in a schism over their religious fundamentalism years before.

  A portrait of Penateka Comanche chief Milky Way, also known as Asa Havi or Bird Chief, holding a bow, 1872

  It is a separation that will save Daniel Parker’s life.

  For in the aging John Parker’s thirst to possess this small kingdom on the Texas frontier, he is taking an enormous risk. Texas is a land of tornadoes, thunderstorms, searing heat, poisonous snakes, bloodsucking insects, and snapping turtles. There is an abundance of warlike Indian tribes as well, among them the Cherokee, Tawakoni, Kichai, and Caddo. It is the Caddo who have named this vast land “Taysha,” which the Spanish spell as Tejas.

  To the Caddo, “Taysha” means a friend or an ally. But of all the tribes in Texas, one band stands alone as no one’s amigo. These Indians call themselves Numinu (“People”) and are so warlike that the Ute tribe has christened them Komantcia, which translates to “anyone who wants to fight me all the time.” Whenever sign language is utilized to communicate between tribes that do not speak the same tongue, the speaker places his forearm flat in front of him and wriggles it back and forth to describe the Komantcia. This is also the sign word for snakes.

  Once again, the Spanish changed Komantcia to a word they could understand better. Thus, this tribe, so legendary for the atrocities they inflict upon their victims, is fearfully known as the Comanche.

  For months, the Comanche have been terrorizing ranches and settlements in eastern Texas. There have even been two separate reports from friendly Indians that Fort Parker will be attacked, one of them stating the morning of May 19 as the time it will occur. Because of this, Texas governor Sam Houston has ordered Parker to evacuate his property—a demand the settler ignores.

  Now, the Comanche are two hundred yards outside Fort Parker.

  And, as at Fort Mims, someone has carelessly left that bulletproof front gate wide open.

  Eleven of the fort’s male inhabitants are far out in the fields, leaving just six men inside to defend the eight women and nine young children—all of whom are now in a panic. Mothers grab their children by the hands, rushing toward the low doorway of the back gate, hoping to escape into the nearby woods. Recognizing that he has been a fool, old John Parker grabs Granny’s hand and races after them.

  Some will make it.

  Most will not.

  And some will suffer horrendously.

  * * *

  The Comanche sit patiently atop their mounts. The morning air is eerily silent. Conversations are muted, and their well-trained horses remain still. In addition to rifles, knives, and a battle-ax tipped with a two-pound flint stone, each man is armed with a sharpened steel-tipped lance seven feet long, in the manner of a European knight. This is a weapon best suited for combat on horseback, and the Comanche are trained to impale even the smallest of prey at a full gallop.

  A white flag of truce is held high for the inhabitants of Fort Parker to see. An attack right now would easily overwhelm the whites, and the open gate would certainly make this raid easier than most. But despite their reputation, these Comanche warriors want nothing more than a cow to slaughter and directions to a well where they might water their horses.

  This is not their first visit to Parker’s fort, although it is the first time the settlers have seen them. These Comanche have long hunted and raided in eastern Texas and watched from afar as John Parker built his fortress in the midst of a prime hunting ground. The Comanche people once resided in the Snake River region of the Rocky Mountains and were part of the Shoshone tribe. But the two bands split centuries ago, for reasons that remain unclear. The Shoshone drifted farther north, into what is now Idaho, living a subsistence lifestyle. The Comanche traveled south, to lands controlled by the Spanish and the Apache, a direction that would change their fate dramatically.

  Once a band of nomads who traveled on foot in search of food, the Comanche soon learned to ride the horses the Spaniards first introduced to North America in the late 1600s. It is impossible to overestimate the profound change these animals made to the Comanche and to every other tribe west of the Mississippi. The horse gave them mobility, allowing them to hunt and raid wherever they pleased. Escaping from enemies became much easier. No longer confined to the mountains, the Comanche made a life for themselves on the broad expanse of the plains, once too vast for them to cross easily. Horsehair could be woven into ropes and bridles. Prior to the horse, dogs were used to transport personal belongings on special harnesses known as travois. But dogs lack the power of a horse and cannot feed on the grass and bark found in abundance on the plains. In the rare event of starvation, a horse could be slaughtered and eaten. Not so a dog, against the eating of which the tribe had a religious superstition.

  The Comanche are now among the very best horsemen in the world, trained to ride from a young age. At a full gallop, a Comanche warrior is capable of leaning all the way down to the ground, grabbing a human being, and pulling the person back up onto horseback.

  Because of the horse, and then the rifle, there is nothing that now stops the Comanche from reigning over the entire southwestern plains. They live in tepees made of buffalo hide, supported by as many as eighteen poles, that can be taken down and reassembled quickly. The Comanche will forage for nuts and berries if necessary, but their primary source of food is buffalo, for which they roam hundreds of miles to hunt.

  The Comancheria, as the land of the Comanches is known, extends thousands of square miles from Texas all the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and into the nation of Mexico. This territ
ory was not granted to them outright but acquired through a century of war that established Comanche dominance. First the Utes, then the Kiowa, Osage, Arapaho, Tawakoni, Wichita, Waco, and Kichaies were either conquered or settled for a peace that allowed the Comanche to live and hunt wherever they pleased.

  France had designs on pushing west of the Mississippi from its stronghold in Louisiana. So, too, the Spanish, with their hope of connecting territorial claims in the Pacific Northwest with their large holdings in Mexico. Despite a century of attempts to pacify, evangelize, or crush the Comanche outright, both nations failed to expand their empires. Regular Comanche raids on European settlements throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries soon forced most to be abandoned. Spanish horses were the coveted plunder of these surprise attacks, enriching the Comanche through trade with other tribes too timid to attempt such larceny.

  It is the Apache, however, whom the Comanche have devastated the most. There was a time when the Apache lived in New Mexico and Texas, but the Comanche migration put that to an end. While the Comanche roam the prairie unafraid, the Apache were forced to retreat to desert mountains far to the south. This is the only terrain where they hold superiority over the Comanche, and yet the warring attacks continue. Regular Comanche raids against the Apache net slaves, horses, and mules, all of which are used for barter—most frequently for bullets and rifles. In addition to trade with tribes north of the Comancheria, these weapons were also acquired from the French and Spanish, despite the hostilities between them and the Comanche. After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 by the United States, followed by Mexican independence in 1821, Spain and France abandoned any claim to the Southern Plains.

  In their place came the Americans.