Satanta (ca. 1820 - 1878) was a Kiowa War Chief who was the real life model for Larry McMurty’s character Blue Duck, a fictionalized character in McMurtry's Lonesome Dove series. A member of the Kiowa tribe, he was born about 1820, during the height of the power of the Plains Tribes, probably along the Canadian River in the traditional winter camp grounds of his people. He was also known as Settainte (White Bear). One of the best known, and last, of the Kiowa War Chiefs, he developed a reputation as an outstanding warrior and in his twenties was made a sub-chief of his tribe, under Dohäsan, as Chief. He fought with him at the First Battle of Adobe Walls, and earned enduing fame for his use of an army bugle to confuse the troops in battle. [1]
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Orator and Warrior
Perhaps the best known leader of his tribe in the 1860's-1870's, (though Dohäsan was the overall Chief until his death), [2] he was well known for both his prowess as a warrior, and his soaring oratorical powers. Satanta was one of the Chiefs who negotiated several treaties with the American government during the 1860’s, including the Little Arkansas Treaty, (1865) and the Medicine Lodge Treaty (1867). In the later, Satanta agreed that the Kiowas would live on a reservation. When the tribe failed to move onto it, Satanta was seized by General George Custer and held as a hostage until the migration took place.
At the First Battle of Adobe Walls
Satanta is primarily remembered in military history as the sub-chief to Dohäsan at the First Battle of Adobe Walls. While Dohäsan was in command of the combined Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache, and Comanche forces which opposed Kit Carson and his New Mexico forces in November of 1864, Satanta is remembered for ably assisting him in repeated charges which drove the New Mexico volunteers from the field, and for his repeated blowing of an army bugle, which confused the troops under Carson. Satanta would counter Carson's bugler with trumpeted commands of his own, on a day where the Plains Tribes managed to dive a US Army from the field. [3]
At Treaties
At Medicine Lodge, Satanta, a tall, muscular man, came to be known as the "Orator of the Plains," although that title may have been a humorous reference to his long-winded speeches rather than honest praise for his speaking abilities. This is disputed however by the references papers of the day made to his speeches. Like most treaties of the time, these agreements failed utterly to bring peace on the frontier. The treaty assured rule over the vast lands given by treaty to the Kiowa, but white settlers continued to pour across Kiowa lands, and tribesmen, unhappy with the provision that reduced their domain to a small reservation, continued to raid settlements and harass immigrants. This situation, unstable in and of itself, worsened significantly with the death of Dohäsan, the last Kiowa Chief, (over the entire Kiowa People) in 1866. Without his binding personal leadership, Kiowa unity dissolved as a number of subchiefs, principally Guipago, Tene-angopte, and Satanta, struggled for power and to fill his place. The competition between the three set off a wave of raids across the southern plains from Kansas to Texas, during the fall of 1866 and into 1867. In one instance Satanta and a joint Kiowa-Comanche war party raided into the Panhandle and, after killing James Box, captured the man's wife and four children, whom they sold to the army at Fort Dodge, Kansas. [4]
Fort Zarah
Satanta’s fame grew after the Box incident, and his ability to defuse a confrontation between the Kiowa and the US Cavalry near Fort Zarah, Kansas in 1867. A young Kiowa warrior was killed at the civilian camp near the army Fort, and the Kiowa massed to avenge his death. The cavalry, in turn, massed to protect the civilians. Satanta managed to defuse the confrontation, but nonetheless, later in the day, the Cavalry attacked the Kiowa encampment. Satanta then led the defense of the camp by the warriors while the women and children retreated. Several children were killed during the brief fight.
Warren Wagon Train Raid
- Main article Warren Wagon Train Raid.
In 1871 Satanta led several attacks on wagon trains in Texas. His undoing came with the Warren Wagon Train Raid on May 18, 1871. Immediately prior to that attack, the Indians had allowed an Army Ambulance with a small guard to pass unharmed. In it was General William Tecumseh Sherman. The wagon train had attempted to fight the war party by shifting into a ring formation, and all the mules were put into the center of the ring. Despite this, the warriors captured all of the supplies in the train, killing and mutilating seven of the wagoneer's bodies. Five men however, managed to escape. As soon as Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie learned of the incident, he informed Sherman. Sherman and Mackenzie searched for the warriors responsible for the raid. Satanta foolishly bragged of his, Satank (Sitting Bear), and Addo-etta (Big Tree)’s involvement of the raid, and Sherman personally arrested him.
First Indian Leaders Tried In State Court
General Sherman ordered the trial of Satanta, Satank, and Big Tree, making them the first Native American Leaders to be tried for raids in a US Court. [5] Sherman ordered the three Kiowa sub-chiefs taken to Jacksboro, Texas, to stand trial for murder. Satank attempted escape and was killed while traveling to Fort Richardson for trial. He began singing his death song, and managed to wrestle a rifle from one of his guards, and was shot to death before he could manage to fire. His body lay unburied in the road, with his people afraid to claim it, for fear of the Army, though Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie assured the family they could safely claim Satank’s remains. Nonetheless, they were never claimed, and he lies now at Fort Sill. At his trail Satanta warned what might happen if he was hanged: " I am a great chief among my people. If you kill me, it will be like a spark on the prairie. It will make a big fire - a terrible fire!" Satanta was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death, but Edmund Davis, the Governor of Texas, under enormous pressure from leaders of the so-called Quaker Peace Policy, decided to overrule the court and the punishment was changed to life imprisonment. Satanta was freed after two years of imprisonment at the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Texas. [6]
Release, Recapture, and Death at Huntsville
Satanta was released in 1873 and was alleged to be soon back attacking buffalo hunters and was present at the raid on Adobe Walls. But the Kiowa People deny he was involved in that battle, other than being present. He yielded up his war lance and other symbols of leadership to younger, more aggressive men. But his very presence at the Battle violated his parole, and the government called for his arrest. He surrendered in October, 1874, and was returned to the state penitentiary at Huntsville, Texas. Forced to work on the road, guards reported that Satanta would stare for hours at the traditional hunting grounds of his people, and seemed to wither away. In his book, the History of Texas, Clarance Wharton reports of Satanta in prison:
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- After he was returned to the penitentiary in 1874, he saw no hope of escape. For awhile he was worked on a chain gain which helped to build the M.K. & T. Railway. He became sullen and broken in spirit, and would be seen for hours gazing through his prison bars toward the north, the hunting grounds of his people."
In the end, deciding not to spend the rest of his life in prison, Satanta killed himself on 11th October, 1878, by diving headlong from a high window of the prison hospital. [7]
