The Plains Wars 1757–1900
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The Plains Wars 1757–1900 - Charles M. Robinson III
Background to war
North and South
The Southern Plains
The first serious clashes between Plains Indians and whites occurred during the 18th century on the Southern Plains. As defined by William H. Leckie in his classic work The Military Conquest of the Southern Plains, the region occupies an area from the Platte river in the north to the Rio Grande in the south, and from the Rocky Mountains in the west to about the 98th meridian in the east.
The first Europeans to enter the plains were the Spaniards. Although the Coronado expedition explored the territory in the 1530s, it was almost two centuries before they made any serious attempt to settle. To them, the plains meant the west central part of modern Texas. The reasons for ignoring Texas for so long were economic – it did not appear to offer mineral wealth to exploit, or large congregations of Indian souls to save. The reasons for ultimately settling the province were strategic. It formed a barrier that protected the rich mining regions to the south and west. The primary threat was the French, who already occupied Canada and were rapidly colonizing the Mississippi valley. Thus the Plains Wars in Texas assumed the shape of a contest of empires, which became intertwined with existing rivalries between native tribes.
The first hint of trouble came when word reached the Spanish settlements that a French colony had been established on the Texas coast. This was the ill-fated expedition of René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, and though it failed, its mere presence was enough to throw Spain into a panic. An initial attempt to establish a Spanish presence in the province in the 1690s failed, but the permanent French colonization of the Lower Mississippi at the beginning of the 18th century made further efforts imperative. By 1720, a string of missions stretched through eastern Texas, anchored at the edge of the plains by a mission, a presidio (frontier defense fort), and a town that ultimately became San Antonio (Fontana, 75–77, 122).
The Spanish occupation of Texas came in the wake of the introduction of the horse to the Great Plains tribes. This revolutionized Indian life, giving them unprecedented mobility, and allowing the various tribes to expand their range. The result was ruthless intertribal wars over hunting grounds, and territorial domain. The most powerful were the Comanches and Wichitas, who pushed the weaker Plains Apaches southward, into the areas of Spanish settlement. The Apaches, in turn, raided the settlements, stealing horses, plundering and murdering. By 1731, they had become so aggressive that they were able to attack the horse corral of the Presidio of San Antonio, and beat back a relief detail sent from the fort. In response, Governor Juan Antonio Bustillo of Coahuila, whose jurisdiction included Texas, organized a punitive expedition composed of veteran Indian fighters. In 1732, Bustillo’s troops attacked an Apache encampment, killing about 200, capturing 30 women and children, and recovering 700 stolen horses. The Apaches, however, fought with a ferocity that the soldiers had never before experienced. Additionally, they realized this was not the main band. Aware that the Indians could attack, and possibly even destroy, the presidio, town, and missions virtually at will, the soldiers petitioned the government to negotiate a peace. They were supported by the commandant of the presidio, Juan Antonio Perez de Almazon, and the president of the San Antonio Mission, Fray Gabriel de Vergara, the latter of whom feared a general uprising and massacre similar to what had happened in New Mexico in 1680. Despite these fears, little could be done, and Bustillo’s punitive expedition was the first of three that would be undertaken against the Apaches between 1732 and 1748 (Simpson, xvi–xviii).
The Apache response was to play two enemies – Spaniards and Comanches – against each other. In late 1755, they began drifting in to a newly established mission and presidio near the present city of San Marcos, until more than a thousand had congregated. Their piety was lukewarm, just enough to make the priests hopeful. Their real motive appears to have been to seek Spanish protection from the Comanches, but they kept enough of a front so that the priests were encouraged. Because the local environment would not support such a large population, the priests petitioned the government to permanently relocate the mission and presidio to the San Sabá river, near the present city of Menard. San Sabá, it was hoped, would be the first of a chain of missions extending from San Antonio to Santa Fe, in New Mexico (Weddle, 35–37).
The San Sabá project was doomed from the start. The mood of the Apaches was questionable, at least to Colonel Diego Ortiz Parilla, a seasoned Indian fighter who was to command the presidio. When a delegation of Lipan Apaches arrived in San Antonio to discuss the project, the watchful Parilla suspected treachery. He was also uneasy about the coequal authority between himself and the president of the proposed mission, the strong-willed Fray Alonso Giraldo de Terreros, which he believed would create contradiction and confusion in a crisis. Already, the priests were quarreling among themselves. Nevertheless, the expedition got under way, arriving at the designated site on the San Sabá river on 15 April 1757. Despite the assurances of the Lipans in San Antonio, not a single Indian was there to meet them (Weddle, 44–50).
To the suspicious Colonel Parilla, the absence of the Indians indicated a fool’s errand, and he urged the abandonment of the project. The priests, however, overruled him, and construction began on the mission, officially christened Santa Cruz de San Sabá, and the fort, designated the Presidio of San Luis de las Amarillas in honor of the reigning viceroy, the Marqués de las Amarillas. The priests were as suspicious of the soldiers as Parilla was of the Apaches. A few years earlier, a mission on the San Xavier (now San Gabriel) river had failed, in part because the soldiers, inspired by their commander, had appropriated the wives and daughters of the Indian neophytes. To guard against such abuses, the new mission was located 5km (three miles) downstream, and on the opposite side of the river from the presidio. While this might prevent military corruption, it also placed the mission too far away for aid when the time came.
About mid-June, some 3,000 Apaches appeared. They advised the priests, however, that they had not come to congregate, but were hunting buffalo. Their mood was sullen, and they spoke of war against the Comanches and the Hasinais (Weddle uses the term Tejas
for Hasinai throughout, but Tejas
is a colloquial term and specifically denotes a branch of the Hasinais living in the Neches-Angelina area of east Texas, far removed from the area under consideration (see Bolton, 53)) to avenge a recent attack against them. They advised the priests, however, that they planned to return and congregate, once the hunt was over and the Comanche–Hasinai raid had been avenged. No one is certain what the Apaches did during their absence, but they may have boasted of an alliance with the Spaniards, and during fighting may have lost some articles the Spaniards had given them. Whatever the case, their enemies believed the Spaniards had thrown in with the Apaches, and this sealed the doom of San Sabá. At the mission, meanwhile, the lack of Indian neophytes made it increasingly obvious the project was failing. Several of the priests returned to Mexico, and those remaining felt Terreros, the mission president, had deceived them. As autumn approached, various bands of Apaches came through, paused long enough to take advantage of the mission hospitality, and continued southward, giving the impression of fleeing. Rumors reached Terreros and Parilla that the northern tribes were banding together to destroy the Apaches, erroneously presuming that they had congregated at the mission (Weddle, Part 2).
As time passed, a respect grew between Parilla and Terreros, and they increasingly consulted each other on their respective goals which, in Parilla’s case, was pacification, and in Terreros’, the saving of souls. The priests ministered to the neophytes, while Parilla made it evident that the ministry could be backed by military force, if necessary. Although Terreros complained to the viceroy that the Indians’ promises of submission are sometimes pretexts for delay
he added that Parilla’s personally directed management … has protected them and decreased their antagonism.
Nevertheless, he and Parilla believed that they personally should appear at court to explain to the viceroy the requirements necessary for a complete subjugation. Terreros’ letter was dated 13 February 1758. By the time it reached the court in Mexico City, it was a moot point. Terreros was dead and the mission destroyed (Terreros to Amarillas, in Simpson, 1–3).
On 25 February, Indians stampeded the horses in the presidio pasture. Sergeant Francisco Yruegas took 14 soldiers in pursuit, but after 12 days recovered only one live horse. Upon returning, he reported large numbers of Indians armed for battle. Parilla sent a detail to warn the escort of a supply train bound for San Antonio. The detail was attacked and four soldiers wounded, but they managed to reach the train. Smoke signals were seen in the north and east. On 15 March Parilla urged the priests to come to the presidio for protection. Terreros refused, apparently convinced the raid