Have you read this book? If not, you should. SC Gwynne tells the story of the war against the Comanche in the western plains, and what a story it is, of ferocious violence, savagery and bravery, in which War Chief Quanah Parker was ultimately defeated by General Ranald Mackenzie.
We're inclined, these days, to decry the Red Indian smackdown, and there's justice in that; how many treaties broken. Still, consider the nature of the adversary:
Seven men were killed in the raid, though that does not begin to describe the horror of what Mackenzie found at the scene... the victims were stripped, scalped and mutilated. Some had been beghaded and others had their brains scooped out. "Their fingers, toes and private parts had been cut off and stuck in their mouths... upon each exposed abdomen had been placed a mass of live coals..."
One man, Samuel Elliot, had been "roasted to a crisp" between two wagon wheels, and on. The Comanche, under Quanah, weren't fooling around, and perhaps we forget their ferocity in penance for our own misdoings. But remember this:
What those heathen savages did to our people moving West, they did to their own people too, to other tribes. Scalping, torture, enslavement, killing children, gang raping and enslaving women, some of whom adopted the lifestyle, not least Quanah's Mother, Cynthia Parker.
After defeat by Mackenzie in 1875 at Palo Duro Canyon, Quanah and his war band were folded into the Rez. He became a friend of Teddy Roosevelt, curiously. And all this happened about 150 years ago, not that that far away, when you think on it.
Read Empire, it's a good book,
LSP
