America's Great Indian Leaders - Full Length Documentary

the great herds that covered the prairies are no more the white men are like locusts you may kill as many as the leaves in the forest and their brothers will not miss them count your fingers all day long and the white men with guns in their hands will come faster than you can count this is the story of the end of the American Indians way of life and freedom for told when we first met the whites for centuries before along with their guns and disease the Europeans brought hearts formed on conquest and fortunes built on ownership of the earth they could not understand the Indian who live the world taking life from it as the birds of the forest after the whites drew their lines on paper and so made their new country our lands were trampled under the feet of immigrants more plentiful than the Buffalo the mighty nations of the East were rubbed out leaving only their names on the white man's maps by the white man's year of 1861 there were 31 million Europeans on our soil their Pony Express raced from st. Louis to Sacramento in the passing of only 10 days and the talking wires were strung across our lands the time had come to face the vanishing of our world many went by and Lee to the reservations against some chose to fight even in the face of so many foes with such ferocious weapons and so to our people the last great leaders rose and take our people to safety or to steal our arms and striking back Crazy Horse was a quiet man but very brave and courageous he lived in a time when war was necessary to protect the very existence of his people and his family Chief Joseph was the diplomat of the Nez Perce nation a great heart who always spoke for peace he tried to lead our people to another place where they could live in our way but at the end his heart and spirit were broken Geronimo was a great medicine man whose magic allowed him to hide from the armies of two nations when his people were pursued they would run deep into the canyons and turn themselves to live off a tree or a cactus that's how strong Geronimo's power and medicine were Quanah Parker realized we were in a time of change he knew that warfare no longer worked for his people so he made the transition to being a statesman and he chose to walk the path between two worlds this is the story of these last great leaders and their at the end of our time of fear on this earth in the center of the continent in a land of endless rolling plains watered by the Missouri and Platt rivers lies a mountain range of great beauty rolling and forested marked by rock spires and chimneys this is hey Saba known to the non-indians as the Black Hills of South Dakota they are the sacred heart of the Lakota Nation the heart of our mother the earth our warriors would journey to hey Saba to commune with the Great Spirit to seek visions received their powers and better understand our life close by these sacred Hills along rapid Creek a boy was born to the oval Allah Lakota in the white man's year of 1841 he would grow to be one of the last great leaders in the years when our people roamed free earning embattled the name Crazy Horse he was born to a family of holy men who possessed the power to see ahead of the next mean and into the future his father taught him to be a good hunter and to put the needs of his relatives ahead of his own but as he came to manhood the shadow of the white settler was falling across our lands they made a road along the Platte River to carry their people to California and Oregon we signed a treaty promising to let these settlers passed and called their path the holy road for our promise to protect it but the many whites who traveled along the road made war certain and one day this youth would witness the murder of an elder at the hands of a drunken army officer it was then the 12 year old road away from his camp and anger following the path of all Lakota youth who retreat alone without food or water to seek the guidance of wakantanka the Great Spirit but this youth sought something more and he prayed to wakantanka for a vision to guide him as a war chief against the intruders after three days the vision came his own pony riding high above him changing colors as it climbed into the sky its rider warplane leggings with no war paint a single feather adorned his hair and a small stone was tied beneath his arm the writer told this boy truth spoken straight into his heart without words he saw the warrior ride through bullets and arrows and it seemed his power was without limit but at the end of the vision his own people held him back the boy returned to camp and told his father of his dream when he passed a few more years the young man joined a raid against a band of arapahoe traveling with many horses spurred by his vision he rode into the arrows and bullets without fear counting coup once then twice then a third time as his friends cheered his father walked through the village singing a song of triumph chenxi why he chose a fresh avocado hezekiyah cuckoo tokina me honk Akiko nisha tsuki witco egypte hello the times of peace ended when the Cheyenne sent troubling news from the south white soldiers had massacred the people of black kettle's band striking them like cowards as they slept along the banks of Sand Creek crazy horse herd of Braves with their man parts cut off women scalped between their legs and the skins handed about in the whiskey houses of Denver and he heard of mothers with their bellies cut open and their babies ripped out beside them in the snow Crazy Horse walked off into the cold hills of winter once again praying for he saw an eagle soaring over the trees which in an instant was gone only a broken feather drifted to the ground now it was war for our people a war for survival in the spring of 1865 the whites turned their faces from their great war against their brothers and look now as a nation towards our land settlers poured into our country like a swarm of locusts the gold which drove them mad was discovered in Montana and their president asked permission for men to travel along the Bozeman trail the bands met to consider this but even before they could answer a colonel named Carrington arrived with orders to build forts the Lakota were outraged and vowed to prevent this at Fort Phil Kearney they followed the wood hauling party and pick them off one by one a young captain named Fetterman boasted his contempt for the Lakota and begged Colonel Carrington to let him protect the wood train with a company of men he said I could ride through the entire Sioux Nation he was allowed to go but ordered not to pursue the Indians beyond Lodge Trail Ridge felled by his pride Federman was lured by crazy horse across the ridge where chief Red Cloud and hundreds of warriors emerged from their hiding places and arrows fell like rain on the foot soldiers in 40 minutes the last of the cavalry had fallen up to that time the Federman defeat was the worst the army had suffered in its campaign against the Indians of the plains an embarrassed government recalled Carrington and a peace commission was sent from Washington to Fort Laramie General William Tecumseh Sherman abandoned the US forts on the Powder River and our people triumphantly set the fort's ablaze as the troops marched away but peace was short-lived and the government soon stopped all trade with Indians except at agencies to be set up along the Missouri River his people starving Red Cloud agreed to move but Crazy Horse refused and the two chiefs parted in anger Washington viewed his Sapa as worthless and promised them to us for ever in the Treaty of 1868 but six years later Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer led an expedition into the heart of our sacred hey Sapa within a month Custer was crowing to the press that the hills were filled with gold from the grassroots down soon gold crazy whites were prospecting in the Black Hills and violation of the treaty alarmed by the flow of prospectors into our lands the Lakota made strong protests to the great father president grants response was to send out a commission to negotiate the purchase of the Black Hills but spotted tail spoke for all the Lakota saying the Black Hills are not for lease or for sale so grant ordered all the Lakota to return to the agencies or be brought in by force Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse called the order a joke and prepared for the battle they knew would come they were joined by the other bands of Lakota and Cheyenne until they numbered 5,000 and they moved to the banks of the rosebud to hold the Sundance 50 skin offerings were made in each of Sitting Bull's arms and his blood flowed as he began to dance after three days a vision came I saw soldiers and some Indians on horseback coming down like grasshoppers with their heads down in their hats falling off they were falling right into our cattle when the band's moved on to the valley of the Little Bighorn their numbers increased at dawn on jun 25th 1876 Custer's Scouts looked down into the Little Bighorn Valley and saw the Lakota camp stretching out to the horizon Custer ordered the bugle blown and told his officers the largest Indian camp on a North American continent is ahead and i am going to attack it major Reno was to lead a cavalry charge from the south and Custer would then surprised the camp from the north but Reno's attack failed to moon said afterward I saw the soldiers fall back and drop into the riverbed like Buffalo fleeing our warriors did not pursue they knew Custer was circling to the north crazy horse raced through the camp calling a thousand Braves to their ponies with the cry popka hey this is a good day to die to moon recall the shooting was quick quick pop pop pop very fast we circled all around it swirling like water around the stone we shoot we ride fast we shoot again in 20 minutes Custer and his men were wiped out after the battle the nation split up and moved south hoping the army would now finally leave them alone but news of the great defeat reached the east as the whites were celebrating the first hundred years of their country's foundation on our lands all-out war against the Lakota was declared and General Sherman proclaimed that all the reservation Lakota were now prisoners of war a new commission was sent to Fort Robinson and a hey Sapa were now illegally taken away Sitting Bull decided to seek refuge in Canada Crazy Horse moved his camp near the hay sapa he said Canada was too cold at the agency the army told the Chiefs that they should bring Crazy Horse in or he would make trouble for the Lakota Red Cloud now the government's man set out in search of Crazy Horse accompanied by a handful of Crazy Horse's old friends and 500 soldiers Crazy Horse told the weak and old to surrender and sought out refuge with his old friend touched the clouds but the soldiers found him there and took him to Fort Robinson it was late afternoon when Crazy Horse arrived at the fort and he was turned over to Captain James kennington and one of the agency policemen little big man now that first vision of his youth returned to him we're the Warriors own people held him back jerking him by the arm to the guardhouse little big man said come along you are a man of no fight you are a coward seeing the barred windows crazy horse / that little big man with a knife he'd hidden in his shirt a soldier thrust his bayonet deep into crazy horses back and he fell panting let me call my friends you have got me heard enough touch the clouds took him to the post headquarters and laid him on the floor and to his father who now stood beside him Crazy Horse whispered I am bad hurt tell the people it is no use to depend on me anymore now Crazy Horse's parents took his pierced body and in the traditional way erected a burial scaffold in the valley of Wounded Knee Creek in a secret place that will always remain unknown in the Wallower valley the earth still echoes the song of the Nez Perce people for this was once our sacred homeland here the jagged peaks rise from the grassy plains in the Walla Walla shimmers like a jewel this is the land where our great chief Joseph's father to a caucus lies buried before his death to a caucus told his young son a few years more and the white men will be all around you they have their eyes on this land this country holds your father's body never sell the bones of your father and your mother this is the story of Chief Joseph and the proud Nez Perce Indians whose 1,400 mile journey across the wildest land on the continent set their names and legend forever chased by US troops our people raised one step ahead of the best generals of the white man's army for three months but we could not outrun our enemies forever and at the end Chief Joseph lay down his gun his heart sad and his strength broken and said I will fight no more forever white men first saw our Valley in 1805 when Lewis and Clark came out of the forest into a Nez Perce village white settlers soon came into the Wallower Valley and the government took part of our homelands then gold was discovered and more whites came Washington wanted a bigger piece of our land ana Nez Perce chief named lawyer convinced some of the other chiefs to sign a treaty giving more of the valley away President Grant then opened all of our land to settlement and those who signed the treaty were sent to a reservation Joseph's father was among those who refused to sign and his people continue to live free young Joseph grew tall and strong and earned the name Thunder traveling to loftier mountain heights after his father's death Joseph became the civil chief of our people protecting the women and their children during battles he was an honored speaker who could infuriate the whites by meeting their lies with logic yet he was a diplomat and his spirit always spoke for peace but the time of peace ended with the coming of snow in 1876 to White's kill the Nez Perce boy for supposedly stealing a horse and the government demanded that all Nez Perce report to the reservation they said the order was for our own safety Joseph convinced his people that they must obey that the white man's power was too great though some called him a coward it is better to live at peace at Joseph than to begin a war and lie dead but before they could reach the reservation a band of Nez Perce led by a warrior whose father had been killed by White's rode out to attack farms along the Salmon River for whites were killed the Nez Perce knew the whites would strike back and Joseph pleaded for the people to talk peace with general Howard at Fort Lapwai but the terrified people fled south to hide in white bird Canyon and so began the great journey of the Nez Perce people general Howard knew he must subdue the nez person if he was to save his career and so he dispatched a company of blue coats to find them nez perce scouts spotted the troops as they approached the canyon shooting broke out and the Warriors fired at the soldiers from all directions in minutes a full third of the armed command was killed and the Nez Perce captured 63 army rifles a treasure beyond counting Howard and the white settlers were stunned the settlers barricaded themselves in the towns of Grangeville and cottonwood and howard set out in pursuit with reinforcements from the east Howard's greatest fears were realized when he reached the treacherous Salmon River and saw that Joseph and the Nez Perce had crossed over and disappeared into the wilds of Idaho the Nez Perce now knew the whites would never make peace and the brilliant old war chief Looking Glass argued that they should travel east to Montana where the settlers held no grudge against them but Joseph objected saying what are we fighting for is it for our lives no it is for this land where the bones of our fathers lie buried I do not want to die in a strange land I promised my father this but Joseph was overruled by the other chiefs and so the people struck out along the rugged spine of the Bitterroot Mountains the treacherous Lolo trail leading into Montana nearly broke the spirit of the Nez Perce people the trail was strewn with fallen trees uprooted by strong winds and almost impossible to maneuver through the dead animals left behind and the blood from their ponies marked their path relentlessly Howard followed the Nez Perce descended into the sleepy farmland the Bitterroot Valley and yellow wolf a Nez Perce warrior remembered the feeling of Hope in this new place the people were friendly no more fighting we had left general Howard and his war in Idaho the Nez Perce stopped to rest alongside the big hole river and they felt so safe that no scouts were set out that night the Warriors paraded about camp remembered yellow wolf singing all making a good time but 200 army men under Colonel John Gibbon were advancing from the south early on the morning of august eighth they surprised the sleeping Nez Perce village shooting and clubbing everyone in sight white bird called out to his people are we going to run into the mountains and let the whites kill our women and children before our eyes it is better that we should be killed fighting sheltered by willows along the riverbank the Warriors fired back when Gibbon was wounded his bugler signaled retreat and the Nez Perce gave chase with white birds words singing in their ears Joseph gathered the dead and wounded and red elk remembered they all cried when they saw what had been done boys girls women and children and men who had no guns lay scattered among dead soldiers burned teepees and bedding nearly a hundred of our people died that day and Joseph led the people on in morning driving their horses before then now the people decided to flee to Canada and join Sitting Bull's Hunkpapa who were living peacefully there general Howard was again pressing hard behind them so a party dropped back and stampeded the Army's pack animals the stall troops were in despair one of Howard soldiers wrote everyone is sick and tired of a fruitless pursuit of these Indians a great many think Howard is guilty of folly of the gravest kind General Sherman head of the US Army wired to Howard if you are tired give the command to some energetic officer humiliated Howard vowed to move faster the Nez Perce crossed the Continental Divide and rode down into the newly created Yellowstone National Park where they took several tourists hostage these hostages were soon released now from the east came more blue coats to block the Nez Perce exit from the park but josephs people slipped out of Yellowstone through a seemingly impassable canyon at Canyon Creek in Montana they were attacked by three hundred soldiers while the Warriors held them off Joseph and the others again escaped the Nez Perce pressed on across Badlands and prairie to the Bear Paw mountains 42 miles from the Canadian border they stopped to rest and looking glass told his people they had finally outrun the army one warrior rose to tell of a troubling dream I saw mingled blood on the running water and smoke darkened air these signs I understood and knew we would be very soon attacked but the exhausted Nez Perce could travel no further and they made camp in a hollow near the Bearpaw no news on the morning of September 30th 600 Bluecoats came down upon them from the east led by colonel nelson Miles the Nez Perce awoke to discover that they were trapped yellow wolf remembered on the highest bluff our scout circled about and waved the blanket signal enemies right on us soon the attack those in the village held the attackers off with guns while Joseph and a small man tried to guard the horses after more Bluecoats stampeded the herd Joseph crawled back to camp to discover that many had been killed including josephs beloved brother Paul ikot miles laid siege to the camp and our people dug shelters in the sides of a hollow five inches of snow fell over the exhausted wounded and starving Nez Perce and a bitter days passed in agony on October fourth Howard arrived and the crow Scouts carried the Nez Perce an offer from the general if Joseph and his people surrendered they would be allowed to return to lapwai a final council was held looking glass and white bird argued against surrender but Joseph wanted an end to the running and fighting he pointed to his starving people and said for myself I do not care it is for them I'm going to surrender as the council broke an army snipers bullets struck looking glass in the head and the people's hopes died with him Chief Joseph wrote out for the last time as a free man handing his rifle two miles he said proudly I am tired of fighting hear me my Chiefs I am tired my heart is sick and sad from where the Sun now stands I will fight no more forever but the government again broke its promise to return our people to laugh way and instead ship them by flat boat to prison in Leavenworth Kansas and then on to the desolate Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma sympathetic whites press the government to return our people to the northwest after eight years Joseph and his people were sent to the Colville reservation in Central Washington many miles from the Wallower Valley where the bones of their ancestors they buried joseph spent the rest of his days seeking a return to his birthplace over the years he met with three US presidents and argued passionately that the Nez Perce should be given back a portion of the wall above Ali but his pleas were met with cold denials Chief Joseph who led his people on a courageous flight toward freedom was unable to lead them back to their home brokenhearted he died in 1904 an exile from the sacred valley of his birth in the shadow of the giant mountains in the great southwest lies the spiritual home of the chiricahua apaches here the deep canyons and crevices concealed our Mountain spirits the special protectors of the Chiricahua and for hundreds of years this rugged land sustained our people but by the 1880s the white man with his powerful weapons and great numbers had finally subdued most of our people only a few chiricahua apaches still roamed free as our ancestors had done and while Nike the handsome son of the great Cochise was their chief a bold guerrilla fighter and medicine man named Geronimo was their true heart and genius the white man was determined to subdue these last free Indians with Geronimo gone they would at last control our land from one end of the country to the other millions of dollars and a full quarter of the white man's army was ported to catching Geronimo and 38 Chiricahua warriors when he told his story from captivity at the end of his life Geronimo recalled a peaceful childhood hanging in a sling at his mother's back he was named goyahkla one who yawns by his parents I was warmed by the Sun rocked by the winds and sheltered by the trees Geronimo remembered but with the coming of manhood came the daily reality of war against our people one terrible morning Mexican bounty hunters attacked the women and children of his camp while the men traded in town to his horror Geronimo found that his mother wife and three children were all savagely murdered by the Mexicans now the people he loved the most in his life were gone weeping alone in mourning Geronimo received what my people call the gift of power he heard his name called four times the mystical number that spoke of revelations and a voice said no gun can ever kill you I will take the bullets from the guns of the Mexicans so they will have nothing but powder and I will guide your arrows now Geronimo was ready to lead a battle of revenge against the Mexicans several attacks satisfied the others but Geronimo recalled still I desired more revenge he raided into Mexico again and again returning with captured horses and supplies after the white man Civil War the bluecoat general ulysses s grant was elected president and swore to push all of our people onto reservations under his new peace policy all of the Apaches were brought in except for the Defiant Shirakawa's of Geronimo and Cochise general Howard came to talk peace and Cochise told him of the wrongs that had been done you Americans began the fight I have retaliated I have killed 10 white men for every Indian slain but Cochise had had enough of war and he convinced Howard to let the Chiricahuas traditional homeland near the Mexican border be their reservation Geronimo's people came also and here they lived in peace for the rest of cochise's life but when Cochise died in 1870 for a new policy was drafted to squeeze all the Apaches onto the san carlos reservation 4,000 Apaches from different bands some of them sworn enemies were pressed together on this desolate spot Geronimo's people were ordered by the whites to move to San Carlos in 1876 but they refused and fled east to the reservation of their friends the Warm Springs Apaches orders came to capture Geronimo closed the Warm Springs agency and bring everyone to San Carlos John Clum the agent in charge of San Carlos double-crossed Geronimo and his followers by asking them in for a meeting at the Warm Springs agency and then arresting them Geronimo was outraged at this betrayal and railed at clung we are not going to San Carlos with you and unless you are very careful you and your Apache police will not go back to San Carlos either your bodies will stay here at Warm Springs to make food for coyotes but a nervous clumb took the Chiricahuas and changed San Carlos restless and angry Geronimo and chief nochi fled to freedom in September white settlers panicked when they heard the Apache were returning to reclaim their lands John Clum set out with the posse that included three of the earth brothers but the Chiricahuas fled deep into the mountains of Mexico and for two and a half years Geronimo's people lived in freedom but these were the last years of freedom for our people a final dream of the hundred centuries that had come before Mexico agreed to let soldiers cross the border at will in pursuit of Indians and General George crook arrived with orders from his government to solve the so-called Apache problem by the turn of the new year in 1883 crooks forces finally reached Geronimo's mountain stronghold the two men met in Council sitting together on the ground and Geronimo admitted that he could not outrun the armies of two countries so crook brought the Chiricahua back to San Carlos after a night of drinking some Shirakawa's marched to the tenth of the officer in charge of San Carlos crook was telegraphed for advice and the Chiricahuas bolted cutting the talking wires as they went and drove 120 miles south toward Mexico before stopping to rest the white man's newspapers shouted the Apaches are out and settlers panicked reinforcements arrived on the Southern Pacific Railroad and before the month was out two thousand soldiers were flowing across the territories of New Mexico and Arizona in january of 1886 as the army was closing in Geronimo's sent word that he would meet to talk peace and so in the chill of a March afternoon crook and Geronimo met again at a canyon known as los saludos just below the Mexican border one by one the Apache leaders agreed to surrender until at last it was Geronimo's turned to speak what the others say I say also once I moved about like the wind now I surrendered to you and that is all crook hurried back to Fort Bowie Arizona to brag of his success while our people began the long slow march by foot under guard but a whiskey dealer just south of the border told him they'd be hanged the minute they crossed into the United States fearing betrayal Geronimo and 39 others broke and ran humiliated by the escape crook asked to be relieved of his command crook successor arrived in less than two weeks general Nelson miles who had captured Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce nation and was now determined to add another notch to his belt the soldiers pursued Geronimo for four brutal months their uniforms were ripped on rocks and branches and their horses were abandoned because they were too large for the trail in times like these Geronimo called upon his mystical powers when the army men came close it is said that Geronimo and his people could turn into a rock a cactus or a tree so the soldiers could never find them rumors spread that Geronimo was talking surrender with the Mexicans miles was livid at the possibility that he might lose his prize to someone else finally he dispatched a lieutenant named Charles Gatewood the only man in his command who knew Geronimo personally to win surrender Indian scouts led Gatewood soldiers into Mexico under a flag of truce there the scouts arranged a meeting with Geronimo then lieutenant Gatewood gave Geronimo and his people news that left their hearts and spirits broken the Warriors wives and children were at that moment being shipped from the san carlos reservation to exiled in florida sadly Geronimo said he would lay down his arms but only to general miles in person miles agreed to meet Geronimo at skeleton Canyon just north of the Mexican border there geronimo surrendered for the fourth and final time on sep tember third of 1886 for the Chiricahua Apache this was a solemn ceremony Geronimo remembered we stood between his troopers and my warriors we placed a large stone on the blanket before us our treaty was made by this stone and it was to last till the stone should crumble to dust once back at Fort Bowie the Chiricahua were put aboard trains the women and children were taken to fort marion in st. augustine florida and the men were sent to Fort Pickens an abandoned fort on an island off the coast but within six months the Warriors were reunited with their families though many of their children had been sent to carlisle indian school in pennsylvania where many died from tuberculosis the downhearted Apaches were moved to Alabama where they spent six bleep years as prisoners of war eight years after Geronimo surrender the surviving Chiricahua prisoners were taken back west to Fort Sill Oklahoma there Geronimo passed his waning years 700 miles from his home growing melons and talking with newspaper reporters at the age of 80 he attended the 1904 st. Louis World's Fair where he sold bows and arrows and photographs of himself he rode in Teddy Roosevelt's inaugural parade afterward meeting with the President himself there he pleaded for the only thing that had ever meant anything to the Apache he asked for freedom great father other Indians have homes where they can live and be happy I and my people have no homes I pray to you to cut the ropes and make me free let me die in my own country an old man who has been punished enough and is free Roosevelt listened politely but gave no answer Geronimo visited the National Cemetery in Arlington and stood over the graves of his old adversaries crook and Gatewood then he was sent back to exile in Oklahoma Geronimo the great medicine man in bold gorilla warrior died in February of 1909 never able to visit the mountain fastness of his homeland again his name an image will be forever engraved in our memories history remembers geronimo as a great leader and warrior but to his people he was the heart and soul of a nation the vast southern plains the sweeping stretch of land south of the Arkansas River was once home to the Comanche nation here the land seemed to stretch out to infinity and my people stood as specks of dust before it since time beyond memory the Comanche defended this land first from the Spanish invaders who came north from Mexico and later from the great river of settlers flowing from the east against the Spanish we were victorious but the flood of whites we could not resist the Spaniards brought two things which changed our lives forever gunpowder and the horse my people called a sturdy Pony God's dog and with his help we could follow the herds of Buffalo for a thousand miles we became rich and free from hunger and were feared for the swiftness of our raids one day in the white man's year of 1836 my people captured a white woman child Cynthia Ann Parker in a raid on a Baptist settlement later she was wed to our chief Patton akona and to their union was born one of our greatest leaders Cynthia Ann was recaptured by Texas Rangers at the age of 35 and returned to her parents but many times she stole horses to try to return to her beloved Comanche people and finally broken hearted she starved herself to death in 1870 but the baby boy she named Quanah or fragrant lived on among the Comanches in the untamed panhandle of Texas he was given the name Eagle by his father and his 17th summer found him tall and skilled in the ways of the hunter his forceful personality was winning him a role as a leader of his people and in his heart ran blood which would bear him between two colliding worlds that of the Indian and of the white man but for now quanah was entirely Comanche in his hatred for the whites who stole his people's land and destroyed their life's blood the Buffalo by the 1860s settlers were pushing the Comanches off their own land and so comanche raids increased in fury as the air turned cold in the year of 1867 the whites called a final council of the plains indian tribes at Medicine Lodge Creek a treaty was made there where the tribes agreed to give up most of their land in exchange for money and farming tools to get started on the White Way the Medicine Lodge treaty was mistrusted by the Comanches but the tribes signed the white man's paper nonetheless except for a few defiant Comanches including the kahawai his band of young Quanah Parker while the signers were to report to a new agency at Fort Sill Oklahoma the rebels vowed to live on in freedom in the spring of 1871 our warriors attacked a wagon train right under the nose of William Tecumseh Sherman the supreme commander of the army who was on a visit to the west Sherman was outraged and vowed to subdue the Comanche with the aid of Tonkawa Indian scouts a colonel named Ronald Mackenzie tracked quanis people to a remote canyon but Quanah skillfully led his people out of the canyon and they slipped north onto the vast staked plains of West Texas their provisions running low as the snows began falling by the next spring quanah and his people were starving and desperate and then another tragedy struck the Buffalo failed to return the Warriors watch the horizon for the endless black herds that had come without fail for a thousand years but saw nothing it seemed the white man was choking off the Indians world and all the living things in it at this dark hour a messiah named esata came to the Comanche and proclaimed those white men can't shoot you with my medicine I will stop all their guns you will wipe them out he called the Sundance to make a medicine that would push the hated whites from our lands their first target was a camp of buffalo hunters at adobe walls in the Texas Panhandle ESAT I watched from a hillside as the emboldened Comanches charged straight into the heart of the camp but his new medicine was empty and many warriors were shot out of their saddles to fall in the dust and the buffalo hunters had their own new magic the powerful large bore guns that had cut down the buffalo herds nine warriors were killed that day and only three of the white hunters this was a spiritual blow to Quanah Parker people even worse it called down the full fury of the US Army as winter again approached Colonel McKenzie tracked cuantas ban to the palo duro canyon most of the Comanches escaped but 1,500 horses were seized which McKenzie ordered slaughtered cuantas people could hear the screams of the ponies as they fled up the canyon the whites had taken Comanche land and now we're destroying the horses that were such a vital part of their lives the Comanches barely scraped through the winter and in the spring Quanah Parker came in to surrender he said I came in to Fort Sill no ride me in like horse or lead me by halter like cow I fought with surrender came the end of freedom and the beginning of the dark years of the reservation rations were short and the land was poor finally the reservation agent proposed that the Comanche take up ranching instead and so the government bought them cattle with the treaty money the ways of the prairie were of little use now and Quanah Parker called on the other half of his heritage quanah proved to be a good rancher and a better businessman and by 1880 his herds had grown so large he was selling cattle back to his own people comanche successes did not go unnoticed as the white ranchers demanded the right to graze their own cattle on comanche grasslands the ranchers persuaded our people to lease them land but the Comanches didn't trust the whites and could not understand the difference between a lease and a sale the cattlemen even paid Quanah isatai and others to travel to Washington to ask Congress to sanction the leases quanah was also appointed to sit as a judge on the prestigious court of Indian offenses and by the age of 40 he was the undisputed leader of the Comanches a newspaper reported the chief wears a suit of black broadcloth neatly fitting his straight body a gold watch with chain and charm dangles from his clothes fitting vest the only peculiar item of his appearance is his long black hair which he wears in two plates but some called Quanah a traitor lone wolf told him you have been bought by the cattlemen don't come and talk with the rest of us Chiefs when the government gave money to construct homes quanah received an extra two thousand dollars from his rancher friends and he built a ten room home that seemed like a mansion to the reservation Comanche he had stars painted on the roof so he could say to visiting generals and dignitaries that he had more stars than they did as be fitted a powerful chief Quanah took eight wives and eventually had 25 children his white friends warned him to give up all but one life but quano refused and was eventually removed from the tribal court for polygamy but in 1899 realizing how important his help was the whites named him principal chief of the Comanches boomers as the newspapers called the hordes of Oklahoma settlers still demanded Comanche land one newspaper wrote there is a large and fertile body of land capable of supporting a dense population that is being withheld from the masses through conniving and threats the government got enough Comanche signatures to ratify an act that gave away most of their reservation land through cuantas skill as a bargainer he was able to save a portion of communal land but the result was a land stampede days after the legislation was ratified three thousand whites were squatting on the Comanche reservation and a year later fifty thousand settlers were roaming about scouting for the best homestead in 1905 Teddy Roosevelt asked Quanah and other chiefs including Geronimo to ride in his inaugural parade in Washington Roosevelt visited Quanah a few weeks later while hunting in Oklahoma and there quanah convinced Roosevelt of the unfairness of policies which robbed his people of their land in 1906 despite Roosevelt's objections Congress drafted a bill for the sale of the Comanches last communal land and now the vast tribal lands that sustained the Comanche the Lords of the southern plains were finally gone forever as the white man's 20th century began with each passing year quanah became more of a celebrity he hosted powwows and appeared in fourth of July parades dressed in Comanche finery in 1908 he played a cameo role in one of the early motion pictures in flickering shadows across the nation the chief of the Comanche could be seen in the bank robbery riding up to a bank on horseback and joining a posse to capture a band of robbers a little Texas town that sprang up at the end of a rail line was named in his honor and at the dedication in 1910 he said may the Great Spirit always smile on your new town but one year later quanah fell ill and his search for a cure as in all else let him on a path between two worlds he went to a healing ceremony on a Cheyenne reservation and returning home by train he was met by a doctor who administered a heart stimulant when his condition worsened his family called a shaman to be with him in his the shaman raised his arms and called father in heaven this our brother is coming then the shaman flapped his arms and sounded the Eagles call Quanah Parker the great Comanche leader who bridged two worlds was now gone from both these are the stories of a people who stood defiantly as their world was swallowed the old world becoming as a dream and another rushing in to fill its place but while the faces of the generals who vanquish them are lost to history the honour of these great leaders endures a testament to their courage and their commitment to their people this earth that sustains us takes our hearts back to the ages before our conquest at the savage hand the white man before the restless endless days of the reservations and through our past we are able to grow into the future as Native Americans sons and daughters of these great leaders Crazy Horse the warrior guided by vision Chief Joseph who spoke always for peace Geronimo who's yearning for freedom frustrated the armies of two nations and Quanah Parker who danced between two worlds and one at the white man's own game their feats are like the signal fires which once burned on the cliffs above the great rivers calling to those who come after they are set in our minds forever

Channel: Questar Entertainment

Views: 433,577

Rating: 4.8157454 out of 5

Keywords: native american, indian, tribe, crazy horse, geronimo, chief, joseph, quanah parker, quanah, parker, American history, chief joseph, apache, comanches, nez perce, lakota sioux, tribes, native americans, native american history, United States history, United States of America, questar, indian chief, first nations, american indians, us history, native american leaders, native american tribes, native american reservations, Indigenous Americans, aboriginal American

Id: QGOPte3kk2c

Length: 54min 54sec (3294 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 24 2013