Historians differ on which skirmishes and battles constitute the Red River Wars. Some historians (like me)
believe the war began in Young County in 1871. Others believe that it was a brief war, beginning in 1874 and
ending in 1875. Whatever the Minutiae, no historian disputes the basic fact: the conclusion of the series of
fights between the Plains Indians and Union and State forces caused the end of an entire culture.
Pre-Civil War Indian Country
The Comanches, Apaches and Kiowas (along with the occasional Caddos or Wichitas)
had been fighting against the intrusion of the Americans since before the Civil War. And
for a while, it looked as though they were able to stem the tide of white settlers. In
Texas and Indian Territory, the Civil War had led Union troops to abandon the forts, and
without protection, the American pioneers opted to move away from the frontier lines.

After the conclusion of the Civil War, however, America looked with hungry eyes to the
West. Droves of settlers invaded the Plains to farm, mine, and - most of all - speculate.
The transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869, was ready to expand. Bankers and
investors coveted the wide open lands of the Great Plains. That the Plains were
inhabited by many tribes who were at the peak of their civilization, and who had an
extensive warrior culture, didn't seem to faze the American expansionists in the least.

In 1867, Fort Sill opened as a large outpost in Indian Territory. Its mission was two-fold:
to protect the American and Indian tribes that had settled in the area, and to
consolidate the Southern Plains Indians. Fort Richardson in Texas had been pretty
much established for the same purposes. The push of the American settlers, plus the
establishment of the forts, led to an inevitable clash between the United States and the
peoples of the Plains. The Comanches and Kiowas in particular had been conducting
numerous raids on homesteaders since the 1850s. In 1871, however, the Warren
Wagontrain Raid led by Kiowa warriors from Fort Sill managed to change federal Indian
policy.

Indian Policy Abruptly Changes
Grand Commander of the Army William
Tecumseh Sherman had traveled from
Fort Belknap to Fort Richardson  to witness
for himself the Indian depredations that the
Texans had been fussing about. Since he
hadn't encountered any Indians on his journey,
he believed the accounts of raiding, stealing,
and scalping to be exaggerated. The day after
he arrived at Fort Richardson, however,
Sherman learned that beside the road he had
traveled on (on the Salt Creek Prairie), a group
of Kiowas had hidden among the post oaks
and black jacks of the forbidding Cross Timbers
prairie, waiting on a party to raid. They had let
Sherman's entourage pass by unmolested, but
the next day they attacked a passing wagon train,
killing several men.

When Sherman learned of his narrow escape from death, he changed military policy
right then and there. He ordered Union  troops to wage war against the Plains Indians
until they all were forced onto, and promised to stay in,  the reservations (the
reservation system had already been created with the 1867 Medicine Lodge Creek
Treaty, but many Indians had refused to sign it). He also advocated the mass slaughter
of the buffalo, which would compel Indians off the land - he put his experience with
waging a war of attrition during the Civil War to good use. He commented that  "it would
be wise to invite all the sportsmen of England and America... for a Grand Buffalo Hunt,
and make one grand sweep of them all."

The Kiowa raiding party was rounded up at Fort Sill and brought to Fort Richardson to
stand trial.  This was the first time the attackers from an Indian raid were tried in a civil
court - the army wanted to impress on Native Americans that they were subject to the
same laws and penalties that Americans were subject to. On the way there, Chief
Satank was killed by soldiers after fighting his chains and overpowering a guard. The
two remaining chiefs, Satanta and Big Tree, were sentenced to death, but the judge
commuted their sentences and remanded the chiefs to the prison in Huntsville, Texas.  
After a serving time in Huntsville, the other chiefs went back to Fort Sill.
Two battles were fought at Adobe Walls in
Hutchinson County: the first one in 1864,
where Kit Carson was defeated by
Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne Warriors.
The Second Battle of Adobe Walls was
fought in 1874, at a trading post near the old
Adobe Walls site. Buffalo hunters defeated
the Indians in a long shoot-out.

Early historical markers at the Adobe Walls
site, however, only commemorated the
Second Battle. The marker above was
erected in 1924 and heralds the buffalo
hunters. The Dixon family,  whose ancestor
Billy Dixon fought at Adobe Walls - he
famously shot at long ranges with great
accuracy - would later own the land
surrounding the trading post.

A historical marker, erected in the 1960s,
commemorates the first battle. According to
reader Leslie Monden, a memorial to the first
battle, on private land, sits at the original site
of Adobe Walls.
This marker at Adobe Walls was erected in
1987 to memorialize the Native Americans
who fought and died here. Reader Leslie
Monden clarified that a monument was
erected as early as 1941, sponsored by
members of the warring tribes.
Buffalo hides stacked, waiting for transport. The skinned buffalo would lie
where they fell, and when the meat was gone, the bones bleached under the
hot prairie sun. The bones lay in the grass lands for years until fertilizer
companies picked them up to crush them into fertilizer. (Photo courtesy of
the University of Kansas.)
Behind the Native American marker at Adobe
Walls, someone placed ceremonial
offerings. Native Americans still visit this
place to reflect on their vanished way of life.
The Red River Wars Commence
Many Indians didn't dream of surrendering, however. Bands led by Chiefs of the
Comanches, Apaches, Arapahos, Cheyennes, and Kiowas came together to
ward off the white man. They realized that the Quaker Peace Policy, an
American, passive-agressive approach to the reservation system that
culminated in  the Medicine Lodge Treaties of 1867, had been abandoned.  
White men continued to encroach on the Plains Indians' lands, and the
reservations loomed like death traps. The tribes saw it as their duty to fight.

Not all members of the tribes wanted war, however. Plains Indians were
societies of individualists, and instead of following one leader they could follow
different ones, depending on their own moral codes. The Kiowas, for example,
split into several factions, some following the pro-war Chiefs like Lone Wolf,
others staying the course under Chief Kicking Bird.

One of the major battles of the Red River Wars - so called by historians
afterwards since all fighting had occurred in areas surrounding the Red River -
happened in 1874 at Adobe Walls, a buffalo hide trading post by the Canadian
River. True to Sherman's strategy, buffalo hunters had descended onto the
Great Plains to wage a mass assault on the Plains Indians' food source.
Warrior bands of the Kiowas, Apaches, and Comanches attacked the traders,
who fought back with superior weapons, killing two Indians (and one of their
own in a friendly fire incident).

Several other battles took place after Adobe Walls, such as the "Lost Valley
Fight" near Jacksboro, where two Army soldiers were killed. The last battle
occurred at Palo Duro Canyon along the North Fork of the Red River. General
Ranald S. McKenzie, who had been pivotal in the development of Fort
Richardson, had followed the Indians into the deep gorges of the canyon.
Surrounding the camps from all sides, McKenzie's troops fired on the Indians
from above, and a day-long shoot-out ensued. McKenzie was able to break into
and herd the Indians' horses, a strategy used by General George Custer at the
Battle of the Washita. By taking the horses, a Plains Indian loses his ability to
fight, hunt, and exist in status in his society. McKenzie's troops took the 1,000
horses to a canyon a few miles south of the battle site, where they shot them
to death.

Defeat and the End of a Civilization
Slowly, the defeated Indians walked with their families to Fort Sill and
surrendered. The Chiefs (including Geronimo and Quanah Parker) were taken
into custody and confined to Fort Marion in Florida. Chief Satanta committed
suicide in Huntsville. Chief Kicking Bird (of the peaceful Kiowas) was
assassinated. Chief Geronimo lived out his days at Fort Sill and even joined
Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. Quanah Parker became a rich and
respected rancher south of the Fort Sill reservation.

The Red River War spelled the end of a culture and the extinction of an entire
eco- system. Though slowly degrading by  the time the white settlers had come
to the Southern Plains, the environment had been largely self sustaining. With
the buffalo killed and the range fenced, the white man became either farmer or
rancher, constantly guarding himself against hunger or trespassing. Instead of
a cooperative life, the American brought scarcity and competition to the Plains
- and the odd and false notion that the environment was 'hostile.' With the
change of the environment, the Americans had to rely on the railroads and
other modern institutions to survive, and the frontier ended as quickly as it
began.
Red River War Chief Lone Wolf of the Kiowas
and wife Etla of the Wichitas.
Palo Duro Canyon, where the last
battle took place.
"The hunter was hired by the piece: if robe hides were worth $3.00,
he was given twenty-five cents for every one that he killed...

I have seen their bodies so thick after being skinned, that they
would look like logs where a hurricane had passed through a forest."

The Recollections of W.S. Glenn, Buffalo Hunter. Panhandle Plains Historical
Review no. 22, pp 20-26.
"The Horse Head Battle on the plains was the most outstanding
battle that I was in. There were over two-hundred Indians killed
and only four whites. We really had it on them this time. We were
hidden in the rocks of the canyon and every time an Indian
showed up he was shot by several different men. We sure had a
lot of fun there."

Daniel Boon Sinclair, "The Missouri Kid." From WPA life histories.
The Last Stand of the
Southern Plains Indians:
The Red River Wars,
1871-1875
William Tecumseh Sherman