Buffalo Hump
| Buffalo Hump Potsʉnakwahipʉ |
|
|---|---|
| Born | 1790s to early 1800s Edwards Plateau, Texas |
| Died | c. 1865/1870 Fort Sill, Oklahoma |
| Occupation | medicine man |
| Known for | Comanche leader |
Buffalo Hump (Comanche potsʉnakwahipʉ "buffalo bull's back") (born ca. late 1790s to early 19th century — died 1870) was a War Chief of the Penateka band of the Comanche Indians. He came to prominence after the Council House Fight when he led the Comanches on the Great Raid of 1840.
Little is known of Buffalo Hump's early life. In 1838 he, now an important war chief, went with Amorous Man (Pahayoko) and "Old Owl" (Mupitsukupʉ), to Houston, where they met President Sam Houston and signed with him a treaty. He became a historically important figure when, angered by the Council House fight of 1840, he led a group of Comanches, mostly his own band plus allies from various other Comanche bands, in the Great Raid of 1840. Their goal was to get revenge on the Texans who had killed thirty members of a delegation of Comanche Chiefs when these had been under a flag of truce for negotiations.
The Comanches who came to the Council House at San Antonio in the Republic of Texas in 1840 had the intention to negotiate a peace treaty. They came under a white flag of truce as they understood ambassadors should do. The Texans had expected the Comanches to bring several white captives as part of the agreement. At the meeting Buffalo Hump explained he had brought all of the captives he had-one. The Texans did not understand he had no power over the other bands to force them to comply with the demands. The Texans then pulled out guns and explained the Indians were now their prisoners until the rest of the captives were returned. Threatened, the Comanches, who had come without bows, lances or guns, fought back with their knives. The Texans had concealed heavily armed soldiers just outside the Council House. At the onset of the fighting, the windows and doors were opened and the soldiers outside shot into the room through them. This fight left lasting bitterness in the Comanche people who believed unarmed ambassadors who had come in under a white flag of truce had been slaughtered.
Buffalo Hump was determined to do more than merely complain about what the Comanches viewed as a bitter betrayal; spreading word to the other bands of Comanches that he was raiding the white settlements in revenge, Buffalo Hump led the Great Raid of 1840. On this raid the Comanches went all the way from the plains of west Texas to the cities of Victoria and Linnville on the Texas coast. In what may have been the largest organized raid by the Comanches to that point, they raided, burned, and plundered these towns. Linnville was the second largest port in Texas at that time.
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