Texas–Indian Wars

Texas Indian wars

A map showing the Comanche lands (Comancheria) during the 1800s.

Date	1820–1875
Location	Texas
Result	Texan and United States victory

Belligerents

Spain

Mexico

Republic of Texas

United States

Comanche

Texas Comanche wars 1820–1875

The Texas–Indian wars were a series of 19th-century conflicts between settlers in Texas and the Southern Plains Indians. These conflicts began when the first wave of European-American settlers moved into Spanish Texas. They continued through Texas's time as part of Mexico, when more Europeans and Anglo-Americans arrived, to the subsequent declaration of independence by the Republic of Texas. The conflicts did not end until thirty years after Texas joined the United States.

Although several Indian tribes occupied territory in the area, the preeminent nation was the Comanche, known as the "Lords of the Plains." Their territory, the Comancheria, was the most powerful entity and persistently hostile to the Spanish, the Mexicans, and finally, the Texans. This article covers the conflicts from 1820, just before Mexico gained independence from Spain, until 1875, when the last free band of Plains Indians, the Comanches led by Quahadi warrior Quanah Parker, surrendered and moved to the Fort Sill reservation in Oklahoma.

The half-century struggle between the Plains tribes and the Texans became particularly intense after the Spanish, and then Mexicans, left power in Texas. The Republic of Texas, which had increasing settlement by European Americans, and the United States opposed the tribes. Their war with the Plains Indians was characterized by deep animosity, slaughter on both sides, and, in the end, near-total conquest of the Indians.

Although the outcome was lop-sided, the violence of the wars was not. The Comanche were known as fierce warriors, with a reputation for looting, burning, murdering, and kidnapping as far south as Mexico City. They killed and captured so many Texans that Comanche became a by-word for terrorism in this region. When Sul Ross recovered Cynthia Ann Parker at Pease River, he observed that this event would be felt in every family in Texas, as every one had lost someone in the Indian Wars. During the American Civil War, when the US Army was unavailable to protect the frontier, the Comanche and Kiowa pushed white settlements back more than 100 miles along the Texas frontier.

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