Red River War

The Red River War (1874–75) was a U.S. military campaign against the Comanche, Kiowa, Arapaho, and Southern Cheyenne Native American tribes along the Red River in the Southern Plains states of Texas and Oklahoma. Tribal members angry at the poor conditions on the reservations and wholesale slaughter of buffalo herds joined those bands that had resisted relocation to reservations to raid a nearby post at Adobe Walls. The U.S. Army responded with the Red River War, a campaign that ended Native American resistance in the Southern Plains, destroying their traditional nomadic buffalo-hunting culture in the process.

The growing presence of settlers traveling west through the Southern Plains as well as federal military withdrawal from the region during the Civil War (1861–65) had resulted in conflict between settlers and the Southern Plains tribes. The U.S. government had relocated the Comanche, Kiowa, Arapaho, and Southern Cheyenne to two western Oklahoma reservations under the 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge.

Comanche Chief Quanah Parker in a photograph circa the 1880s or 1890s. The end of the Red River War is usually marked by the surrender of Chief Parker and his band at Fort Sill in June 1875.

The relocated tribes were angered by harsh living conditions on the reservations and the failure of the federal government to furnish promised services [Page 1814]and supplies. Tribes were also angered over outside encroachment on reservation land and the buffalo hunting grounds to which they were granted access as well as the widespread destruction of the Plains buffalo herds on which their culture and livelihood centered. As the buffalo herds disappeared and the reservation tribes slipped into poverty and dependence on government rations, many felt that war was the only suitable option left.

Some Native Americans discouraged by poverty and threats to their traditional culture began to leave the reservations and join bands of Native American renegades and raiders who had resisted removal. The resisters united under leaders such as renowned Comanche Chief Quanah Parker and their calls for a war against European Americans to restore their homelands and traditional way of life. A group of approximately 300 Native Americans united to attack a group of close to 30 buffalo hunters at the Adobe Walls frontier post on June 27, 1874. The better-armed hunters were able to withstand the Native American assault, forcing the Native American bands to retreat.

The Native American bands then separated and once again began raiding across the region. Meanwhile, the Adobe Walls incident drove the U.S. Army to take concerted action to end remaining Native American resistance along the Southern Plains. The U.S. Army pursued an overall military strategy of converging several columns of troops entering the area from different directions in order to surround the Native American bands and cut off any avenues of escape. The U.S. troops would then go on the offensive and force surrender. The Native Americans adopted more guerrilla-style tactics and often engaged the U.S. forces in order to divert attention from their villages or from escaping groups of women and children.

General Philip Sheridan was in command of the U.S. Army forces during the Red River War. Colonel Nelson A. Miles, Lieutenant Colonel John W. Davidson, Lieutenant Colonel George P. Buell, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie, and Major William R. Price led the columns of U.S. military forces. Notable Native American chiefs who participated included Quanah Parker, Lone Wolf, Satanta, and Big Tree. The U.S. forces had the advantage of superior weapons and generally favorable weather conditions. Although the Native Americans did have access to firearms, many of them were older models. The Battle of Red River (August 30, 1874), fought between the Sixth U.S. Cavalry and Fifth U.S. Infantry under Colonel Nelson A. Miles and the Southern Cheyenne, was the first battle of the Red River War.

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