The War to Save the Buffalo | Indian Removal Bonus

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Roman Nose, Black Kettle, CuriosityStream, Nebula
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Quanah Parker, Isatai, Lone Wolf
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Quanah Parker, CuriosityStream, Isatai, Lone Wolf
4. 9:00 – 11:11: CuriosityStream, Nebula

Notable quotes from "The War to Save the Buffalo | Indian Removal Bonus"

• In a similar fashion, the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers under Roman Nose decided to stop travel on the Smoky Hill Trail.

  about Roman Nose · at 0:33

• While Roman Nose was the leader of the Dog Soldiers and war chief of the Cheyenne, the principal chief was Black Kettle, survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre.

  about Black Kettle · at 1:40

• When one of the Comanche leaders surrendered, he introduced himself as Tosawi, good Indian. General Sheridan then replied, The only good Indians I ever saw were dead. This was…

  about Tosawi · at 2:33

• The new Kiowa leader Lone Wolf stated that as long as their chiefs were still in prison, they were honorbound to keep fighting.

  about Lone Wolf · at 4:56

• With that dire warning and spiritual blessing, the Kiowa, Comanche, and bands of the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho joined under the leadership of the Kwahadi chief Quanah Parker, who began a war to save the buffalo.

  about Quanah Parker · at 5:45

• CuriosityStream is a subscription streaming service that offers thousands of documentaries and non-fiction titles which you can access across multiple platforms.

  about CuriosityStream · at 9:03

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Quanah Parker — Person · Referenced Indigenous leader (Southern Plains) · 3 mentions · first at 5:54
  Depicted as the Kwahadi Comanche chief who leads a multi-tribal effort to save the buffalo (Red River War era), later surrenders, and is credited with helping popularize peyote religion that becomes the Native American Church.
• Roman Nose — Person · Referenced Indigenous war leader (Southern Plains) · 3 mentions · first at 0:33
  Central Cheyenne figure in the Southern Plains thread: leader of the Dog Soldiers resisting travel on the Smoky Hill Trail and fighting Forsyth’s Scouts, where he is wounded and dies.
• Black Kettle — Person · Referenced Indigenous political leader (Southern Plains) · 2 mentions · first at 1:45
  Presented as the principal Cheyenne chief and Sand Creek Massacre survivor who sought surrender/peace but was denied, then killed in Custer’s 1868 attack (Washita).
• Isatai — Person · Referenced Indigenous religious figure (prophet) · 2 mentions · first at 5:25
  Introduced as a Kwahadi Comanche medicine man-turned-prophet who calls the Sun Dance, claims spiritual powers (including bullet invulnerability), and is later disgraced after Adobe Walls.
  The Sun Dance was called together by a Kwahadi medicine man-turned-prophet named Isatai who saw the destruction of the herds in a vision and promised his people they would be rid of the white man forever.
• Lone Wolf — Person · Referenced Indigenous leader (Southern Plains) · 2 mentions · first at 4:56
  Named as the new Kiowa leader who argues continued resistance is an honor obligation while Kiowa chiefs are imprisoned; later associated with Kiowa surrender after the 1874 campaign.
• George Armstrong Custer — Person · Referenced U.S. military commander · 1 mention · first at 2:13
  Appears as the officer leading the 1868 attack on a Cheyenne camp (Washita), framed as a repeat of Sand Creek tactics and resulting in the death of Black Kettle and many noncombatants.
  On November 27, 1868, Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong Custer charged the Cheyenne camp in a repeat of what Chivington did at Sand Creek.
• Red Cloud — Person · Referenced Indigenous leader (Northern Plains) · 1 mention · first at 0:00
  Introduced as the Oglala Lakota chief whose 1866 war in the Powder River Country is framed as a successful short-term effort to halt the Bozeman Trail, inspiring parallel resistance in the Southern Plains.
  The Oglala chief Red Cloud began his war for the Powder River Country in 1866.
• Tosawi — Person · Referenced Indigenous leader (Comanche) · 1 mention · first at 2:35
  Mentioned in a vignette illustrating U.S. Army attitudes: he surrenders and identifies himself as “good Indian,” prompting Sheridan’s infamous reply later paraphrased as “the only good Indian is a dead Indian.”

Products & tech

• CuriosityStream — Product · 4 mentions · first at 1:14
• Nebula — Product · 3 mentions · first at 1:14
  By signing up for CuriosityStream, you’ll also get access to Nebula.

Concepts & topics

• Native American Church — Concept · 1 mention · first at 8:19
  The Native American Church was officially established in 1918, and as of 1978, peyote is only legal for members of the church who are actively participating in a sanctioned ceremony.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 The Oglala chief Red Cloud began his war for the Powder River Country in 1866. His main objective was to halt the construction of the Bozeman Trail in Wyoming and Montana, and to push out the white settlers, soldiers, and miners, who had been killing buffalo and leaving them to rot. If you watched my two hour video on the history of Indian Removal, you’ll know that he was successful – at least in the short term. What I didn’t explain in that video is that he also inspired a parallel war down in the Southern Plains of Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

0:33 In a similar fashion, the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers under Roman Nose decided to stop travel on the Smoky Hill Trail. In 1867, the federal government sent a treaty commission to Oklahoma to put the Kiowa, Comanche, Cheyenne, and Arapaho on a reservation south of the Arkansas River. Most of the tribes agreed to the terms and moved. Roman Nose and his Dog Soldiers did not. [Intro music] This video was brought to you by CuriosityStream and Nebula. In response to their refusal, General Sherman dispatched a special unit known as Forsyth’s Scouts to hunt down Roman Nose.

1:25 The Dog Soldiers found the scouts first, surrounded them, and besieged them for eight days. But the scouts had brand new repeating rifles which kept the Cheyenne at bay until reinforcements arrived. Roman Nose was shot during the engagement and later died of his wounds. While Roman Nose was the leader of the Dog Soldiers and war chief of the Cheyenne, the principal chief was Black Kettle, survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre. He attempted to surrender at two different agencies and reservations, but was denied both times.

1:54 Instead, he was told to stay put and keep all of his young men in the village. If this sounds like a set up, it is. General Sheridan was planning to attack and didn’t want them to surrender. It’s really difficult to maintain the view that Native Americans were a historical menace on the Plains when we were the ones not willing to accept peace. On November 27, 1868, Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong Custer charged the Cheyenne camp in a repeat of what Chivington did at Sand Creek. 103 Cheyenne were killed, only eleven of which were men.

2:28 Black Kettle was one of those who were killed, what was left of his band turned themselves in the following month. When one of the Comanche leaders surrendered, he introduced himself as “Tosawi, good Indian.” General Sheridan then replied, "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead.” This was later simplified into the now-infamous quote, “the only good Indian is a dead Indian.” The only good bug is a dead bug. In 1869, Fort Sill was constructed in present-day Oklahoma to keep an eye on the now-surrendered Southern Plains nations.

2:59 A lot of you know that before becoming a history teacher, I was in the Army… Here I am going through basic training and AIT at Fort Sill, which is now the Army’s Field Artillery Training Center. Having spent several months there, I agree with all of those early surveyors that Oklahoma is a barren waste… which makes it perfect for an artillery range. The Comanche were an agricultural nation in Texas before the Spanish and eventually Mexicans settled the area, which pushed them into a nomadic lifestyle on the plains, hunting buffalo.

3:28 The Kiowa were a patriarchal society that viewed farming as women’s work. Now that both nations were on the reservation near Fort Sill, they were expected to take up agriculture, which didn’t turn out so well. The 1870 corn harvest wasn’t enough to feed all 5500 Kiowa and Comanche living there. So the agency allowed the men to go out on a buffalo hunt, which was a rare treat. The only problem was… there weren’t any buffalo. White hunters were killing them for their hides and were leaving the carcasses to rot and the new railroads being constructed were scaring off the herds.

4:01 And all of this was by design. In 1868 General Sherman wrote to General Sheridan saying… As long as Buffalo are up on the Republican [River], the Indians will go there. I think it would be wise to invite all the sportsmen of England and America there this fall for a Grand Buffalo hunt, and make one grand sweep of them all. And that’s exactly what they did, the military regularly sponsored buffalo hunts on the Plains. The Kiowa organized a war party to retaliate against ranchers in Texas in an attempt to drive them out before more railroads could be built.

4:36 As a result of the raid, the Kiowa chiefs were arrested by General Sherman and sentenced to life in prison. The Bureau of Indian Affairs then delivered an ultimatum that all Kiowa chiefs, braves, and family members needed to be camped within ten miles of Fort Sill by December 15, 1872 or be declared hostile and hunted down. The new Kiowa leader Lone Wolf stated that as long as their chiefs were still in prison, they were honorbound to keep fighting. So the chiefs were eventually paroled and transferred to Fort Sill.

5:06 In the spring of 1874, the Comanche held their first ever Sun Dance. A tradition practiced by numerous plains nations in the past, but as you just learned, the Comanche weren’t always a plains nation. During the ceremony, the Kwahadi band of Comanche brought news that the buffalo were being driven to extinction. The Sun Dance was called together by a Kwahadi medicine man-turned-prophet named Isatai who saw the destruction of the herds in a vision and promised his people they would be rid of the white man forever. He claimed to have the power to cure the sick, raise the dead, and make people invulnerable to bullets.

5:42 Uh oh… where have we heard that one before? With that dire warning and spiritual blessing, the Kiowa, Comanche, and bands of the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho joined under the leadership of the Kwahadi chief Quanah Parker, who began a war to save the buffalo. On June 27, 1874, they attacked a group of two dozen buffalo hunters at the town of Adobe Walls in Texas. The white hunters were able to hold off the 700-member strong war party with the use of long-range hunting rifles, which were still very much effective against the advancing warriors.

6:18 The prophet was left disgraced, his followers beat and flogged him, and changed his name from White Eagle to Wolf’s Vagina. Isatai means Wolf’s Vagina in Comanche, if you learn nothing else from this video, at least there’s that. By the end of summer, the combined plains Indian forces were protecting a small buffalo herd in the Palo Duro Canyon and were stocking up on food for the winter. To rout them out, General Sheridan dispatched five columns of troops to attack the canyon from every different direction. The army found their camp on September 28th, 1874 and attacked.

6:54 They destroyed food stores, burned teepees, and captured thousands of horses and ponies, but most of the warriors and chiefs managed to escape. The Kiowa under Lone Wolf surrendered that next February and the Comanche under Quanah Parker turned themselves in three months after that. All of them were disarmed, put in corrals, had their possessions burned, and were thrown raw meat as food. 26 of them were chosen at random to be sent to prison in Florida. All of the prominent Kiowa and Comanche leaders died in prison, mostly from disease and suicide.

7:26 All with the exception of Quanah Parker, who after spending a decade on the reservation, visited his brother in Mexico and was injured by a charging bull. The local healer gave him some peyote tea to help with the pain and he recovered. Peyote is a cactus containing mescaline. Parker was so convinced of the spiritual qualities of the plant that he founded a new religion which sort of combined American Indian ceremonies with Christianity. The White Man goes into his church house and talks about Jesus, but the Indian goes into his tipi and talks to Jesus.

7:59 Since American Indians were not responsible for the crucifixion of Christ, they had no need to atone for it, so God wanted them to take communion using peyote rather than those little wafers the rest of us get. The Kiowa and Comanche living in Oklahoma took to the religion immediately and it spread across the plains around the same time as the Ghost Dance. The Native American Church was officially established in 1918, and as of 1978, peyote is only legal for members of the church who are actively participating in a sanctioned ceremony.

8:32 Today, it is the largest Indigenous religion in North America with over a quarter million members. The Kiowa and Comanche may have been successful in establishing a religious legacy, but when it came to saving the buffalo… I’m afraid their efforts were for naught. By 1884, there were only 325 buffalo remaining in the entire country. Thankfully in the last few decades, there has been a concerted effort to restore the herds, which you can learn more about by going to curiositystream.com/knowingbetter. CuriosityStream is a subscription streaming service that offers thousands of documentaries and non-fiction titles which you can access across multiple platforms.

9:10 In Return of the Buffalo - Restoring the Great American Prairie, you’ll see how modern methods have been used to domesticate the buffalo and grow their population to over half a million today. I’ve always been a dreamer and, you know, I kind of feel cheated, actually, not being able to see 50 million buffalo out here on the landscape. Because that’s what this country needs. And so, you know, I’ve pretty much dedicated my life trying to get as close back to that number as I could. By signing up for CuriosityStream, you’ll also get access to Nebula.

9:42 The streaming service built by fellow creators seeking refuge from the aggressive expansion of Youtube. Every Knowing Better video is hosted there ad-free, and if you want to see that special video I made about Geronimo, the quintessential American Indian, you’ll only be able to see it on Nebula. Learn about his tragic backstory, his multiple escapes from custody, and why he joined the circus as “the worst Indian who ever lived.” Bruh… you can’t keep surrendering and escaping like that! You’re making things so much worse for yourself!

10:11 Check it out by heading over to CuriosityStream.com/knowingbetter, where we’ve worked out a deal where you can get both CuriosityStream and Nebula for only $14.79 a year. You’ll also be supporting the channel when you do. This video is a short followup to my larger video on Indian Removal, make sure to check it out if you haven’t already. If you’d like to become an enrolled member of the Knowing Better band, head on over to patreon.com/knowingbetter, or, for a one-time donation, paypal.me/knowingbetter. Don’t forget to colonize that subscribe button, or the join button if you want to fully assimilate.

10:44 Check out the merch at knowingbetter.tv, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and join us on the subreddit! [Outro music]

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "The War to Save the Buffalo | Indian Removal Bonus"?

In order: 0:00 Roman Nose, Black Kettle, CuriosityStream, Nebula; 3:00 Quanah Parker, Isatai, Lone Wolf; 6:00 Quanah Parker, CuriosityStream, Isatai, Lone Wolf; 9:00 CuriosityStream, Nebula.

What is mentioned in this Knowing Better episode?

11 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Quanah Parker, CuriosityStream, Roman Nose, Nebula, Black Kettle, Isatai. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "The War to Save the Buffalo | Indian Removal Bonus"?

The episode runs 11 min; the transcript is about 1,866 words in 20 timestamped sections.

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