Red River War

Allegedly, the Comanche were so disheartened by the shot that they gave up the siege.

As far as Masterson was concerned, he acquitted himself well during the fighting, and later enrolled as a civilian scout in the Red River War, which took place on the Southern Plains as a direct result of the siege at Adobe Walls.

[upbeat music] After his enrollment finished, Masterson spent some more time hunting buffalo and gambling in saloons until he headed out to Dodge City and became a lawman.

Before that, though, there was the event that left him with a limp and forced him to use a cane.

On the southern plains, as the herds collapsed, the Comanche and their Kiowa allies, watching their world destroyed before their eyes, struck back at a camp of the hide hunters who were emptying their country.

That blow brought down upon them a full military campaign, the Red River War, which drove the southern nations from the open plains for good.

The destruction of the buffalo did not merely starve these peoples.

It provoked the very wars that finished them.

You know, it takes about four or five years for, you know, all of this to come to a apex.

You know, the Texas Indian War really bleeds into the Red River Wars.

And, you know, eventually he succumbs to, to Mackenzie, you know, the guy who first pursued him in Comancheria, um, and lost handsomely.

There's, there's a very famous story where Quanah Parker, um, ra- you know, the, [laughs] you know, the, for, for as skilled as, like, Ranald Mackenzie was as a general, he made some pretty rookie mistakes early.

Yeah.

No, s- some of the...

I mean, there are so many firsthand accounts of, from that, you know, from the Texas Indian Wars, but also, you know, the, the Red River Wars of, of him attacking at close range.

And not to get into graphic detail, but it's like the stuff of, like, Hollywood lore.

Can't wait.

So what happens when an entire way of life is deliberately dismantled, and one man has to decide whether to fight the system from the outside or survive by working within it? Quanah Parker was born into the Comanche world, became a powerful world leader, and eventually surrendered to the reservation system after the Red River War, but his story didn't end there.

He became a political intermediary, accumulated wealth, challenged federal policies, and became one of the most influential advocates for peyote as a sacred medicine.

This is the story of Quanah Parker, the suppression of Comanche life, and the complicated fight to preserve indigenous identity, spirituality, and sovereignty.

"You're evil." [laughs]

Yes.

So the really, the turning point for the Comanche was the Red River War, and this was from 1874 till 1875.

The US Army conducted a concentrated campaign against Southern Plain people, which included the Comanche, with the goal of moving them onto reservations.