Big Red Meat

Big Red Meat (Comanche piarʉ ekarʉhkapʉ (big red-meat); c. 1820/1825 – January 1, 1875) was a Nokoni Comanche chief.

Young man: Warrior and War Chief

In his early life, Big Red Meat was trained under the Nokoni Chief Huupi-pahati, a.k.a. "Tall Tree", and his second-in-command Quenah-evah, a.k.a. "Eagle Drink". Quenah-evah later replaced Huupi-pahati, after his death, possibly due to the the smallpox and cholera epidemics of 1849. Quenah-evah took the role of principal chief, and Big Red Meat grew up as a war leader.

During the 1850s and 1860s, Big Red Meat gained fame all over Texas as a raider and warlord against other Native American tribes.

War leader

Big Red Meat became the second chief of the Nokoni after Quena-evah's death and Horseback's (Tʉhʉyakwahipʉ) choice as head chief, possibly in 1866.

When Horseback signed the Medicine Lodge Treaty on behalf of the Nokoni on October 21, 1867, he emerged as the leader of the "peaceful" faction of the band. The second-ranking chief, Big Red Meat, led the uncompromising faction, and was joined by Tahka ("Arrowpoint"), the war chief of Horseback's group.

In 1868, the Comanche and Kiowa raids increased as Guipago had not signed the Medicine Lodge Treaty. In January, 25 people were killed, 9 were scalped and 14 children were kidnapped. In February, 7 people were killed, 5 children were kidnapped and 50 horses and mules were stolen. Later that same year, Big Red Meat and some of his Nokoni followers (including possibly Tahka), together with Mow-way, who brought his Kotsoteka, and Satanta with his Kiowa braves led several raids through Texas. On October 6, in Montgomery County, 1 man was killed, 3 children were kidnapped and many horses were stolen by a Kotsoteka and Nokoni Comanche party. In Atascosa County, 8 men were killed and several hundred horses were stolen by a Comanche and Kiowa party. In addition, the Indian warriors successfully engaged a posse of cowboys and farmers who were attempting to catch them.

On December 12, 1868, soldiers of the U.S. 3rd Cavalry and 37th Infantry arrived at the Nokoni village, later known as Soldier Spring, while Horseback was away. War Chief Tahka reacted against the long knives,^[1] leading the Nokoni warriors to fight. The Nokoni were defeated and Tahka died in the battle. The village was burned and stock was destroyed.

Attack on Big Red Meat's camp near Anadarko

Big Red Meat was among the Comanche leaders involved in the fight against the buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls. After the Adobe Walls battle, June 27–28, 1874, several Yamparika (Isa-nanica, Hitetetsi aka Tuwikaa-tiesuat, Piyi-o-toho, and, camping nearby, Tabananika and Isa-rosa), Kotsoteka (Mow-way, also camping nearby), Nokoni (Big Red Meat) and Quahadi (Kobay-oburra, head chief after Parra-ocoom's death) bands went to the Fort Sill agency for the census and the distribution of annuities, but only Isa-nanica was allowed to stay in the Fort Sill reserve. The other chiefs had to lead their people to the Wichita agency at Anadarko. Following the killings carried out by the Kiowa, Capt. Gaines Lawson and his company (25th Infantry) were sent to garrison Anadarko. They were reached by Colonel John W. "Black Jack" Davidson with four companies of 10th Cavalry from Fort Sill. On August 22, near Anadarko, a cavalry detachment was sent to Big Red Meat's village (60 tents) to take, not only rifles and guns, but also bows and arrows, and deport the Nokoni to Fort Sill as prisoners. With the Kiowa laughing at the Comanche, the Nokoni warriors reacted, and the soldiers fired on them. Guipago, Satanta, Manyi-ten, Pa-tadal ("Poor Buffalo") and Ado-ete came in with their Kiowa braves, and the remnant companies of 10th Cavalry came too, to face 200 or 300 Nokoni Comanche and Kiowa. During the night Davidson ordered Comanche tents and stock to be burned. The fight continued the following day, August 23, with four “blue jackets” and 14 warriors wounded (one of them killed), until Nokoni and Kiowa retreated, burning the prairie and killing some white men near Anadarko and along the Beaver Creek. Friendly Tosawi and Asa-havey led their Penateka to Fort Sill, while Horseback judged wiser to go, with his friendly Nokoni band, to the Wichita agency.^[2][3] The "hostile" Yamparika and Nokoni joined the Quahadi and Kotsoteka, camping at Chinaberry Trees, Palo Duro Canyon.

The last fight for freedom

While Horseback managed to prevent his Nokoni warriors's involvement in the Red River War in 1873–1874, Big Red Meat joined the hostile Comanche and Kiowa faction, uniting himself and his Nokoni warriors to Quanah Parker, Parra-o-coom ("Bull Bear"), Kobay-oburra ("Wild Horse"), Kobay-otoho ("Black Horse"), Isatai, and their Quahadi Comanche; to Mow-way ("He pushing-aside" ot "He pushing-in-the-middle", but usually called "Shaking Hand") and his Kotsoteka; to Tabananika ("Sound-of-the-Sunrise"), Isa-rosa ("White Wolf") and Hitetetsi a.k.a Tuwikaa-tiesuat ("Little Crow"), son to Ten Bears, and their Yamparika; and to the Kiowa led by Guipago, Satanta, Zepko-ete ("Big Bow"), Tsen-tainte ("White Horse") and Mamanti ("He Walking-above"). He was involved in the campaign led by Colonel Ranald Mackenzie with his 4th Cavalry Regiment (United States) against Quanah Parker and his followers through late 1874 and into 1875 in the Stacked Plains. And in the battle of Palo Duro Canyon, where the Army destroyed five Indian villages on September 28, 1874. Mackenzie's destruction of the Indians' horses, 1,000 of them in Tule Canyon, destroyed the Indians' resistance by taking the last of their prized possessions, their horses, and destroying their homes and food supplies. On November 5, 1874, Mackenzie’s forces won a minor engagement, his last, with the Comanches. Big Red Meat surrendered on October 23, after a fight against Maj. Schofield's 10th Cavalry companies near Elk Creek, and was jailed at Fort Sill. In March 1875 Mackenzie assumed command at Fort Sill and control over the Comanche-Kiowa and Cheyenne-Arapaho reservations.^[2][3][4][5]

Imprisonment and death

After the Palo Duro campaign (1874) and the surrender of the last hostile Comanche groups coming back from the Staked Plains, only nine Comanche men (one "Black Horse", but probably not Kobay-otoho, third chief of the Quahadi band, and eight "outlawed" warriors), were sent to Fort Marion, Florida. Neither Parra-ocoom, who died on June 27–28, 1874, during the Adobe Walls fighting, or Big Red Meat, who perished as a captive in the icehouse – temporarily used as a jail – of Fort Sill on January 1, 1875, would benefit from Kiyou's diplomatic skill in saving the most important warring chiefs of his people.

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