Iron Jacket
Iron Jacket | |
---|---|
Puhihwikwasu'u | |
Quahadi Comanche leader | |
In office 1820–1850 | |
Personal details | |
Born | c. 1790 Comancheria |
Died | May 12, 1858 Little Robe Creek, Indian Territory (now Ellis County, Oklahoma) |
Cause of death | Gunshot wound |
Children | Peta Nocona |
Known for |
|
Iron Jacket (Comanche: Puhihwikwasu'u, lit. 'metal shirt'; born c. 1790 – died 1858) was a Native American War Chief and Chief of the Quahadi band of Comanche Indians.[1]
Iron Jacket was a Comanche chieftain and medicine man whom the Comanche believed had the power to blow bullets aside with his breath. His name probably resulted from his habit of wearing a Spanish
On May 12, 1858, the jacket (likely inherited from his ancestors) failed to protect him, and he was killed on the bank of the Little Robe Creek tributary of the
Early life
Not much is known about Iron Jacket's early life. He was born in the late 1780s or early 1790s, likely being son or nephew to Kwahadi chief Waakakwasi ("Trotter", called by Mexicans "Cota-de-Maya" or "Cota-de-Malla", i.e. "Iron Shirt" or "Iron Jacket"). He became a chief among the Kwahadi, or
It is believed today that he was a hereditary chief of the Comanche, and for decades the US and Mexican victims of his raids considered him a supernatural being because of his seeming invulnerability to any harm. Members of the Rangers, posses and the military on various occasions insisted that they shot the chief dead center without harming him.[3]
Evidently, this was because of the coat of old Spanish mail the chief wore, which appears to have protected him from light weapons fire. In any event, he was a feared and dangerous figure along the Texas and Mexican border, and in the Comancheria in the decades leading up to the American Civil War.[3]
Antelope Hills Expedition
The years leading up to the Civil War were particularly bloody on the Texas Frontier, as Iron Jacket, his son Peta Nocona, and other Comanche and Kiowa Chiefs clashed with encroaching white settlers in the Comancheria. In response to these raids, on January 27, 1858, Governor Runnels appointed John Salmon "Rip" Ford, a veteran Ranger of the Mexican–American War and frontier Indian fighter, as captain and commander of the Texas Ranger, Militia, and Allied Indian Forces, and ordered him to carry the battle to the Comanches in the heart of their homeland on the Comancheria.[1][page needed]
Ford, who earned his name due to his habit of signing casualty reports with the initials "RIP" for "Rest In Peace", was known as a ferocious and no-nonsense Indian fighter. Commonly missing from the history books was his proclivity for ordering the wholesale slaughter of any Indian, man or woman, he could find.[1] Ford's reason for this was simple: Comanche raids were brutal in their treatment of settlers. Thus, Ford was determined to meet brutality with brutality.[4][page needed]
Governor Hardin Richard Runnels issued very explicit orders to Ford, "I impress upon you the necessity of action and energy. Follow any trail and all trails of hostile or suspected hostile Indians you may discover and if possible, overtake and chastise them if unfriendly".[4][page needed]
On March 19, 1858, Ford went to the Brazos Reservation, near what today is the city of Fort Worth, Texas, and recruited the Tonkawa into his forces. Tonkawa Indians, the latter commanded by their "celebrated" chief Plácido, hailed as the "faithful and implicitly trusted friend of the whites" (with limited mention of their cannibalism),[5] undertook a campaign with approximately an equal number of Texas Rangers against the Comanches. Ford and Plácido were determined to follow the Comanche and Kiowa up to their strongholds amid the hills of the Canadian River, and into the Wichita Mountains, and if possible, "kill their warriors, decimate their food supply, strike at their homes and families and generally destroy their ability to make war".[4][page needed]
In April 1858, Ford established Camp Runnells near what used to be the town of
Battle of Little Robe Creek and death of Iron Jacket
At sunrise on May 12, 1858,[6] Ford and his joint force of Rangers and Tonkawa began an all-day battle with a dawn attack on a sleeping Comanche village. The so-called Battle of Little Robe Creek was actually three distinct separate incidents which happened over the course of a single day. The first was the attack on the sleeping village. The second was a follow-up attack on the village of Iron Jacket, somewhat further up the Canadian River. Iron Jacket was killed in this exchange, and the remainder of his village was saved by the timely intervention of Peta Nocona with a third force of Comanche who arrived to engage Ford while all the villages along the Canadian made a swift withdrawal.[7][page needed]
Iron Jacket's death came when he repeatedly rode down the line of firing Rangers and Tonkawa, taunting them. Many historians believe the mail that protected him from light weapons fire simply was not able to protect him from the buffalo gun used by Tonkawa Jim Pockmark which killed him or, as Ford records, "six rifle shots rang on the air".[8] In any event, the death of their legendary chief discouraged his warriors, and only the timely intervention of his son, Peta Nocona, and his warriors saved Iron Jacket's village. As it was, his body could not be recovered, and it was scalped and partially eaten by the cannibalistic Tonkawas.[1][page needed]
Personal life
Iron Jacket's son was the famous Comanche War Chief Peta Nocona and his grandson was Quanah Parker, the last Comanche Chief.
Legacy
In James DeShields' 1886 book, Cynthia Ann Parker, he notes "The trophies of Pohebits Quasho, including his lance, bow, shield, head-dress and the celebrated coat of scale mail, was deposited by Col. Ford in the State archives at Austin".[9] This claim is repeated verbatim in John Wesley Wilbarger's 1889 book, Indian Depredations in Texas.[10]
However, T. R. Fehrenbach wrote in his 1974 book, Comanches, The Destruction of a People; "the Rangers broke up his scale mail and kept the shingles for souvenirs. His other accoutrements, such as his lance and shield, were sent to the Governor in Austin for display."[6]
In popular culture
The 1980 film The Mountain Men featured a fictionalized version of Iron Jacket named "Chief Iron Belly", portrayed by Victor Jory.
Sources
- Books
- DeShields, James T. (1886). Cynthia Ann Parker. St. Louis, Missouri: Printing and Book Manufacturing Co. LCCN 12011021.
- Wilbarger, John Wesley (1889). Indian Depredations in Texas. Austin, Texas: Hutchins Printing Press. ISBN 0890155070.
- Richardson, Rupert Norval (1933). The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement: A Century and a Half of Savage Resistance to the Advancing White Frontier. Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clarke Co. OCLC 2472637.
- Wallace, Ernest; OCLC 1175397.
- ISBN 0292770340.
- Leckie, William H.; Leckie, Shirley A. (1967) The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West. Norman, Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806183896
- OCLC 110210.
- Newcomb Jr., William W. (1972) The Indians of Texas: from Prehistorics to Modern Times. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292784252
- ISBN 0394488563.
- LCCN 98007715.
- Hagan, William T. (1976). Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. LCCN 92-31563.
- Nye, Wilbur Sturtevant. (1983) Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. LCCN 79-13137
- JSTOR 10.7560/734005.
- Schilz, Jodye Lynn Dickson; Schilz, Thomas F. (1989) Buffalo Hump and the Penateka Comanches. El Paso, Texas: Texas Western Press. ISBN 0874041791
- Chalafant, William Y. (1991) Without Quarter: the Wichita Expedition and the fight on Crooked Creek. Norman, Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press. LCCN 91-50300
- Fowler, Arlen L. (1996) The Black Infantry in the West, 1869-1891. Norman, Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press. LCCN 96-14945
- Exley, Jo Ella Powell (2001). Frontier Blood: The Saga of the Parker Family. LCCN 2001002241.
Notes
- ^ LCCN 73-20761
- ^ Rea, Bob. "Battle of the Antelope Hills". Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
- ^ a b "Iron Shirt". North American Nations.
- ^ OCLC 2472637.
- ^ "Antelope Hills". 17 December 2020.
- ^ a b Fehrenbach 1974, p. 431.
- LCCN 2001002241.
- ^ Ford 1963, p. 233.
- LCCN 12011021– via Project Gutenberg.
The trophies of Pohebits Quasho, including his lance, bow, shield, head-dress and the celebrated coat of scale mail, was deposited by Col. Ford in the State archives at Austin, where, doubtless, they may yet be seen,—as curious relics of by-gone days.
- ISBN 0890155070. Retrieved October 10, 2023 – via Google Books.
The trophies of Pohebits Quasho, including his lance, bow, shield, head-dress and the celebrated coat of scale mail, was deposited by Col. Ford in the State archives at Austin, where, doubtless, they may yet be seen, as curious relics of bygone days.