Big Red Meat

Piarʉ Ekarʉhkapʉ
Big Red Meat
Piarʉ Ekarʉhkapʉ; Big Red Meat
Nokoni Comanche leader
	In office; 1860–1875
Personal details
Born	c. 1820/1825
Died	January 1, 1875; Fort Sill icehouse
Known for	Leading the Nokoni Comanche from 1860 to 1875 during the last decade of the "Indian wars";

Big Red Meat (Comanche: Piarʉ Ekarʉhkapʉ – big red-meat, big red-food; c. 1820/1825 – January 1, 1875) was a Nokoni Comanche chief and a leader of Native American resistance against White invasion during the second half of the 19th century.

Young man

In his early life, Big Red Meat was trained under the Nokoni Chief Huupi-pahati (Tall Tree), and his second-in-command, Quenah-evah (Eagle Drink). Quenah-evah later replaced Huupi-pahati, after his death, possibly due to the smallpox and cholera epidemics of 1849. Quenah-evah took the role of principal chief, presumably with Horseback (Tʉhʉyakwahipʉ) as second-ranking chief, and Big Red Meat grew up as a war leader; he was considered the best fighter among the Nokonis.

During the 1850s and 1860s, Big Red Meat gained fame among the other Native American tribes in Texas because of his success in battle against them.

War leader

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

When Horseback, as the first-ranking chief, 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 (aka Kiyou's) band.

In 1868, the Comanche and

Texas Panhandle in late fall 1868, and then, near the Antelope Hills in Colorado, turning south toward the Wichita Mountains

and coming near the Nokoni villages. On December 25, 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; the U.S. commander, maj. Andrew Wallace Evans, marched on the encampment with his troops and 2 Mountain Howitzers; his blood still boiling after the Washita massacre of November 27h, and his warriors' too, seeing the soldiers coming, war chief Tahka engaged them in battle; the Nokoni were defeated and Tahka died in the fight, the village was burned, and the livestock were killed; Comanche warriors arrived from Big Red Meat's village to fight side-by-side with their kinsmen, and Kiowa, too.^[1]^[2]

Attack on Big Red Meat's camp near Anadarko

During a council at Fort Cobb, on November 6, 1872, retired Capt. Henry Alvord met some Comanche chiefs (Horseback, Big Red Meat, Mow-way, Tabananika, Puhiwitoya, Hitetetsi, Howea, Quitsquip, Esihabit, and Tokomi), to urge them that "good Indians" should be helped, but bad Indians should be punished (and their rations should be held by the agent); Esihabit, Big Red Meat, Mow-way, and Tabananika retorted harshly the U.S. government first was accustomed not to keep his promises.

Tosawi and Asa-havey led their Penateka to Fort Sill, while Horseback went with his Nokoni band to the Wichita agency.^[4]^[5]^[2]

The Yamparika and Nokoni joined the Quahadi and Kotsoteka, camping at Chinaberry Trees, Palo Duro Canyon.[1]

His final battle

While Horseback managed to prevent his Nokoni warriors' involvement in the

Satanta, Zepko-ete (Big Bow), Tsen-tainte (White Horse), and Mamanti (He Walking-above).^[1]

Imprisonment and death

Big Red Meat 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 Staked Plains. He was also in the battle of Palo Duro Canyon, where the Army destroyed five Native American villages on September 28, 1874. Mackenzie's final blow to the Native Americans' will was the killing of 1,000 of their horses in Tule Canyon. 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]^[4]^[5]^[6]

After the Palo Duro campaign (1874) and the surrender of the last hostile Comanche groups coming back from the Staked Plains, the nine remaining Comanche men were sent to Fort Marion, Florida. Big Red Meat died in captivity in the icehouse of Fort Sill on January 1, 1875.[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Wallace, Ernest & Hoebel, E. Adamson. The Comanche: Lords of the Southern Plains, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1952
^ ^a ^b ^c Nye, Wilbur S., Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1983
^ Kavanagh, William T., The Comanches, a History 1706-1875, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1996
^ ^a ^b Leckie, William H., The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West (University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1967)
^ ^a ^b Fowler, Arlen L., The Black Infantry in the West, 1869-1891 (University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1996)
^ Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, 1970)