accustomed fashion. In the spring of 1871 Sa-
tanta organized and led a large raiding party
that struck white settlements in Jack County,
Texas. En route they encountered a wagon
train bound for Fort Richardson, attacked it,
and killed seven teamsters. Several days later
Indian agents at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, ques-
tioned various chiefs about the incident, and
Satanta freely admitted his part. General
Sherman thereupon had him arrested, along
with Chiefs Satank and Big Tree. Satank was
killed while trying to escape, but Satanta and
Big Tree were tried, found guilty, and sen-
tenced to hang. When various humanitarian
groups protested the sentence, it was com-
muted to life imprisonment at the Huntsville,
Texas, state prison. The chiefs served only
two years before President Ulysses S. Grant
pardoned them on the condition that they re-
main confined to their reservation. As a sign
of sincerity, Satanta renounced his militant
ways and handed over his vaunted buffalo
shield and lance to his son.
The former Kiowa chief lived peacefully
until 1874, when fighting broke out at the Wi-
chita agency under the aegis of Comanche
Chief Quanah Parker. Satanta was off the
reservation hunting at the time—a clear vio-
lation of his parole—but he was not part of
the uprising. When he tried explaining his be-
havior to reservation authorities, the former
chief was immediately arrested and sent
back to Huntsville. There he was condemned
to serve out the remainder of his life sen-
tence. The chief languished in prison for six
years, professing his innocence. At length,
both the commissioner of Indian affairs and
the prison superintendent argued for his re-
lease, but General Sherman refused. Santana,
however, had previously made up his mind to
die rather than surrender his freedom. On
September 11, 1878, he sang a death chant
and jumped from the balcony of a second-
story hospital room. Satanta was subse-
quently buried at the prison cemetery, all but
forgotten. However, in 1963 the Texas state
legislature permitted Satanta’s grandson to
relocate his remains from Huntsville back to
the Kiowa reservation at Fort Sill. “The Ora-
tor of the Plains” was finally laid to rest on
friendly soil with a full Kiowa ceremony and
military honors.Bibliography
Capps, Benjamin. The Warren Wagontrain Raid: The
First Complete Account of an Historic Indian At-
tack and Its Aftermath.New York: Dial Press, 1974;
Edmunds, R. David. American Indian Leaders:
Studies in Diversity.Lincoln: University of Ne-
braska Press, 1980; Maxwell, Linda L. “Satanta: Last
of the Kiowa War Chiefs.” Texana7, no. 2 (1969):
117–123; Meadows, William C. Kiowa, Apache, and
Comanche Military Societies.Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1999; Pate, J’Nell. “Indians on Trial in a
White Man’s Court.” Great Plains Journal14 (1974):
56–71; Robinson, Charles M. Satanta: The Life and
Death of a War Chief.Austin: State House Press,
1998; Robinson, Charles M. The Indian Trial: The
Complete Story of the Warren Wagon Train Mas-
sacre and the Fall of the Kiowa Nation.Spokane,
WA: A. H. Clarke, 1997; Watkins, T. H. “Chief Satanta,
I Presume?” American Heritage29, no. 6 (1978):
66–71.SATANTA