Buffalo Hump facts for kids

Buffalo Hump, whose Comanche name was Potsʉnakwahipʉ (meaning "Buffalo Bull's Back"), was an important war chief of the Penateka band of the Comanches. He was born around 1800 and died sometime before 1867. He became famous after a sad event called the Council House Fight. After this, he led the Comanches in a major attack known as the Great Raid of 1840.

Becoming a Comanche War Chief

Not much is known about Buffalo Hump's early life. He grew up learning how to be a warrior alongside his cousin, Yellow Wolf. Their uncle, Mukwooru, helped train them. As they grew older, they became more important leaders during the time when Mexico controlled Texas.

Comanche warriors from different groups often fought against other tribes. Buffalo Hump's group, the Penateka, fought northern tribes like the Cheyenne and Arapaho.

Early Raids and Leadership

In 1829, Buffalo Hump and Yellow Wolf led their warriors north. They wanted to get back a large group of horses stolen by the Cheyenne. The young Penateka warriors proved they were brave fighters. They found a Cheyenne village and took back many horses.

Later that year, Buffalo Hump and Yellow Wolf also led a big raid against Mexican settlements in the Guadalupe Valley. They became well-known raiders among the Mexican people. In 1835, they led 300 Comanche warriors in an attack against Parral, a town in Mexico.

By 1838, Buffalo Hump was an important war chief. He sent Yellow Wolf to lead the Penateka warriors while he went to Houston. There, he met with President Sam Houston and signed a peace treaty. However, when Mirabeau Lamar became president in December 1838, he wanted to fight the Native Americans. This caused the peace agreement to fail, and fighting started again.

Buffalo Hump became a very important historical figure after the Council House Fight in 1840. He led many Comanche groups in the Great Raid of 1840. Their main goal was to get revenge on the Texans. The Texans had killed thirty Comanche leaders during a peace meeting, even though the Comanches were under a flag of truce.

The Council House Fight

In March 1840, Comanche leaders went to the Council House in San Antonio to talk about peace. They sent 65 people, including several chiefs and women, under a white flag. This flag meant they wanted to talk peacefully.

The Texans expected the Comanches to bring back several white captives. At the meeting, the Comanche chiefs said they had brought all the captives their groups had, which was only one young girl. The Texans did not understand that the chiefs could not force other Comanche groups to give up their captives.

So, the Texans pulled out guns and told the Comanches they were now prisoners. They would be held until all the other captives were returned. The Comanches, who had no weapons, fought back with knives. Texans had hidden armed soldiers outside the building. When the fighting started, the soldiers shot into the room.

Thirty-five Comanches were killed, including all the chiefs, three women, and two children. Twenty-nine Comanches were captured. Seven Texans were also killed. The widow of one of the chiefs was sent back to her people. She was told that if all white prisoners were not returned, the Comanche prisoners in San Antonio would be killed.

This terrible event made the Comanche people very angry and bitter. After this, Buffalo Hump became the main war chief of the Penateka. Yellow Wolf and Santa Anna became his trusted partners.

The Great Raid of 1840

Buffalo Hump was determined to get revenge for the Council House Fight. In the summer of 1840, he called a meeting. He told other Comanche groups that he, Yellow Wolf, and Santa Anna would lead a huge raid against white settlements in Texas.

Before the main raid, Buffalo Hump, Yellow Wolf, Santa Anna, and Isimanica led 400 warriors. They raided settlements between Bastrop and San Antonio. This kept the Texas Rangers and militia busy.

In late July 1840, Buffalo Hump, Yellow Wolf, and Santa Anna led the Penateka warriors in the Great Raid. Other important Comanche chiefs might have joined too. The Comanches traveled all the way from west Texas to the coastal cities of Victoria and Linnville. Linnville was the second-largest port in Texas at that time.

This was perhaps the biggest organized raid by the Comanches ever. They attacked, burned, and robbed these towns. The Comanches killed many enslaved people and captured more than 1,500 horses.

The Battle of Plum Creek

On their way back from the coast, the Comanches easily defeated three different groups of Texas militia. Then, they fought another militia company. Finally, Texas Rangers and militia groups attacked them at the Battle of Plum Creek. This battle happened near Lockhart on August 12, 1840.

Texans later said this was a great victory for them. They reported that 80 Comanches were killed. This was a very high number of casualties for the Comanches. However, the Comanches managed to escape with most of their stolen horses and goods. The Comanches themselves seemed to see this fight as a victory. This makes it unlikely that they lost so many warriors. The fact that they kept most of their plunder also makes the Texans' story seem doubtful.

Treaty Talks with Texas and the U.S.

Even after the Council House massacre and the Great Raid, Sam Houston became President of Texas again. He and Buffalo Hump, along with other chiefs, agreed to a temporary peace in August 1843.

In October, the Comanches hoped to set clear borders for their land, called Comancheria. They agreed to meet Houston to negotiate a treaty. For the first time, all major Comanche groups in Texas, along with their allies, were involved. They were asked to free their white prisoners.

In early 1844, Buffalo Hump and other Comanche leaders signed a treaty at Tehuacana Creek. They agreed to return all white captives and stop raiding Texan settlements. In return, Texans would stop fighting them, set up more trading posts, and recognize the border between Texas and Comancheria.

However, the Texas Senate removed the border agreement from the final treaty. This made Buffalo Hump agree with Yellow Wolf and Santa Anna. They had always been suspicious of the Texans' true intentions. Buffalo Hump then rejected the treaty, and fighting started again.

Treaty with the United States

In May 1846, Texas joined the United States. Buffalo Hump led the Comanche group to new treaty talks at Council Springs. He signed a peace treaty with the United States. Yellow Wolf and Santa Anna were with him. They knew they were not strong enough to fight the U.S. or stop the many new settlers.

Buffalo Hump, however, refused an invitation to visit President James Polk in Washington. Instead, he joined Yellow Wolf on a large raiding trip to Mexico.

In early 1847, some Penateka chiefs, including Buffalo Hump and Santa Anna, met with U.S. Indian agent Robert S. Neighbors. They allowed German immigrants to settle in an area between the Llano and Guadalupe rivers.

In May 1847, Buffalo Hump and other chiefs met Neighbors again. They learned that the U.S. Senate had removed the part of the Council Springs treaty that stopped settlers from moving into Comancheria. Santa Anna said they had the right to raid Mexico. Since the U.S. was at war with Mexico, Neighbors did not object.

That summer, Buffalo Hump, Yellow Wolf, and Santa Anna led hundreds of warriors into Mexico. They burned villages, stole horses, and captured women and children. On their way back, U.S. soldiers attacked them, and they lost some of their stolen goods. In August, they were in Mexico again, leading 800 warriors.

Buffalo Hump and Yellow Wolf generally dealt peacefully with American officials in the late 1840s and 1850s. In 1849, Buffalo Hump helped guide an expedition from San Antonio to El Paso. In 1851, Yellow Wolf and Buffalo Hump led another big raid into Mexico.

The End of Penateka Freedom

In 1854, officials found a place for the Comanche people to live on a reservation. They chose an area for the Penatekas on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. In November, Buffalo Hump agreed to move his people to the reservation. However, Yellow Wolf refused, still wanting a clear border for Comancheria.

A week later, Yellow Wolf was killed by Lipan hunters. Buffalo Hump waited almost two more years. But in 1856, he finally led his people to the new reservation.

Life on the reservation was hard. Horse thieves and settlers often raided their land. His people were unhappy about losing their freedom and the poor food. So, in 1858, Buffalo Hump moved his group off the reservation.

While they were camped in the Wichita Mountains, U.S. troops attacked Buffalo Hump's band. The troops were supposedly unaware that Buffalo Hump's group had recently signed a peace treaty. The attack killed 80 Comanches.

Despite this, an older and tired Buffalo Hump led his remaining followers to a reservation near Fort Cobb in Oklahoma. He was very sad about the end of the Comanche way of life. He even asked for a house and farmland to set an example for his people. He tried to live as a rancher and farmer and likely died before 1867.

Portrayals in Media

Buffalo Hump has been shown in several TV shows and movies:

• Eric Schweig played him in the 1996 TV miniseries Dead Man's Walk.
• Wes Studi played him in the 2008 TV miniseries Comanche Moon.
• Horacio García Rojas played him in the History Channel series Texas Rising (2015).
• Wesley French played him in the German film Striving for Freedom [de] (2013).

See also

• Texas–Indian wars
• John Coffee Hays, admired by Chief Potsʉnakwahipʉ "Buffalo Hump"