Chapter 30: Conclusion

White Woman (Marie) was content, more so than she ever thought she could be as a part of the Comanche community. By 1874, White Woman had two children, a little boy of three and a little girl a year and half old. White Woman and Lone Wolf shared a love she would never have believed possible before or right after her capture.

She shared the life of the nomadic community, moving from camp ground to camp ground in summer as grass around the camp gave out for the ponies and the buffalo food supply also migrated. Red Feather and even Sings in the Morning had become almost as dear to her as parents as was her father, Sean, back in Naw'lins. Another thing she never though would ever be possible.

The little boy had a penchant for chasing birds and consequently acquired the childhood name of He Who Chases BIrds. He would take an adult warrior name later as part of his vision quest. The little toddler girl was given the name Bright Morning Flower. Besides Lone Wolf, the two children were the heart and soul of White Woman's existence.

In the Indian way, Lone Wolf proved to be a good husband, provider, and father. Once in a great while, White Woman's thoughts would stray to what might have been with Jesse.

But, she thought, that's water under the bridge now. But I do wonder about father and Julie, how they are, and what they might be doing now. White Woman was startled from her reverie and back the present when "Chases," as Marie liked to call him, tugged at her doeskin dress and laughingly pointed to a colorful bird in a nearby bush.
But, as the '70s got under way, ominous dark clouds were gather over Comancheria. White settlers were flocking to Texas in droves and expanding out of East Texas more rapidly than ever before.

The Comanche fought tooth and nail to try to stop this flood of invaders. The Comanche regained some ground, which they were losing before 1860, in this battle during the time of the white man's war out east because of the troop drain caused by that war. But the Texas Rangers and the Federal troops were back with a vengeance after Appomattox.

Even before Appomattox with some of the inadequately few troops that had remained in the west during the war, a major blow was struck against the Comanche. White Woman heard the pre war stories told as verbal history both in public at special events and in private by the women as they worked together.

In November, 1864, just nineteen weeks before the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, Colonel Christopher "Kit" Carson, who under the command of General James Carleton had recently defeated the Apaches and Navajos, also led his New Mexico volunteers and the auxiliaries against a combined force of Comanche and Kiowas at Adobe Walls. This Adobe Walls was a former trading post in the Canadian River Valley of the Texas Panhandle.

Using the one thing the Comanche feared the most, 12-pounder howitzers, Carson's men managed to drive off the Indians and, most seriously of all, burn their winter stores. A similar set back occurred for the Comanche in the Battle of Soldier Spring on Christmas day, 1868.

As a result of the overall campaign of General Phil Sheridan, of which this battle was a part, General Sheridan established the combined Comanche-Kiowa reservation in the southern part of the Indian Territory, Just north of the Red River. The reservation was to be patrolled by troops from Fort Still.

Although this was the start of President Grant's so-called Peace Policy towards the Indians, raiding for the Comanche and Kiowa was a way of life and would persist despite white attempts at acculturating, Christianizing, and pacifying the Indians.

The day of Comanche supremacy were numbering fewer and fewer as the decade of the seventies began and advanced. Even so, this supremacy died a hard death. White Woman was living with a Comanche group, witnessing these final days first hand.

A new phase of Indian hostilities and the subsequent army mobilization began in May, 1871. After a lengthy campaign of battles, three important chiefs, Satanta, Satank, and Big Tree, were lured to the council table. A fight broke out which resulted in the death of Satank and the other two were sentenced to death by the army.

By this time, Quanah Parker, son of a Nocona Comanche chief and Cynthia Parker, a white girl raised as Comanche from her capture as a nine-year old in 1836, had established himself as one of the foremost Comanche chiefs. Quanah had grown up with the Kwahadie Comanche, living along the edge of the Llano Estacado or Staked Plains. Their chief occupation was fighting the hated whites, at least when not raiding in Mexico.
A number of bands joined with Quanah in what became the final conflict between the army and the Comanche which ended with the defeat and subjugation of the Comanche on the reservation once and for all. This was the so-called Red River War of 1874-75.

Among other conflicts, this involved a second battle at Adobe Walls, site of Kit Carson's battle a decade earlier. This second battle was also a resounding defeat for the indians. In retaliation and frustration, the Comanche-Kiowa began another intense campaign of violence against the white settlers.

Finally, on September 28, 1874, Colonel Ranald Mackenzie dealt a crushing blow to the Comanche in an attack on their sanctuary-stronhold in Palo Duro Canyon, where many Indians had taken refuge. Although Colonel Mackenzie killed only three warriors, he captured or killed most of their horses--an estimated 1,500 head--and destroyed their lodges.

By the following month, demoralized, homeless, destitute, and without transport, refugees began surrendering to the garrisons at For Still and Fort Reno. A few of the Kiowa held out until February, 25, 1875.

On June 2, 1875, the last of the Comanche, yielding to the pressures of relentless pursuit and the wilderness, also came in under a flag of truce, led by Quanah Parker. The so-called "Lords of the Southern Plains," the Comanche and Kiowa, had been conquered once and for all.

White Woman, widowed when Lone Wolf was killed in battle earlier in the year, and her two children, were among the refugees leaving Palo Duro Canyon in August-September of 1874. She was with a band of refugees who surrendered at Fort Still. When her turn at interrogation came around, she gave her name when asked, as Marie Judson Owens of Naw'lins.

"What did you just say?" asked the startled lieutenant.

"I said, my name is Marie Judson Owens of Naw'lins," replied Marie.

"Well you damn sure, ah pardon me, ma'am, you sure do look like an Indian. What happened to you?"

Marie replied, "That's probably because of my naturally dark, Creole complexion which has been darkened more by a number years living with the Comanche in the sun since my capture. Besides English, I speak both French and now the Comanche language quite fluently."

"Well, I'll be da--uhhh dog gone! Captain? Captain!"

"Yes, Lieutenant, what is it?" came the answer through the connecting door to the inner office.

"Uh, sir, I think you'd better come out here!"

Meanwhile, during these same span of years, Jase and Julie had also been busy. After the discovery of the body of Jesse and the other young couple, Jase and Julie spent another six months on the trail, searching for any clue as to the where abouts of Marie or word of any white captives the Indians might want to ransom back.

Nothing. Not a single word or clue. Finally, Jase called a halt to the search when he said, "Julie, we can't do this indefinitely, I propose to take you back to Waco and relative safety. We need to get our lives in order. I won't give up hope on Marie, but finding her is going to have to go to the back of the stove for now."

"I know," Julie reluctantly replied, "I am so discouraged, she could be anywhere in Texas, close by or clear across the state. And, I'm tired of trail life. It can go hard on a girl after so long a time."

Within a short time, gear was packed and the couple headed out on the long journey back to Waco.

Back in Waco at long last, Jase got them accommodations at a nice hotel. Julie unpacked.

Jase said, "Julie, I'm going to look up Jed and his wife and invite them for supper here so they know we're back and we can share more information. How does that sound to you?"

"That sounds fine to me." said Julie, "I'll be glad of some female company for a change. I need a chance to talk about girl things again."

"Great," replied Jase, "Then I'll step out now and look up Ned at the hardware store where he works. If he agrees, I'll stop by the house to tell Jill. I'll be back shortly."

Jase and Julie would spend the next five years, until the middle of the summer in 1874, in Waco. Jase had accepted a job as deputy sheriff. Nine months later, the sheriff died in a hail of gunfire when he interrupted a bank robbery, but not before he dropped one of the five.