Ten Bears ( Comanche ''Pawʉʉrasʉmʉnurʉ''Anglicized as Parua-wasamen and Parry-wah-say-mer in treaties and older documents.) (ca. 1790-November 23, 1872) was the principal chief of the Yamparika or "Root Eater" division of the Comanche from ca. 1860-72. He was the leader of the Ketahto ("The Barefeet") local group of the Yamparika, probably from the late 1840s.
The ethnonym (group name), Yamparika or "Root Eater" Comanche was known to the Spaniards of New Mexico as early as the 1750s, but until about 1790, they were generally north of the
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...
and so were seldom specifically mentioned in Spanish documents. After that time, with the advance of Cheyennes (Comanche: ''paka naboo'' 'striped arrows'), and Cuampes, likely
Arapaho
The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...
s, some Yamparika local groups, including the Ketahto, relocated to the valley of the
North Canadian River
The North Canadian River is a river, long, in Oklahoma in the United States. It is a tributary of the Canadian River, draining an area of U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset/Watershed Boundary Dataset, area data covering North ...
in New Mexico and Texas.
Early life
Ten Bears was orphaned as a baby when his family group was murdered by Lakotas.Attocknie, F. J. (n. d.) "The Life of Ten Bears." Manuscript. Later Comanche oral history states that in his young adult years, he was noted for leading horse-mounted spear attacks on Lakota villages.
Rise to political prominence
Ten Bears was a key-figure in making peace between the Comanches and the Utes in 1820. Ten Bears was often in rivalry with a man named either ''Isakwahip'' 'Wolf's Back', or ''Isakiip'' 'Wolf's Elbow', leader of another local group in the North Canadian valley.Kavanagh, Thomas W. (1996) Comanche Political History. U Nebraska Press. .
In 1840 the Yamparika chief, Ten Bears, was one among the principal promoters (together with the Kiowa chiefs Dohasan and Satank and the Arapaho Hosa ''Little Raven'') of the peace and large alliance between the Comanche and Kiowa alliance and the Cheyenne and Arapaho alliance after the Cheyenne and Arapaho's victory at Wolf Creek during the spring 1838. To reach his purpose, Ten Bears (Parrawasamen) was able to gain the approval of such chiefs as the Kotsoteka Shaved Head ( Wulea-boo) and, even through Shaved Head’s support,
Big Eagle
Big Eagle ( Dakota: Waŋbdí Táŋka, c.1827–1906) was the chief of a band of Mdewakanton Dakota in Minnesota. He played an important role as a military leader in the Dakota War of 1862. Big Eagle surrendered soon after the Battle of Wood La ...
Buffalo Hump
Buffalo Hump (Comanche ''Potsʉnakwahipʉ'' "Buffalo Bull's Back") (born c. 1800 — died post 1861 / ante 1867) was a War Chief of the Penateka band of the Comanche Indians. He came to prominence after the Council House Fight when he led the C ...
Iron Jacket
Iron Jacket (Puhihwitsikwasʉ) (born c. late 1780s or early 1790sdied 1858) was a Native American War Chief and Chief of the Comanche Indians. Fehrenbach, T.R. ''"Comanches, The Destruction of a People''
Iron Jacket was a Comanche chieftain and ...
( Pohebits-quasho); together with Ten Bears (Parrawasamen), probably Tawaquenah and Huupi-pahati, certainly Buffalo Hump (Pocheha-quehip) and eventually Iron Jacket (Pohebits-quasho) represented Comanche nation during the negotiation near the Two Butte Creek, resulting in a peace agreement and a strong alliance between the two groups.
Ten Bears first came to the attention of
Anglo-America
Anglo-America most often refers to a region in the Americas in which English is the main language and British culture and the British Empire have had significant historical, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural impact."Anglo-America", vol. 1, Micro ...
ns in 1853 when he, among others, signed the Treaty of Fort Atkinson. His name was written as "Parosawano" and translated as 'Ten Sticks', a confusion of /pawʉʉra/ 'bear' with /paria/ 'dogwood stick'. The error was corrected in the 1854 revision of the treaty.
Ten Bears became the principal Yamparika chief about 1860 after the death of the man known to Anglos as 'Shaved Head' (''Wulea-boo'', possibly a Kotsoteka rather than a Yamparika Comanche); the latter's Comanche name is uncertain as there were several men whom Anglos called by that name.
In August 1861 Ten Bears (likely being himself the chief named as “Bistevana”) signed the Fort Cobb Treaty with gen.
Albert Pike
Albert Pike (December 29, 1809April 2, 1891) was an American author, poet, orator, editor, lawyer, jurist and Confederate general who served as an associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court in exile from 1864 to 1865. He had previously se ...
, the Confederate Indian Commissioner, sanctioning an alliance with the “Gray Jackets”.
In 1863, along with a delegation of Western Indians, including Southern Cheyennes, Southern Arapahoes, and Kiowas, Ten Bears visited Washington, but he was unable to get any major concessions for his people from the U.S. government.
In November 1864, Ten Bears was the chief of the Yamparika Comanches nearest the ruins of the Bent brothers' old adobe trading post (the first Adobe Walls, Texas, built ca 1840) when troops under Col. Christopher 'Kit' Carson attacked a nearby Kiowa village .Pettis, G. H. (1908) Kit Carson's Fight with the Comanche and Kiowa Indians. New Mexico Historical Society Publications, No. 12 (Santa Fe) Warriors from Ten Bear's village led the counterattack which drove off Carson's men, although one of Ten Bears' sons, ''Ekamoksu'' 'Red Sleeve' was killed.
Treaty of the Little Arkansas River
In 1865, Ten Bears and two of his sons, ''Isananaka'' 'Wolf's Name' and ''Hitetetsi'' 'Little Crow', along with other Comanches, mostly Yamparikas, signed the Treaty of the Little Arkansas River in Kansas.
The treaty created a reservation for the Comanches encompassing the entire panhandle of Texas. This was problematic, as the Federal government did not then "own" that territory and therefore could not reserve it: the Republic of Texas was annexed to the United States in 1849, but the Republic did not recognize any native land claims within its borders — this opinion was based on a faulty reading of Spanish and Mexican law and therefore in 1865 there were no "federal" versus "state" owned lands within the boundaries of Texas which the Government could "reserve" to the Native Americans.
Medicine Lodge Treaty
Two years later, at the October 1867 Medicine Lodge Treaty Conference, Ten Bears and other Yamparikas as well as a few other Comanches (but none of the newly emergent Kwahada division, who were delayed by sickness), agreed to a smaller reservation in western Indian territory of Oklahoma.
At that conference, Ten Bears gave an eloquent address:
Death
A year later in December 1868, a number of Yamparika local bands, including Ten Bear's, were along the Washita River in western Indian Territory, near their allied
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
s and within the boundaries of the latter's reservation. When troops under Lt. Col
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.
Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...
attacked the Cheyenne village under Black Kettle, Yamparika warriors from the village of ''Esarosavit'' 'White Wolf' joined in the counter attack, and "rode over" the detachment of Major Joel Elliot.
In 1872, Ten Bears again visited Washington, along with a delegation that included his grandson ''Cheevers'' (probably from the Spanish ''chiva'' 'goat', although Attocknie argues that it was ''tsii putsi'' 'little pitied one'), as well as other Comanches and Kiowas. But the hope that promises would be kept was ultimately futile. Ten Bears died soon after his return, November 23, 1872, at Fort Sill where he is buried.
In Popular Media
Ten Bears, played by the
Muscogee
The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsWill Sampson, is portrayed in the film '' The Outlaw Josey Wales'' as a Comanche chief defending his home who then makes a "live and let live" peace with the title character, portrayed by Clint Eastwood.
Sources
* Wallace, Ernest & Hoebel, E. Adamson. ''The Comanche: Lords of the Southern Plains'', University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1952
* Nye, Wilbur Sturtevant. ''Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill'', University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1983
* Leckie, William H. ''The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West'', University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1967
* Fowler, Arlen L. ''The Black Infantry in the West, 1869-1891'', University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1996
* Brown, Dee. ''Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West'', Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, 1970