Isatai'i, also known as Isatai, or Eschiti (, ; c. 1840 – 1916) was a
Comanche
The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...
warrior and medicine man of the Kwaharʉ band. Originally named Quenatosavit (; ), after the debacle at Adobe Walls on June 27, 1874, he was renamed Isatai'i. Isatai'i gained enormous prominence for a brief period in 1873-74 as a prophet and "messiah" of Native Americans. He succeeded, albeit temporarily, in uniting the autonomous Comanche bands as no previous Chief or leader had ever done. Indeed, his prestige was such that he was able to organize what was said to be the first Comanche
sun dance
The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by some Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada, primarily those of the Plains Indians, Plains cultures, as well as a new movement within Native American religions. Members of ...
, a ritual that his tribe had not previously adopted.
Early life
Not much is known about Isatai'i’s youth. He was born a Kwaharʉ Comanche, a few years before Quanah Parker, probably about 1840. As an adult he became a medicine man, not a traditional warrior. He first came into prominence right before the
Second Battle of Adobe Walls
The Second Battle of Adobe Walls was fought on June 27, 1874, between Comanche forces and a group of 28 Texan bison hunters defending the settlement of Adobe Walls, Texas, Adobe Walls, in what is now Hutchinson County, Texas. "Adobe Walls was ...
as he preached a Messianic War against buffalo hunters and other whites he feared were ending the Comanche way of life. Isatai'i's prophecies were based on his claim that he had ascended far above the earth into the clouds and had conversed with the
Great Spirit
The Great Spirit is an omnipresent supreme life force, generally conceptualized as a supreme being or god, in the traditional religious beliefs of many, but not all, indigenous cultures in Canada and the United States. Interpretations of it v ...
. He claimed the Great Spirit had granted him extraordinary powers. Among these powers were the ability to cure the sick, bring the dead back to life, to control the weather and other natural phenomena, and to make bullets fall to the ground, harming no one. He claimed that he could belch up bullets and cartridges and re-swallow them. He correctly predicted the disappearance of the comet in 1873, and also correctly predicted a drought that year—predictions that solidified his status as a miracle worker, prophet, and medicine man.
Preparing for the Second Battle of Adobe Walls
Isatai'i brought all the bands of the Comanches together for the sun dance in May 1874. At the sun dance, he began preaching a war of revenge and extermination, and told the warriors they would be invulnerable to their enemies. Comanche history says that Isatai'i’s hatred of the whites was motivated by the deaths of family members at their hands.
It is notable that members of other tribes, mainly the
Kiowa
Kiowa ( ) or Cáuigú () people are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe and an Indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colora ...
s and
Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...
s, found his message appealing. At first, the Comanche wished to exterminate the
Tonkawa
The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe from Oklahoma and Texas. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct language, extinct, is a linguistic isolate. Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the Federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Tonkawa ...
s, long allies and scouts for the hated Texas Rangers. But disregarding that plan as secondary to the need of saving the buffalo, then approaching extermination at the hands of white hunters, the Comanches decided to attack the hunters in the Texas Panhandle, who were destroying the buffalo and thereby endangering the Native American Plains tribes' chief source of food. On June 27 a party of between 250 and 1000 Indians, primarily all the bands of the Comanches, but including Kiowa and Cheyenne, attacked the buffalo hunters who were camping at the old trading post of Adobe Walls, on the
South Canadian River
The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River in the United States. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma. The drainage area is about .Billy Dixon made what may be the most famous rifle shot of the west, hitting a Comanche chief one mile (1.6 km) away.
About fifteen warriors were killed and a larger number wounded, including Quanah Parker.
After Adobe Walls
Isatai'i tried to avoid blame for the disastrous defeat by claiming his magic had been weakened before the battle when a Cheyenne killed a skunk, breaking a religious taboo. This was received poorly (especially by the Cheyenne
Dog Soldiers
The Dog Soldiers or Dog Men (Cheyenne: ''Hotamétaneo'o'') are historically one of six Cheyenne military societies. Beginning in the late 1830s, this society evolved into a separate, militaristic band that played a dominant role in Cheyenne r ...
), and he was severely beaten and renamed from Kwihnai Tosaabitʉ (English: White Eagle) to Isatai'i (Wolf's Vulva). Isatai'i was discredited and publicly humiliated.
Later life
In an entry from the ''Handbook of Texas'', Gaines Kincaid writes that "although many military historians do not consider the Second Battle of Adobe Walls a major historic engagement, it was a crushing spiritual defeat for the Southern Plains Indians, who had come to believe fully in the superhuman prophetic powers of the medicine man". Being driven off by civilian buffalo hunters certainly marked the end of their time as any sort of military power. Within a year, the Comanche and Kiowa were all on the reservation.
Isatai'i died in 1916, and is buried in a family cemetery in
Stephens County, Oklahoma
Stephens County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 42,848. Its county seat is Duncan, Oklahoma, Duncan. The county was created at state ...