White Horse (

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a 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 Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...

: Tsen-tainte, unknown c. 1840/1845–1892) was a chief of the

. White Horse attended the council between southern

plains tribes Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) ...

and the United States at Medicine Lodge in southern Kansas which resulted in the

Medicine Lodge Treaty The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name for three treaties signed near Medicine Lodge, Kansas, between the Federal government of the United States and southern Plains Indian tribes in October 1867, intended to bring peace to the area by re ...

. Despite his attendance at the treaty signing he conducted frequent raids upon other tribes and white settlers. Follower of such elders as

Guipago Guipago (Gui-pah-gho, or ''Lone Wolf he Elder' '' Alone among the Wolves '') (c. 1820 – July 1879) was the last Principal Chief of the Kiowa tribe. He was a member of the Koitsenko, the Kiowa warrior elite, and was a signer of the Little Arkan ...

, Satanta and old Satank, he was often associated with Big Tree (or ''Ado-ete''), this one too a young war leader in the Kiowa nation. In 1867 White Horse joined a war party of Comanches and Kiowas on a revenge raid against the Navajos, who were then living in exile on the reservation near

Fort Sumner Fort Sumner was a military fort in New Mexico Territory charged with the internment of Navajo and Mescalero Apache populations from 1863 to 1868 at nearby Bosque Redondo. History On October 31, 1862, Congress authorized the construction of For ...

, New Mexico. On June 12, 1870, White Horse led a raiding party on an attack on Fort Sill in

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

and stole seventy-three mules. On June 22 in an attack on a cattle drive on the

Chisolm Trail The Chisholm Trail was a trail used in the post-American Civil War, Civil War era to Cattle drive, drive cattle overland from ranches in Texas to Kansas wikt:railhead, railheads. The trail was established by Black Beaver, a Lenape guide and ran ...

, White Horse killed and scalped two men, prior to the arrival of a cavalry detachment which drove them off. On July 9, 1870, the Kiowa Indians made a raid into

Montague County, Texas Montague County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas, established in 1857. As of the 2020 census, its population was 19,965. The county seat is Montague. The county was created in 1857 and organized the next year. It is named ...

. They scattered a herd of cattle, killed two yoke of oxen, stole nine horses, one mule, a large amount of provisions, one tent, one wagon-cover, etc., all of which property was at the time owned by and in the possession of Colonel

Samuel Newitt Wood Samuel Newitt Wood (December 30, 1825 – June 23, 1891) was an American attorney, politician, newspaper publisher-editor, and Free State advocate in Kansas. Wood, who was also an early supporter of Women's Suffrage, was assassinated in 1891 i ...

. In a raid on August 7, 1870 in Montague County, they killed German immigrant farmer, Gottlieb Koozer, and took his wife and five children captive along with fourteen-year-old Martin Kilgore; the family was ransomed for $100 each at Fort Sill. Quaker Indian agent Lawrie Tatum bargained upon behalf of the hostages, not paying until they were all returned. White Horse took part in many raids, including the Warren Wagon Train Raid, on May 11, 1871 on Salt Creek Prairie in Texas, along with Satank, Satanta, Zepko-ete,

Mamanti Mamanti ("He Walking-above", "Sky Walker"), also known as Swan (c. 1835–July 28, 1875) was a Kiowa medicine man.

, Big Tree (and, perhaps, Guipago himself), but he wasn't arrested nor involved in the trial in Jacksboro. On April 20, 1872 Zepko-ete and Tsen-tainte, with about one hundred of their Kiowa warriors and Comanche allies, attacked a government wagon train at Howard Wells station, along the San Antonio - El Paso trail, killing 17 Mexicans and kidnapping a woman; two companies (A and H) of 9th Cavalry from Fort Clark, led by capt. N. Cooney and lt. F. R. Vincent, got the Indians, but were forced to retreat after suffering two casualties (lt. Vincent himself, deadly wounded, and a "Buffalo Soldier"); ten Indians (four in the assault on the wagon train and six in the fight against the "Buffalo Soldiers") were reported to have been killed. After Adobe Walls' fight, in June 1874, he joined Guipago and the Comanche under Quanah in the Red River War. The raiding would continue until April 19, 1875 when he and his band surrendered at Fort Sill. When forced by General

Philip Sheridan General of the Army Philip Henry Sheridan (March 6, 1831 – August 5, 1888) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close as ...

to choose those among his tribe to be imprisoned in the east, White Horse was among those chosen by

Kicking Bird Kicking Bird, also known as Tene-angop'te, "The Kicking Bird", "Eagle Who Strikes with his Talons", or "Striking Eagle" (1835 - May 3, 1875) was a High Chief of the Kiowa in the 1870s. It is said that he was given his name for the way he fought h ...

(''Tene-angopte''). He would join other Kiowa as well as tribe members of the Comanche, Caddo,

Southern Cheyenne The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes are a united, federally recognized tribe of Southern Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne people in western Oklahoma. History The Cheyennes and Arapahos are two distinct tribes with distinct histories. The Cheyenne (Ts ...

and

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 ...

imprisoned at

Fort Marion The Castillo de San Marcos ( Spanish for "St. Mark's Castle") is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States; it is located on the western shore of Matanzas Bay in the city of St. Augustine, Florida. It was designed by the Spanish ...

in St. Augustine, Florida.Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Issue 17, Part 1 p. 216 By Smithsonian Institution While incarcerated at Fort Marion, White Horse was among the prisoners who became artists in what would be called

Ledger Art Ledger art is a term for narrative drawing or painting on paper or cloth, predominantly practiced by Plains Indian, but also from the Plateau and Great Basin. Ledger art flourished primarily from the 1860s to the 1920s. A revival of ledger art b ...

, for the ledgers they were drawn in. In 1878 he and the other Kiowa prisoners were returned to the reservation in Indian Territory near Fort Sill.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:White Horse Native American people of the Indian Wars Native American leaders Kiowa people Texas–Indian Wars Native American painters Native Americans imprisoned at Fort Marion Native American drawing artists 1840s births 1892 deaths 19th-century Native Americans

See also

Notes