Magoosh7

"Why shouldn't I kill you?" Mow-way, the Comanche leader glowered at the middle-aged man standing in front of him. "You are a Lipan Apache - and we have fought with you for generations. Some of your people help the bluecoats - they show the buffalo soldiers where we live. The Paneteka Comanches that used to live on the Brazos River reservation before they were moved to Indian Territory are your friends, not we Kotsoteka Comanches. The Paneteka have been reservation Indians a long time, and we are not."

Mow-way spoke in Spanish, knowing that the Lipan in front of him understood. Both Apache and Comanche had captured young Mexican children for generations, and the Spanish language had become the "lingua franca" of the Indians in West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

Just to the east, the escarpment of the Llano Estacado blocked the rising morning sun. The meeting took place at Willow Springs in the sand dunes northeast of modern-day Kermit. Mow-way and his warriors were returning from Mexico. The raid had been unsuccessful. In Mexico, Gov. Terrazas' vaqueros pursued them relentlessly after discovering them. After they crossed the Rio Bravo at Tres Linguas, a patrol from Fort Davis had found them. Colonel Shafter sent out more patrols. As a result, they were taking the sandhills route back to the east side of the Llano, going through the dunes, to Shafter Lake, then on to Tahoka Lake before finally returning to the camp in Las Lenguas canyon. Mow-way hoped the blowing winds would cover the ponies' tracks in the dunes.

Magoosh, the Lipan, had a ready answer, sure to make Mow-way listen. "I have lead for bullets that I just traded for from some Comancheros. I will give you some, if you will listen. If not, my men on the other side of that dune will start shooting. We should not be killing each other. We have a common enemy - the buffalo soldiers." The groups camped together, sharing information and planning to meet again.

I first learned of Mow-way years ago, when I was researching Apache history to learn more about Magoosh. I found mention of the above meeting (that occurred in 1871) in an old 1930's book at the Haley Library. When I began reading more Comanche history, I found more mention of Mow-way. Recently I bought Thomas Kavanagh's "Comanche Political History" and discovered that Mow-way was probably the most important Comanche before their final defeat. Kavanagh, using hundreds of references, has produced a detailed history of Comanches on the southern Great Plains.

Quanah Parker may have been with Mow-way at the meeting as a young warrior still seeking a reputation as a war leader. Most folks think of Quanah if asked to name a Comanche chief. A Midland elementary school is named after him. Kavanagh hardly mentioned Quanah, who became the most influential Comanche after they were finally defeated and forced to permanently reside on a reservation near Fort Sill, Okla.

Before reservation life, Quanah's rise to power was associated with his relationship to Isatai, the Comanche prophet who claimed he could keep the bullets of enemies from hitting Comanche warriors. Quanah is always identified as a Quahadi Comanche, the most defiant subgroup of the Kotsotekas. This term seems to have begun to be used in the 1870s to identify Comanches who never came to meetings to sign treaties, or to Fort Sill and the reservation for annuities, but who preferred to remain in the headwater canyons of the Red, Brazos and Colorado rivers.

Mow-way is first mentioned in American historical documents as being the principal Kotsoteka chief at the treaty that Albert Pike arranged between the Confederate government of Texas and the Comanche in 1861. In Spanish documents, Kavanagh found mention of Mague (a possible variant spelling of Mow-way) in papers describing a treaty between Jose Cordero, governor of Chihuahua, and Comanches in 1851, as an associate of Tabe Tuk, Bajo del Sol and other Comanches who roamed northern Mexico from 1848 to 1852.

After the meeting, Comanches and Apaches usually met on more friendly terms as long as either Apaches or Comanches lived in freedom. Chivat, a Lipan, lived out his life on the Comanche reservation, for example, and became an influential spiritual advisor to Quanah and others. On the reservation Mow-way and Quanah competed for leadership of all the Comanches, with Mow-way and Cheevers (the leader of the Panetekas) finally giving up their roles as leaders of the two major divisions of the tribe by 1880. The Willow Springs area, northeast of Kermit, is a special area to me.

The area is full of interesting details within my interests in West Texas ecology and history. At the junction of State Highway 115 and Farm-to-Market Road 874 is Winkler County Sandhills Park. Jane Parrish recently e-mailed  me to tell me about her experiences at the park. Four-wheeling folks often go there.

"We are middle-aged folks who love the dunes. People behave themselves and you can four-wheel for miles and miles." She wanted me to identify some animal tracks and asked about books to identify wildflowers there. Willow trees do grow in the dunes and often pools of water can be found. I found a species of plant (dogbane) near the water that was once used as a fish poison in East Texas, which indicates the potentiality for finding unique organisms in the dunes. The endangered Sagebrush Lizard is also found in the dunes of the region, as well.

Blue Mountain is the edge of the Llano Estacado that can be seen from Willow Springs. In between the two, cowboys in the 1930s found the charred remains of a wagon train. The artifacts of that wagon train (dated to the 1850s) are now at the Museum of the Big Bend on the Sul Ross University campus in Alpine. The identification of the people of the wagon train has never been established, to my knowledge. Blue Mountain is also the site where Harry Robinson lived a hermit's life from the 1860s until the early 1900s, at a place known as Mescalero Spring. According to ranchers of the area, a person can still see a cistern that he carved out of the hard caprock. Harry probably warily watched the campfires of Mow-way and Magoosh!

The more a person learns about a particular place, the more fascinating it becomes. I love to let my imagination take me back to the time of a story such as that of Mow-way, Magoosh and Harry. It is as if the stories become infused into my soul and heart, connecting me to the place in a wonderfully satisfying way.

Learning the identities and rhythms of the lives of the plants and animals of the area adds to the experience. Learning the stories and becoming familiar with the organisms makes it feel like home for me. The sense of belonging to a place is the taproot of patriotism - the premier reason for "bioregional" education, I believe.