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Council House Fight irreparably damages Comanche-white relations
On this day in 1840, Republic of Texas soldiers killed some thirty
Penateka Comanche leaders and warriors and five women and children in
the Council House Fight in San Antonio. The Comanches had come to San
Antonio seeking to make peace. Texas officials had demanded that the
Comanches return all captives, but the Penatekas brought only a few
prisoners, including the severely abused Matilda Lockhart. After a
dispute about the other captives, Texas soldiers entered the Council
House, where the peace talks were being held, and informed the assembled
chiefs that they were to be held as hostages until the remaining
captives were released. The Comanche chiefs attempted to escape and
called to their fellow tribesmen outside the house for help. In the
ensuing melee, the soldiers killed most of the Comanches who remained in
the Council House courtyard. Six whites were killed and twenty wounded
as well. Texas authorities freed a single Comanche woman with orders to
secure the release of the remaining white captives in exchange for
twenty-seven Comanches captured in the fight. The Penateka leaders
refused to respond to Texas demands, and most of the Texans' captives
escaped. The Council House Fight outraged Comanche sensibilities, for
they considered ambassadors immune from acts of war. Led by Buffalo
Hump, the Penatekas retaliated by raiding deep into Texas. Comanche
hatred of Texans deepened and contributed much to the violence of the
frontier.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- COUNCIL HOUSE FIGHT
- COMANCHE INDIANS
- INDIAN CAPTIVES
- LOCKHART, MATILDA
- BUFFALO HUMP
- INDIAN RELATIONS
- REPUBLIC OF TEXAS
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Spanish priest and chronicler of Texas enters Franciscan order (1697)
- Cherokee leader arrives in Mexico City seeking tribal land grant (1826)
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