History: American Old West, United States

In the first half of the 19th century the Comanche, in the words of a U.S. military officer, were “the most powerful nation of savages on this continent.” From their domain in Comancheria, the Comanche and their allies, the Kiowa and Plains Apache, resisted the expansion of Spanish and Anglo settlements in Texas. Beginning in the 1820s and continuing until the 1860s the Comanche launched many large-scale and destructive raids that impacted Mexico hundreds of miles south of the Rio Grande River (Comanche-Mexico Wars). The Comanche also came into conflict with the independent Republic of Texas and the United States but retained control of Comancheria until after the Civil War.
In the Apache and Navajo Wars, Colonel Christopher "Kit" Carson forced the Mescalero Apache onto a reservation in 1862. Skirmishes between Americans and Apaches continued until after the turn of the century. In 1863-1864, Carson used a scorched earth policy in the Navajo campaign, burning Navajo fields and homes, and capturing or killing their livestock. He was aided by other Indian tribes with long-standing enmity toward the Navajos, chiefly the Utes. Later in 1864, he fought a combined force of more than one thousand Kiowa, Comanche, and Plains Apache at the First Battle of Adobe Walls. Carson retreated but he managed to destroy an Indian village and winter supplies. On June 27, 1874 Bat Masterson and a small group of buffalo hunters held off a large Indian force at the Second Battle of Adobe Walls. In the Red River War which followed the U.S. army systematically destroyed Comanche property, horses, and livelihood in the Texas panhandle, resulting in the surrender of the last Comanche war chief, Quanah Parker, in June 1975.
Red Cloud's War was led by the Lakota chief Makhpyia luta (Red Cloud) against the military who were erecting forts along the Bozeman trail. It was the most successful campaign against the U.S. during the Indian Wars. By the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), the U.S. granted a large reservation to the Lakota, without military presence or oversight, no settlements, and no reserved road building rights. The reservation included the entire Black Hills.
Captain Jack was a chief of the Native American Modoc tribe of California and Oregon, and was their leader during the Modoc War. With 53 Modoc warriors, Captain Jack held off 1,000 men of the U.S. Army for 7 months. Captain Jack killed Edward Canby.