Chief Quanah Parker, half-white, half Comanche, had fought a valiant battle to hold onto the Indians sacred hunting ground on the Llano Estacado in the Texas Panhandle. Organizing the Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne tribes into a formidable army, he led the Indians in a successful five year war with the U.S. Army and buffalo hunters. The power of the federal government proved to be too strong, however, and in 1875, Quanah led his tribe of Kwahadi Comanches off of the plains and onto the hated Indian reservation in Oklahoma. With the Indians gone, buffalo hunters swarmed the prairies and began to systematically slaughter the huge herds of bison, taking their hides and leaving the rest to rot. Cattlemen flooded the area with hundreds of thousands of longhorn cattle and great cattle ranches were established where the buffalo and Indians once roamed. However, for the next five years, the Llano Estacado remained unorganized and lawless, with the dregs of western humanity spilling into the area. The towns of Mobeetie and Tascosa sprang up, with the majority of business being saloons and brothels. Outlaws, gamblers, cattle rustlers and prostitutes were the principal residents, and operated without fear of arrest. The only law was the six-gun, and you either lived by it or died by it.

05/02