Warren Wagon Train Massacre
Graham, Young County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1.5 mi. E), On May 18,1871, Kiowas and Comanches from the Fort Sill Reservation, in present Oklahoma, attacked a train of 12 wagons owned by Capt. Henry Warren, a contractor of supplies for U.S. forts in this frontier region. Seven teamsters were killed. The chiefs who led the raid were soon arrested, and Satank committed suicide. In a nationally spotlighted trial at Jacksboro, Satanta spoke with great eloquence on behalf of his people. Texas' Governor, E. J. Davis, later commuted the death sentences given by the court. (1977)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On May 18, 1871, Kiowa and Comanche warriors leaving the Fort Sill reservation struck Henry Warren's wagon train hauling army supplies across this raw frontier, killing seven teamsters. The chiefs who led the raid were arrested; Satank died resisting, while Satanta pleaded eloquently for his people at a closely watched trial in Jacksboro. Governor E. J. Davis later commuted the resulting death sentences.
Why it matters
The raid and its landmark trial marked a turning point in federal Indian policy on the southern Plains, forcing the reservation-versus-freedom conflict into a national courtroom.
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Related people
- · Henry Warren
- · Satank
- · Satanta
- · E. J. Davis
Related events
- · Warren Wagon Train Massacre
- · Jacksboro trial of Satanta and Big Tree
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Buried Here are the Remains of Seven Teamsters
Loving, TX
This marker names seven teamsters hauling forage between Jacksboro and Fort Griffin who were killed on May 18, 1871, in a raid led by the Kiowa chiefs Satanta, Satank, and Big Tree along with Comanche warriors. The attack on Henry Warren's contract wagon train was one of the most notorious episodes of the Southern Plains wars, and it led directly to the arrest and trial of the Kiowa leaders. Texas erected the memorial in 1936.
Britt Johnson
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Britt Johnson, a formerly enslaved African American frontiersman, worked as a cowboy and scout near Fort Belknap when the Elm Creek Raid of October 1864 killed his son and carried his wife and children into captivity. He tracked his family and, by daring and stealth, recovered them from Indian Territory. In 1871 Kiowa warriors attacked his camp near this spot; the more than one hundred spent shells around his body testified to the fierce fight he and two companions waged before they were killed.
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Young County's early history swung with the fortunes of the frontier: organized in 1856 at Belknap, it saw its records flee to Jacksboro amid renewed Indian conflict during the Civil War before being reorganized around Graham in 1874. In 1884 workers quarried native sandstone east of town to raise a two-story courthouse laid out as a Greek cross, built by Swedish-born mason N. J. Rosenquist. Razed in 1932, the building survives only in a single preserved archway rescued during 1936 street work.
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