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Addressing Leadership Failure: The Comanche Way
Once had a much cooler name
A Comanche warrior/medicine man named White Eagle (Kwihnai Tosabitʉ) said his magic could heal and even block bullets. He led a major sun dance gathering to inspire warrior confidence in divine assistance. At his urging, 1,000 warriors from several Plains Indian bands (including the famed Quanah Parker) made a bold attack on the Adobe Walls encampment in June 1874 while their inspirational leader remained a mile or so behind the lines, presumably wishing them well.
It was an utter disaster with fellows like the young Bat Masterson and Billy Dixon firing with deadly effect to ultimately repel the attackers. Dixon, a legendary sharpshooter, reportedly killed a chief at a distance of a mile and a half.
In response to this spectacular failure of claimed spiritual power and expertise, the Comanche gave their failed leader a new name: Isatai’i which means ‘Coyote Vagina’, and removed him from any leadership role. The likelihood of a political comeback with that new moniker was, of course, substantially reduced.
I think a policy of renaming elected officials and leading experts after a policy disaster could have salutary effects, don’t you think?
Published in General
I can think of a few new names for our current “chief.”
… but they probably are not printable here.
Better that than Arrow Cushion.
I love this story intensely. I am also very interested in Quanah Parker. Did he know that this snake oil medicine man was nuts. Quanah seems like a good judge of character.
:) I wrote on here about ol’ Isatai’i and the fight a few years ago (probaly six or seven now) … believe it was titled something like False Promises and Big 50s. As our con men false promisers of today he had lots to tricks to convince folks of his magical answers but it ran thin when the bullets were flying! One Comanche who had lost a relative rode up to him and struck him and preparing to kill him when a shot from about 800 yards killed him instead.
Quanah had a horse shot out from under him at about 500 yards and was able to0 save himself by laying down behind a dead buffalo. Both he and Isatai’i were young and in their 20s and they were able to collect the most southern Plains Indians force ever put together, probably about 400 or so mostly of Comanche and Cheyenne. Very few Kiowa took part althought the Sun Dance was for their benefit since the Comanche really didnt do it. But it backfired because the Kiowa were insulted because they felt the Comanche were not serious about what they considered a scared event.
But Isatai’i was enough of a poltico to have a ready made excuse – the day before some Cheyenne had killed and skinned a skunk, spoiling the magic required. There always seems to be a skunk in the woodpile somewhere!!
It was a three-day legendary battle:
Thinking about it , there were probably more southern plains Indians at the first Battle of Adobe Walls during the Civil War. (not that it is a matter of great importance!). Col. Kit Carson ran into a situation very much like what happened to Custer a little more than a decade later. There were several tribes camped seperately along the river for several miles. There were large encampments of Kiowa, Comanche, Southern Cheyenne and Arapahoe strung out for probably 15 miles or more.
The biggest differences between Custer and Carson were that Carson insisted on bringing some field artillery where Custer refused it – and Carson knew when to leave. The first big camp Carson came to was Kiowa and as he pushed deeper along the river he realized what he had stumbled into, used the howitzers to cover his retreat to the corrals of the old Bent Brothers’ trading post and then after fending off an attack declared victory and left in a hurry!
But Carson did accomplish his mission which was to slow down the attacks along the vital Santa Fe Trail which was important in bringing California gold east to the Union war effort. Comanche and Kiowa raider simply turned their attention to an unprotected Texas frontier line.
So much for your cowboy nerd lesson of the day!
I just spit my coffee all over my laptop monitor. So thanks for that.
Have you read “Empire of the Summer Moon“? Must reading for anyone interested in Quanah Parker.
Still too majestic sounding for our modern usage. I would prefer something along the lines of: President Weasel Vagina.
As far as actors playing “leader” roles, the species has appropriate precedent: