In 1874, the U.S. government dispatched some 3,000 army troops to the Texas panhandle to forcibly move the Indigenous tribes who occupied the region onto reservations that had been established in western Indian Territory. The military campaign against the Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes consisted of a series of battles and skirmishes in what is known today as the Red River War of 1874 and resulted in the defeat and removal of the tribes. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the Red River War and its causes and will discuss the salient results of the archeological investigations at several of the battle sites that were conducted by the Texas Historical Commission during their Red River War Battle Sites Project.
J. Brett Cruse is the Chief Archeologist with the Historic Sites Division of the Texas Historical Commission in Austin. After receiving his master’s degree in archeology from Texas A&M University, Brett worked on various archeological field projects in the U.S. south, southwest, and several states along the eastern coast. In 1995, Brett joined the Texas Historical Commission where he served as the Project Director of the Red River War Battle Sites Project from 1998-2008. He is the author of the award-winning book Battles of the Red River War: Archeological Perspectives on the Indian Campaign of 1874.