Free The Black Jacks by Jason Manning

around the rim. A war club depended by a thong from his wrist. He wore beaded moccasins, fringed deerskin leggings, and a red breechcloth. His hair was parted in the middle and braided on the sides, the braids wrapped in fur. A yellow hawk's feather dangled from his scalplock.
    The Quohadi had encamped on the upper Brazos, less than a hundred miles northwest of Torrey's Trading Post and the town of Bucksnort, beyond the Cross Timbers—that north-south band of ancient pine forest—from the major settlements of the Republic of Texas. The normal range of the Antelope Band was far to the west, and so they, of all the Comanche bands, had tangled least with the Texans. A dozen times Gray Wolf had fought the Utes, who feared the Quohadi and called them the komantcia —"enemy"—from which the white man had coined the name Comanche. But, unlike the warriors of the Penatekas, the Tanimas, and the Tanawas, Gray Wolf had yet to raise a hand in anger against the whites. He hoped he would never have to.
    All along the river more than a hundred tepees had been erected beneath the bright green willows and dusty gray cottonwoods. The larger skin lodges of the old patriarchs stood nearby, and Gray Wolf bent his steps in that direction.
    The council was about to get under way, and many of the Quohadis had congregated to listen to the leaders of the Antelope band, as was their right. The crowd parted respectfully to let Gray Wolf pass, and he took his place among the young war chiefs in the circle of council members in front of the tepee of Maguara, the principle chief of the Quohadis.
    Maguara rose to speak first. He was obliged to explain why he had called the council. He reviewed what had gone before: how the Texans had met with chiefs of the Penateka band a year ago, and rejected the Penateka request for the establishment of a boundary between the settlers and the Comanches—a boundary initially proposed by the old chief of the whites, the one the Cherokees called The Raven, who was no longer in power. But the Texans had suggested another meeting, this one to be attended by representatives from all the Comanche bands. As a demonstration of good faith, the Comanches were to turn over all their white captives. Texas agents had circulated among all the bands, and the Comanches had listened to what they had to say. Any man, even a Texan, who came into a Comanche camp to talk peace was safe.
    So the Quohadis had come to this place on the upper Brazos—not all of them, only the chiefs and sixty warriors, many with their families. Yet now that the meeting with the Texans was imminent, doubts had been raised about the wisdom of going through with it. Maguara had summoned this council in the hope that these differences could be worked out.
    The old chiefs spoke first. Although they were known as the peace chiefs, not all of them were keen on making a peace treaty with the Texans. A couple believed that the best way for the Quohadis to keep the peace with the whites was to go back to the Llano Estacado and mind their own business. This would not do, argued others who took a broader view. What of the other bands who ranged much closer to the settlements of the Texans? Unless a boundary could be established and peace maintained, the Texans would continue to spread ever deeper into Comanche land, and soon they would reach even the Staked Plain, and then the Quohadis would no longer be able to ignore the problem. No, it was better to treat with the Texans now, before they began to invade the traditional range of the Quohadis.
    Next it was the turn of the young war chiefs to speak, if they chose to do so. Two Eagles stood and addressed the council. He reiterated the apprehensions Tall Horses had earlier expressed to Gray Wolf. The Texans could not be trusted. Even if they gave their word they would not keep it. Look at what had happened to the Cherokees. They had agreed to a treaty of peace with the whites, and now the whites had attacked them and