The Comanches Wanted Her Red Hair: Alice Todd's Family Attacked By Indians in Mason County, TX, 1864

In this episode we read from the Spring 1961 issue of True West magazine, in an article written by William C.X. Hancock and illustrated by B.J. McCausey. This story is about Alice Todd, who went to school in San Saba, TX, and lived near Fort Mason where Robert E. Lee was stationed. When the federal troops left, Buffalo Hump's Comanches began a reign of terror on the settlers who remained on the western edge of Texas civilization.
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[@randomvintagefilm273]

My GreatX3 passed down a story of how they were traveling from Illinois to Nebraska and were camped out by a creek. His daughters were washing clothes by the creek when an Indian quietly rode up and grabbed the smallest girl. My G3 got on his horse and was able to catch up and there was a fight. He yelled to the girl to jump and run and when the Indian saw she escaped he gave up. He mentioned he was so happy that he had just bought a fast horse.

[@rhonda8231]

Oh, wow, that is an amazing story. Thank G-d that she was saved! How did they do after that?

[@garyshearer895]

😊​@@rhonda8231

[@garyshearer895]

❤❤

[@marshallfalconberry5187]

why not have stories of how the rightful caretakers of the land,the Natives,we're cheated,tortured,women raped,babies bashed brains out ,killed on sight.Genocide just like the Nazi,s n now we get to hear stories glamorizing the taming of the West.Was the Author there? No! Just made up ,trying to fool us , just as they,ve always done. Simply Sickening!

[@randomvintagefilm273]

@rhonda8231 The records show they made it to Nebraska where they had a claim. They were later forced off the land when a rich land barron came to the territory and said the land belonged to him. They then tracked back to Iowa.

[@EstherSmith-uo2mr]

I like these old diaries that have been left for us. Un changed History for us. Thank you for sharing.

[@EstherSmith-uo2mr]

So many families have stories not told . My family has a story. It was hard also.

[@01Lenda]

At the pictographs, on a ranch, near a town in Texas, is the native story of the raid, against the Todd family, by the Comanches. Was said to be one of the last pictographs, in that particular area, by the Comanches. I wondered what happened to Alice Todd. Some say she married a Kiowa Chief, some say she was killed, some say she married a Comanche Chief. No one really knows. Great story, thanks!

[@lindacook8819]

The Indians were nomads, the settlers wanted to find a place to settle. Two cultures clashing over land. Happened all over the world and is still happening today.

[@gorgeous6737]

It just happened that it was their land...

[@cuetlaxochitl]

Not all Indians were nomadic

[@80sGamerLady]

No kidding

[@alexialanda27]

They were semi-sedendary with permanent and seasonal villages throughout their territory. Common misconception that Anglo-American settlers spread to justify taking land.

[@kristinamikkelsoncasanova6287]

My grandmother had dealings with Natives and her daughter Vera ..my aunt back around 1909....an Indian in the store tried to buy my aunt Vera because of her red hair. This was back in northwestern Nebraska. The native grabbed at her and my grandmother grabbed a broom and wacked him.

[@markgray6982]

I found a nice fleshing rock and several arrow heads and a friend found a dandy Lance head on Comanche creek in Mason County,,,,,and i found a Topaz the size of a Golfball also

[@focuszx]

Story telling perfection.

[@aprilmae274]

On so many levels, it really is.

[@cuetlaxochitl]

It’s white coloniser storytelling. Think about it for the people that were here before.

[@edwardkennelly677]

That is a sad story. Always hoping for a happy ending😞

[@thomaswayneward]

There are graves all over Texas of whites killed by Comanches. No one could live with the Comanches, they were the most violent tribe in Texas.

[@cuetlaxochitl]

You mean a happy ending for the colonisers or for the people whom this land belonged to in the first place?

[@breezymango4113]

God inspired the people to come to America. The Native tribes/people could have had this land/country to themselves always, if they had been faithful to God and Jesus Christ.

[@carlclarkarmyret137]

Great stories, great story telling

[@deaddocreallydeaddoc5244]

It is actually quite ridiculous if you know anything about the era or the real story. Indians didn't hang around white people or general stores, and the whites didn't praise the Idnans, either. The Todds were on the way to see a cousin's newborn baby when the Commanches struck and killed George Todd's wife, a female slave, and Mrs. Dwinzel Todd. Mr. Todd claimed his horse panicked and carried him away, but it looks like he fled in panic, But he spent many years trying to find Alice.

[@reshmeytharakan9726]

I’m sure it was far darker. Women were not treated equally back then. They were sold, even by colonial people as well. Not hard to believe the young girl was originally sold.

[@elizabethoneill1995]

Yes before any white man ever set foot on the North American continent the Indians were capturing other Indians from neighboring tribes and making them slaves and they did sell them

[@sheepdog1102]

How terrible for this family 😮

[@socadream]

Selling my late dad’s rock house in Brady, a town nearby Mason. Heard stories

[@BarARanchMason]

This is down the road from the ranch. Peter’s Creek is on the ranch.

[@rhonda8231]

That is so sad. The Todd's suffered so much.

[@cuetlaxochitl]

The Todd would’ve stayed in England this never would’ve happened.

[@dogparty-tt8qw]

Thanks bro👍

[@socadream]

Can still visit Fort Mason.

[@michaelfrost4584]

Soo sad a story R.I.P

[@aprilmae274]

This is brilliant.

[@lisacooper3991]

I enjoy the western and the frontier mountain men history.. but I never understood why the settlers instead of just getting a piece of land, building a cabin for themselves and living so far apart out in Indian territory, knowing of raids, they just didn't come together like a fort, so there would be more men to protect the women and children.. wonderful history and thank you for this story.. from South Carolina..

[@theoriginalDAL357]

Same here, why DID they live in such vulnerable settings? It’s probably for some reason my contemporary mind can’t fathom. Damned if I’d put my family harm’s way like that. I understand wanting a piece of land to call your own, but the possible price to pay was way too high.

[@deadhorse1391]

I understand what you are saying, I think many didn’t think it could happen to them. Seems that those that survived attacks were more careful afterwards

[@FredSinclair-wc4og]

@@theoriginalDAL357uh

[@speakupriseup4549]

Fort Parker and Fort Mims massacres of civilians by overwhelming indian forces

[@cplmpcocptcl6306]

@@speakupriseup4549Exactly.

[@Rectum_Rocketboost]

Makes me think of my 2 redhrad sisters.

[@jbflores01]

Excellent video!

[@kickapootrackers7255]

Good Vid. Nothing has changed really, just more people and less truth. Thankya

[@rickreese5794]

GR8 post 😊

[@theopinionisthighqualityopinio]

Since YT isn't giving me the ability to post a comment at all, I'll post it here, as a reply. Thanks very much for the fascinating story! I watch them all, but rarely comment. Ironically, the time I decided to comment, there was no space in which to do it! Looking forward to the next one!! 💯

[@deadhorse1391]

Another great video, can’t wait to the next one! Is unimaginable what these people went through, is there any wonder they hated the Indians ?

[@robineggblue-bp3rq]

Exactly. I’ve been listening to The Little House on the Prairie books recently, and also a book about flora and fauna that Laura mentioned in the books. The author made a remark about Carolynn Ingalls’ racist comments about Indians. I didn’t find them racist, only fearful. She had a rational reason for her fear. People today just aren’t taught WHY settlers had these attitudes. They don’t understand the history, recent events, or experiences of settlers.

[@user-ho3bh4we4m]

The Indians had good reason to hate the settlers. They themselves were hunted, murdered, given diseases had their sacred lands and symbols defaced and destroyed. I am not native American but have studied history and respect the native peoples.

[@deadhorse1391]

@@user-ho3bh4we4m of course the Indians did most of those things to each other too. Don’t forget before the Europeans came to North America the natives there were a primitive Stone Age people

[@jackiemack8653]

​@@deadhorse1391The Comanches also murdered Spanish crossing the border

[@elizabethoneill1995]

​@@user-ho3bh4we4mbut they didn't have to kill innocent women and children the white man did the same and the Indians did the same they all went to hell you do not kill children

[@WaferBrik]

Damn, what a sad story.

[@vickiparrish3235]

In the 60's I use to visit the Arrowwood Indian trading post in Catoose, OK. A very elderly chief owned/ran the post. He had his ancestors tall coup stick, complete with 7 scalps. 2 were from white people.

[@elizabethoneill1995]

The whites are the ones who started scalping the French pay them money for enemy scalps white and Indian there was a bounty on them

[@patriciau6277]

Sounds as though she was murdered like her mother and brother. I don’t recall seeing any blonde Comanches either her of children she might’ve had.

[@lisabaltzer4190]

Blonde hair is a recessive traits, so for a person to have blonde hair, the genetics have to come from both the father and mother. If that doesn’t happen, the trait is quickly bred out.

[@desertrose2059]

Im curious why was a photo of African eland antelope in the middle of this?

[@user-wi9hv2pb2q]

saw that too lol

[@junedalley7658]

Oh come, come people. This is obviously authentic archival footage of these beasties before the colonists wiped them out. 🤣

[@cuetlaxochitl]

@@junedalley7658 what ia super racist thing to say. And not one person put you in your place already? Why don’t you say that to black people or Jewish people on here?

[@elizabethoneill1995]

I guess you've never been to Montana or Wyoming they have antelopes roaming the plains they used to be all over the United States now that's mostly Wyoming and Montana

[@hesavedawretchlikeme6902]

He is correct. There was a photo of the prong horn antelope which is still prolific in New Mexico, Texas panhandle, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, etc. But afterwards there was a photo of three larger species of antelope native to Africa.

[@Slievenamon]

Think of it this way, if the Anglos had stayed east of the Mississippi and the Spaniards stayed west of the Rockies and left the rest to the Indians and Bison, you would not have millions of illegal immigrants flooding over the border every year, would you ? The Comanche and Apache would be quite a deterrent for them.

[@garypiont6114]

You got it right. Thanks

[@deaddocreallydeaddoc5244]

If you want to read the real story without all of the nonsense, get a copy of Gregory and Susan, Michno's "A Fate Worse than Death." The book is a catalog of documented Indian captivity histories. There is no prelude concerning her being spied at a store by some "braves." who plotted to take her later. (Commanches did not hang out with whites or congregate around stores at the time!). The family was on a trip to visit relatives to see a newborn baby when the Commanches struck and killed her mother, a black female servant, and Mr. Todd's horse panicked and fled with George Todd on its back (or he panicked and fled. No one knows for sure). George Todd spent years trying to find his daughter, Alice. The story is likely a main influence on the epoch John Ford, John Wayne film "The Searchers." In Alice's case, it was never determined whether she had survived or as some Indians reported, been killed the first night for her hair. I knew a woman whose family came from Norway in around 1900. They rode in a wagon for the last part of their trip. They were followed by Indians until they cut off their blonde hair and left it on some rocks. Yes, the Indians would kill for a beautiful head of hair.

[@cplmpcocptcl6306]

The Searchers was based on Quanah Parker’s mom, Cynthia.

[@DebKC-bj9jo]

American Indians were ENTIRELY subjugated by 1900. The Norwegian family was passing on some mighty tall tales.

[@jackiemack8653]

​@@DebKC-bj9joNo they werent

[@DW-nb2zc]

Just one of many stories The Searchers is based on.As well how Wayne's character might've reacted to his niece being held captive.We want her physically and mentally intact if not we might have to put her down

[@nedraleggett6837]

One of my favorite movies.

[@sueamos3860]

Very interesting

[@sheilafoster6213]

It's so sad, but look what was done to them. And it was there land.😢

[@manleynelson9419]

Henrico pronounced Hen rye co

[@markperrault5678]

Not the battle of the wilderness yella tavern

[@unworthyhistory]

I mention that at the end.

[@blackcats179]

Heard almost nothing about the red haired girl.😮 More of a history lesson.

[@gabrielleangelica1977]

Oh my, I thought 💭 Native Americans were perfect angels?!

[@kathycromwell7247]

They should have covered her hair on the get go!

[@fiddleback1568]

Makes you wonder who was the brainchild behind the This Land is my land video game.

[@Malitesta]

….the actual Comanche happy hunting grounds to luxury gated ranchette communities …. “ We satisfy our endless needs and justify our bloody deeds "

[@mikedbworks1122]

llano pronounced yawn-o, not lan-o

[@thomaswayneward]

You must not be from Texas.

[@01Lenda]

What are you talking about? IT IS PRONOUNCED LANO. Troll.

[@Carladc1956]

My family has been in Llano over 100 years. It’s pronounced with an L, not the Spanish ya.

[@Texasbluestunes]

The town is pronounced with an “L”. When referring to the panhandle staked plains, Llano Estacado, we Texans pronounce it in Spanish.

[@beverlybalius9303]

So much for the misunderstood Native American’s…This is why they had to be put on reservations… My Grandmother was Cherokee/Iraquoi,,,born in 1894.

[@shanemcdowall]

The indigenous Americans ranged from peaceful farmers to the worst cut-throats imaginable. The USA was built on genocide against the Indians, industrial scale slavery of Africans, and the ruthless exploitation of wave after wave of impoverished Europeans. God bless America.

[@ashleyworkman1566]

Here is my tin foil hat theory when did they start making old folks home to put our grandparents in so that we would not be able to hear these stories these are the things we should have learned in school I literally use nothing that I spent 12 years in school my mom taught me to read and my homework that mom taught me is how I learned math literally school did nothing it actually I think made me dumber I've learned so much more homeschooling my kids than I did when I was in school my Grandpa would tell us amazing stories of Giants and things like that fossils and things he had and that is the things that we should have been learning but where are old folks that would tell us these things they are all put in homes and there is so much of a lack of respect for the older and our knowledge of real history

[@user-eu1ur1yb9p]

What brouhaha...when I was young the school teachers said this same fable..only it was a small blonde child ..."whose hair was like gold.." Guess it happened...huh(?) But when criminals of any persuasions in everywhere need to make haircolor important vices ...weird..

[@Lemonarmpits]

Storytellers are liars

[@natewildcat4272]

That's why they're called storytellers..

[@cuetlaxochitl]

It’s WHITE colonizer history. We were here.

[@gabrielleangelica1977]

The truth hurts 🤕.

[@afellowamericanafellowamer5317]

So unworthy history is narrating fictional dialog now

[@thomaswayneward]

Are you a yankee, the way you talk about Lincolns war on the South, sounds like it. Plus it doesn't sound like you know much of the actual history of Lincolns war on the South.

[@robineggblue-bp3rq]

He was reading from that magazine he kept showing.

[@kreigkubachi3732]

@thomaswayneward Don't waste your time. You are up against millions of expert historians all who perfected their knowledge under the watchful eye of the public school system.

[@DebKC-bj9jo]

Ever open an actual book, thomas? I didn't think so.

[@jackiemack8653]

Yankee? Chit still fighting the civil war huh? This guy is reading from a book. SMH

[@thomaswayneward]

@@DebKC-bj9jo I am 78 years old and have studied all my life on certain topics. When in high school the librarian in our school told me I read more books than any other student. Here is an example of what one can come up with by reading actual history. The Confederate States of America (1861-1865) started with an agrarian-based economy that relied heavily on slave-worked plantations for the production of cotton for export to Europe IF CLASSED AS AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY, the area of the Confederate States would have ranked as the FOURTH-RICHEST COUNTRY OF THE WORLD IN 1860." (Wikipedia: Economy of the Confederate States of America). To "preserve the Union" Treasury, Lincoln could not afford to let the South secede. Five days after the evacuation of Ft Sumter, Lincoln published President Proclamation NO. 81 on April 19, 1861. "Whereas an insurrection against the Government of the United States has broken out in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the laws of the United States FOR THE COLLECTION OF THE REVENUE (TAX MONEY) can not be effectually executed therein conformably to that provision of the Constitution which requires DUTIES (REVENUE TAX MONEY) to be uniform throughout the UNITED STATES; ......" Lincoln's Presidential Proclamation NO. 82, April 27. 1861 (after more Southern States secede) "Whereas since that date, public property of the United States has been seized, THE COLLECTION OF THE REVENUE (TAX MONEY) OBSTRUCTED, ....." Even the US House of Representatives joined in: Crittenden-Johnson Resolution issued by the US House of Representatives, 25 July, 1861 four days after the defeat of the invading US Army at Manassas, VA (Bull Run). "Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern States now in revolt against the constitutional Government and in arms around the capital; that in this national emergency Congress, banishing all feelings of mere passion or resentment, WILL RECOLLECT ONLY ITS DUTY (REVENUE TAX MONEY) TO THE WHOLE COUNTRY; that this war is not waged upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, NOR PURPOSE OF OVERTHROWING OR INTERFERING WITH THE RIGHTS OR ESTABLISHED "INSTITUTIONS" (such as slavery) OF THOSE STATES, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and TO PRESERVE THE UNION (Treasury), with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; and that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease. "The role of slavery became the proclaimed cause of [Lincoln's] war because it was necessary to put the South at a moral disadvantage by transforming the contest from a war for independence into a war waged for the maintenance and extension of slavery!" Woodrow Wilson, US President English author, Charles Dickens, author of A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist: "The Northern onslaught upon slavery was no more than a piece of specious humbug designed to conceal its desire for ECONOMIC CONTROL of the Southern states." (Google: Charles Dickens, piece of specious humbug). Dickens owned a magazine called All the Year Round. In it, an article attacked the tariff . “…under all the passion of the parties and the cries of battle lie the two chief moving causes of the struggle,” it said. “Union means so many millions a year lost to the South; SECESSION MEANS THE LOSS OF THE SAME MILLIONS TO THE NORTH. The love of money is the root of this, as of many other evils…”

[@Slievenamon]

The Anglos should have stayed east of the Mississippi. And the Spanish should have stayed south of the Rio Grande and west of the Rockies and left the rest to the Native Americans. It looks like Anglo greed and stupidity will cost you the whole of the USA.

[@Surge_LaChance]

Huh?

[@jakeroberts7435]

Where you from Scooter?

[@nylanelson8660]

The Spanish were already in the states known as California, Arizona, New Mexico, & Nevada as they owned the land. It was the Mexican President that told the land to the U.S. government for monetary profit that Only went into his pockets. The land was sold for a mere pittance of what it was worth

[@chrisruiz1215]

Great statement

[@deadhorse1391]

I am sure the Apache wished that the Comanche had staid north instead of invading their land and almost wiping them out