1.2.2.17.4 Battle at Little Robe Creek

At dawn on May 12, 1858, Ford attacked a small Comanche village in the Canadian River Valley, flanked by the Antelope Hills. Later that day they attacked a second, which provided much stiffer resistance, till its Chief, Iron Jacket, was killed. His son, Peta Nocona, arrived with reinforcements, which led to a third distinct clash between the Texas forces and the Comanche. At day’s end the Rangers and their allies retreated back to Texas, as the Comanche, though in retreat, were gathering reinforcements as more of their tribe arrived, together with Kiowa and Kiowa Apache allies. Having suffered only four Ranger casualties, plus over a dozen Tonkawas, the force killed a reported 76 Comanche and took 16 prisoners and 300 horses. It had burned Iron Jacket’s village and the original small village which they had attacked. There is limited mention in history, and none in Ford’s official reports on the battle, that the Tonkawa ate their dead Comanche rivals on the night of May 12, 1858, in what is referred to as a “dreadful feast.”