Iron Jacket | |
|---|---|
| Puhihwikwasu'u | |
| Quahadi Comanche leader | |
| In office 1820–1850 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | c. 1790 Comancheria |
| Died | May 12, 1858 Little Robe Creek, Indian Territory (now Ellis County, Oklahoma) |
| Cause of death | Gunshot wound |
| Children | Peta Nocona |
| Known for |
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Iron Jacket (Comanche: Puhihwikwasu'u, lit. 'metal shirt'; born c. 1790 – died 1858) was a Native American War Chief and Chief of the Quahadi band of Comanche Indians.[1]
Iron Jacket was a Comanche chieftain and medicine man whom the Comanche believed had the power to blow bullets aside with his breath. His name probably resulted from his habit of wearing a Spanish coat of scale mail into battle, which protected him from most light weapons fire.[1][page needed]
On May 12, 1858, the jacket (likely inherited from his ancestors) failed to protect him, and he was killed on the bank of the Little Robe Creek tributary of the South Canadian River in the Battle of Little Robe Creek where his band of Quahadi Comanches fought a combined force of Texas Rangers and Brazos Reservation Indians led by John S. Ford, Shapley Prince Ross (the father of Lawrence Sullivan Ross), and Plácido, a Tonkawa chief.[2]
- ^ a b Fehrenbach, T. R. (1974) "Comanches, The Destruction of a People ISBN 0394488563 LCCN 73-20761
- ^ Rea, Bob. "Battle of the Antelope Hills". Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.