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Indian encounters began to accelerate throughout 1835 in the wake of the Rio Blanco battle. Noted Texas Ranger George Bernard Erath wrote in 1844 that, “The war with the Indians began in 1835.”1 While battles with Indians had occurred since the first white settlers arrived many years before, Erath was correct in noting that 1835 was a true turning point in “the war.” The continued heavy flow of immigrants, the continued Indian depredations and the revolution with Mexico during this year forced Texas' provisional government to take new steps to protect its frontiers. Among the more important steps was the legal creation of the Texas Rangers during 1835. This fabled body was organized in several stages, as will be seen. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The Killing of Chief Canoma: May-June 1835 Within two weeks of the San Marcos battle, a Brazoria-bound party of traders was attacked by a party of Tawakonis armed with bows and arrows. The traders fired on the Indians, killing one and causing the others to flee. A description of this battle was published in the May 2, 1835, edition of The Texas Republican in Brazoria.2 The Indians considered to be “wild tribes” by the early Colorado River settlers were the Wacos, Tehuacanas (Tawakonis), Ionies, Anadarkos, Towash and other related tribes of the Caddoan confederation . These tribes along the upper Brazos and Trinity rivers had become openly hostile toward white settlers by the spring of 1835. They even felt that the white settlers along the Colorado were a separate “tribe” of whites who were more hated than those along the Brazos River.3 The settlers along the Falls of the Brazos River, in present Falls County near the town of Tenoxtitlan, experienced relative peace 14 Chapter 2 The Original Ranger Battalion May–September 1835 15 The Original Ranger Battalion with the local Indians in the early 1830s. One noteworthy exception occurred when a stranger named H. Reed from the United States was slain by Tonkawa Indians in 1832 near Tenoxtitlan following a horse trade between Reed and the Indians in which they felt cheated. Revenge against this small band of Indians was exacted by a small band of Caddos led by the friendly Chief Canoma. Canoma pursued these Indians, recovered Reed’s horse and saddle and brought them back to his father. Canoma’s faithful Caddos, numbering about thirty, were living near Tenoxtitlan in 1835, when tensions again increased in Robertson Colony. The Bastrop area citizens were concerned enough with the presence of hostile Indians to form a committee of safety and correspondence , with an initial meeting held on May 8, 1835. In a second meeting on May 17, a formal committee of five was created, of which Edward Burleson was a member. These members were charged with handling communications concerning Indian hostilities.4 The colonists in late May 1835 employed Chief Canoma of the Caddos to go among the hostile Indians to make peace talks and to try and return two small children that had been taken captive. After visiting several tribes, Canoma returned and reported that the Indians he had seen were willing to make peace with the settlers along the Brazos River. At least half of the Indians, however, very much opposed making peace with the white settlers along the upper areas of the Colorado River. Canoma further reported that a band of these most unsettled Indians were on the move toward the white settlement at Bastrop.5 From the Falls of the Brazos, the townspeople selected Samuel McFall to run ahead and warn the Bastrop citizens. Bastrop was the uppermost white settlement of any size on the Colorado River in 1835. The local residents had been forced to band together to protect themselves from neighboring Waco, Tawakoni, Kichai and Comanche raids. Consequently, a strong log stockade or fort was erected in the center of the little town. In the event of a serious Indian attack, the townspeople could take shelter inside.6 McFall, a lean and quick man of six feet three inches height, ran the distance on foot and is said to have been a faster runner than most saddle horses of the time. Before he could arrive, a party of eight Indians made a vicious attack on June 1. On the road from San Felipe to Bastrop, they attacked the wagon of Amos R. Alexander near Cummins Creek.7 Alexander, a Pennsylvania native, had brought his wife and two sons to Texas in the spring of 1833. They settled in Bastrop...

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