Neither the year nor place of his birth is precisely known, but he is believed to have been born around 1850. He is most often mentioned along side other Kiowa warriors such as Satank and Satanta. Big Tree (Ado-ete) is associated with numerous raids including the Kiowa attack of May, 1871 on the Henry Warren wagon train. Big Tree was arrested later that month, tried in June of that year in Jacksboro in the court of Judge Charles Soward. The prosecutor was future Texas governor S. W. T. Lanham. The Kiowa defendants were represented by a local attorney named Joseph Woolfolk.
Big Tree was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison by Gov. Edmund Davis. Big Tree was transferred to the Huntsville State Penitentiary. He served there for approximately two years before he was paroled in 1873 upon agreeing to cease his raids. After breaking the agreement and resuming his raids he was again pursued by the Army. Big Tree finally surrendered in 1874 and was once again imprisoned, this time at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He remained there for some time before being paroled again. Upon his final release Big Tree lived peacefully until his death.
The Kiowa was a formidable tribe in the Southwest but also had a long and interesting history elsewhere in the western United States before they began to reside in Texas and Oklahoma. The tribe lived what would be called a nomadic life, not settling in one location, sometimes forming alliances with other tribes. Along with the Apache and Comanche, the Kiowa were quite successful for many years in raiding and resisting the European-American incursion. The joined the other Plains Indian tribes in their reliance on the once plentiful bison to furnish their food, materials for clothing and shelter along with other essential subsistence items.
The 1871 Warren Wagon Train Raid: This was a key event in the Indian Wars, although the loss of life was smaller in in this incident when compared to other attacks. General William Tecumseh Sherman was in Texas at the time. Earlier in his career, Sherman had been promoted to lieutenant general in 1866 and again was promoted during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant to the rank of general. Soon afterward, he was named commanding general of the Army, which post he held in 1871. In response to Comanche and Kiowa hostilities, Sherman toured the North Texas frontier forts in May of that year. Sherman and his group narrowly missed being attacked by a force of Kiowa in mid May as they rode from Fort Belknap back to Fort Richardson. Shortly afterward, Kiowa warriors led by Satanta, Satank and Big Tree set upon a small number of freighter’s wagons in the Salt Creek Prairie some twenty miles from Fort Richardson. On May 18, 1871, a team of freighters led by Henry Warren were traveling along the Butterfield Overland Trail when they were attacked. Warren and six other teamsters were killed. Some survivors escaped to tell the story of the incident.
In the days that followed, details of the attack began to be published. In a June 17, 1871 article in the Galveston Daily News, a survivor was quoted as saying that a small group of Government teamsters from Salt Creek had been attacked by one hundred fifty Indians in an ambush. By then it had also been publicized that General Sherman had passed through that same area only a day earlier. The article recounted atrocities that had occurred during the attack, including scalping and at least one victim who was died to a wagon wheel, tortured and burned. At least one of the survivors had understood a reference in the native language to the “Big Captain” which was thought to be a comment concerning the desire to capture General Sherman.
The same issue of the Galveston Daily News quoted a communication from General Sherman addressed to the commanding officer of Fort Richardson, saying that certain Kiowa residents of the reservation at Fort Sill including Satanta, Satank, Kicking Bird, Lone Wolf and others had admitted to taking part in the attack on Warren’s party. Santanta had spoken of it to an Indian agent named Jones, though Satanta denied participating in one of the more brutal murders. A Mr. Tatum, another Indian agent, detained Satanta and held him for the Army. Sherman came to the fort and took custody of Satanta, Satank and Big Tree. Sherman’s communication also gave other details including comments attributed to Satanta that three members of his tribe had been killed at the location, another had died returning to the reservation and three more had been wounded, leaving Satanta with the feeling that the two sides were “even.” Sherman had arrested the three warriors and demanded the return of forty-one stolen mules.
The paths of Satank, Satanta and Big Tree began to diverge at that point. Satank was killed on June 8, 1871 in what appeared to be a suicidal escape attempt as they were being transported for trial. Satanta and Big Tree were tried and convicted of murder in a civil (nonmilitary) court in Jacksboro. After the trial, the remaining two were transferred to the state prison in Huntsville. Big Tree and Satanta both served around two years before being paroled in 1873. They both soon violated the terms of their parole by leaving the reservation and returning to their previous practice of raiding and both are believed to have taken part in the Second Battle of Adobe Walls.
This quote appeared in the Western Home Journal out of Lawrence, Kansas:
INDIAN RAIDS. Waco, Tex. Nov. 8 – Capt J. E. Elgin has just returned from an extensive trip on the frontier, and reports that the Indians are as bad if not worse than they have been since the war. All the Indians are off their reservations except Satanta. They are headed by Big Tree, and have stolen nearly all the horses on the Little Wichita and West fork. Seventy-five or a hundred of them crossed the Little Wichita last week. A party of thirteen stole two horses in Jackson Sunday night, and it is reported that a surveying party camped outside of Jacksboro were fired on by them.
Western Home Journal, December 4, 1873
Seeing the end of their raiding days, Satanta and Big Tree both turned themselves into authorities the following year. Big Tree was confined at Fort Sill where he remained until his release and Satanta was returned to Huntsville. Satanta served about four more years in the Huntsville prison. On October 11, 1878, Satanta committed suicide by jumping from an upstairs window and falling to his death. Big Tree was once again paroled at some point and lived at peace.
Christian denominations had a long history of working with the tribes in the Oklahoma Territory. Big Tree responded to Baptist missionaries and embraced Christianity. This paragraph appeared in the Norman Transcript (Norman, Oklahoma):
Big Tree, the famous old war chief of the Kiowas, who was noted for his bloodthirsty deeds has been converted to christianity recently and is now an evangelist among his tribe.
Norman Transcript, July 6, 1894
Big Tree was married to Omebo and the couple had two daughters. Omebo was said to be the first convert and a charter member of the congregation at the Rainy Mountain Baptist Indian Mission in Mountainview, Kiowa County, Oklahoma. Omebo died in 1918 and Big Tree died in 1929. Both are buried at the cemetery of the Mission.
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