This is Satanta, a chief of the Kiowa-Apache who spent many years fighting the U.S. Cavalry, most notably at the First Battle of Adobe Walls where he fought a cavalry detachment under the command of Kit Carson. During the battle, Satanta used a bugle to imitate a cavalry bugler, giving false commands to the enemy.
Satanta was the last Kiowa war chief and was eventually imprisoned in 1874 after countless fights with the encroaching American settlers and the cavalry that protected them. Given a life sentence without hope of parole, he killed himself in 1878.
Photo courtesy Library of Congress.
If he was that dangerous, I wonder who was brave enough to take a photo of him holding a bow and arrow?
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