Location of Chief Satank's Death

Fort Sill, Berry St, Lawton, OK 73503, USA
GPS Coordinates: 34.653406, -98.382168

Satank (Set-angya or Set-ankeah, translated as chief Topinabee A quiet Sitting Bear), was a prestigious Kiowa warrior and medicine man. He was born about 1800, probably in Kansas, and killed June 8, 1871. An able warrior, he became part of the Koitsenko (or Kaitsenko, Ko-eet-senko), the society of the bravest Kiowa warriors. He led many raids against the Cheyennes, the Sacs, and the Foxes. As the white settlers' importance increased, he raided settlements, wagon trains, and even army outposts.

General Sherman ordered the trial of Satanta and Big Tree, along with Satank, making them the first Native American Leaders to be tried for raids in a US Court. Sherman ordered the three Kiowa sub-chiefs to be taken to Jacksboro, Texas, to stand trial for murder. After being imprisoned in the basement prison on Fort Sill, Chief Satank, or Sitting Bear, was being transported by the 4th Cavalry to Jacksboro, Texas for trial.

Satank had no intention of allowing himself to be humiliated by being tried by the white man's court, and told the Tonkawa scouts before the three were to be transported to Fort Richardson that they should tell his family they would be able to find his body along the trail. Satank refused to get in the wagon, and after the soldiers threw him in, he hid his head under his red blanket, (worn as a sign of his membership in the Koitsenko). The soldiers apparently believed the old Chief was hiding his face because of humiliation, but in reality, he was gnawing his wrists to the bone so that he could get out of the chains they had put on him. He began singing his death song, and when his hands were free, stabbed and wounded one of his guards - a corporal - in the leg with a knife he had secreted in his clothes, and managed to wrestle the man's rifle from him. Satank was shot to death before he could manage to fire. (A teamster Antonio Barbello was wounded by a random shot in the head.) Satank's body lay unburied in the road, with his people afraid to claim it for fear of the Army, though Col. Mackenzie assured the family they could safely claim the remains. Nonetheless, they were never claimed.

The marker reads:
"Satank Killed
The noted Kiowa Chief Sitting Bear (Satank) of the Society of the Ten Bravest was killed beside an elm tree 400 feet due west of here on June 8, 1871, while attacking 4th Cavalry guards."

Source:
* TheRadcliffs (2014). Satank Killed - Fort Sill, OK - Oklahoma Historical Markers on Waymarking.com. [online] Waymarking.com. Available at: www.waymarking.com [Accessed 31 Jan. 2019].