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The Terrifying True Tale of the Warren Wagon Train Raid

Here are the facts behind the bloody battle revisited in Paranormal Witness Season 5, Episode 9: "The Ranch."

By Bryan Enk
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Native American ghosts that kind of look like werewolves? For one terrorized family, history looked a lot like a horror movie. Here are the facts behind the bloody battle revisited in Paranormal Witness Season 5, Episode 9: "The Ranch" ...

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The Warren Wagon Train Raid, aka the Salt Creek Massacre, occurred on May 18, 1871 in Salt Creek Prairie, Texas. 150 Kiowas waited behind a hill for a wagon train carrying supplies provided by freighting contractor Henry Warren to several West Texas forts, including Fort Richardson, Fort Griffin and Fort Concho. The raiders destroyed the corn supplies and killed and mutilated the wagon master and six wagoneers.

Five men managed to escape, including Thomas Brazeale, who walked the 20 miles to Fort Richardson on foot and alerted Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie, who informed General William Tecumseh Sherman. At Fort Sill, MacKenzie and Sherman arrested three of the Kiowa war leaders involved in the massacre: Satanta (White Bear), Satank (Sitting Bear) and Ado-ete (Big Tree).

En route to Fort Richardson, Satank chewed off part of his hand and escape his manacles, after which he stabbed a guard with a concealed knife. He was shot and killed before he could escape, and Satanta and Ado-ete were tried and convicted of murder.

The Warren Wagon Train Raid is seen as the major turning point between white settlers and Native Americans post-Civil War. After the incident, the U.S. Army abandoned the government's "Peace Policy" and began to wipe out the natives.