Kiowa Raid on Walnut Creek

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. In April of 1867, a band of about sixty Kiowa Indians rode on Walnut Creek. Their leaders were Chiefs Satank and Satanta, and sixty warriors behind two chiefs like that; well, that was not a social call.

William Hamleton lived out here, and on that day, he was away from home. His wife Sally was not. The Kiowas killed her.

And when they rode off, they took two of the children with them: Lavina and Mary. Now, that's the kind of sentence that sits heavy on the chest, and I'm not gonna rush past it. A mother gone, a home shattered, two little girls riding into the unknown.

Sixty miles of Texas sky between them and anything familiar. Lavina came back. After six months in captivity, she was released.

Six months is a long time when you're a child, but she came home. Mary did not. Mary was given to an Indian family, and she grew to adulthood among the Kiowas.

She was given a name: To-Goam-Gat-Ty. And in time she became an accepted member of the tribe. She married another captive, a man named Calisay, and she built a life in that world, far from Walnut Creek.

Two girls taken the same day. Two entirely different stories. The site of that 1867 raid, the place where all of this began, is now underwater, lying beneath the waters of Eagle Mountain Reservoir, about a mile and four-tenths east of where you're standin'.

The land is gone, but the marker remembers.

What the marker says

In April 1867 a band of about sixty Kiowa Indians, led by Chiefs Satank and Satanta, raided the home of William Hamleton on Walnut Creek. Hamleton was away when the Kiowas killed his wife, Sally, and captured two children, Lavina and Mary. Lavina was released from captivity after six months, but Mary was given to an Indian family and grew to adulthood among the Kiowas. Called To-Goam-Gat-Ty, she became an accepted tribal member and married another captive, Calisay. The site of the 1867 Kiowa Raid is now under the waters of Eagle Mountain Reservior (1.4 mi. E) (1983)