Dalhart, Texas

    In the mid-19th century,

Dalhart didn't exist. The Comanche held sway on the Texas Plains. The Utes were also powerful -- sometimes allied with the Comanche and sometimes not. Stories handed down tell of a Ute-Comanche peace treaty almost signed in the 1860s at a site near present-day Dalhart. As tribal leaders were about to smoke the peace pipe and confirm the treaty, a shot rang out, disrupting the process. Warriors on both sides feared an ambush and reacted accordingly. Stories differ as to casualties.

Peace treaty delayed a century ...

Ultimately the two tribes revived their talks and signed a treaty in a two-part ceremony held in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1976 and Ignacio, Colorado in 1977. Some accounts say chiefs at the first meeting in Texas were Quanah, Comanche, and Buckskin Charlie, Ute. But back then young Quanah had yet to attain a position of such leadership. Still, he no doubt traveled the Plains and knew the part of Texas that's now Dallam County.