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Isatai'i
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Isatai'i, also known as Isatai, or Eschiti[1] (Comanche: Isa Tai'i, lit. 'Wolf Vulva'; c. 1840 – 1916) was a Comanche warrior and medicine man of the Kwaharʉ band. Originally named Quenatosavit (Comanche: Kwihnai Tosaabitʉ; lit. 'White Eagle'), after the debacle at Adobe Walls on June 27, 1874, he was renamed Isatai'i.[2][3] Isatai'i gained enormous prominence for a brief period in 1873-74 as a prophet and "messiah" of Native Americans. He succeeded, albeit temporarily, in uniting the autonomous Comanche bands as no previous Chief or leader had ever done. Indeed, his prestige was such that he was able to organize what was said to be the first Comanche sun dance, a ritual that his tribe had not previously adopted.[4]
Early life
[edit]Not much is known about Isatai'i’s youth. He was born a Kwaharʉ Comanche, a few years before Quanah Parker, probably about 1840. As an adult he became a medicine man, not a traditional warrior. He first came into prominence right before the Second Battle of Adobe Walls as he preached a Messianic War against buffalo hunters and other whites he feared were ending the Comanche way of life. Isatai'i's prophecies were based on his claim that he had ascended far above the earth into the clouds and had conversed with the Great Spirit. He claimed the Great Spirit had granted him extraordinary powers. Among these powers were the ability to cure the sick, bring the dead back to life, to control the weather and other natural phenomena, and to make bullets fall to the ground, harming no one. He claimed that he could belch up bullets and cartridges and re-swallow them. He correctly predicted the disappearance of the comet in 1873, and also correctly predicted a drought that year—predictions that solidified his status as a miracle worker, prophet, and medicine man.[4]
Preparing for the Second Battle of Adobe Walls
[edit]Isatai'i brought all the bands of the Comanches together for the sun dance in May 1874. At the sun dance, he began preaching a war of revenge and extermination, and told the warriors they would be invulnerable to their enemies. Comanche history says that Isatai'i’s hatred of the whites was motivated by the deaths of family members at their hands.[4]
It is notable that members of other tribes, mainly the Kiowas and Cheyennes, found his message appealing. At first, the Comanche wished to exterminate the Tonkawas, long allies and scouts for the hated Texas Rangers. But disregarding that plan as secondary to the need of saving the buffalo, then approaching extermination at the hands of white hunters, the Comanches decided to attack the hunters in the Texas Panhandle, who were destroying the buffalo and thereby endangering the Native American Plains tribes' chief source of food. On June 27 a party of between 250 and 1000 Indians, primarily all the bands of the Comanches, but including Kiowa and Cheyenne, attacked the buffalo hunters who were camping at the old trading post of Adobe Walls, on the South Canadian River. During the battle, led primarily by the young Comanche Quanah Parker, Isatai'i remained at least a mile away on a distant hill. The buffalo hunters, twenty-eight men and one woman, protected by the solid adobe walls and armed with long-range rifles, fought off the Indians and finally compelled them to withdraw. It was during this battle that Billy Dixon made what may be the most famous rifle shot of the west, hitting a Comanche chief one mile (1.6 km) away.[4]
About fifteen warriors were killed and a larger number wounded, including Quanah Parker.[4]
After Adobe Walls
[edit]Isatai'i tried to avoid blame for the disastrous defeat by claiming his magic had been weakened before the battle when a Cheyenne killed a skunk, breaking a religious taboo.[4] This was received poorly (especially by the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers), and he was severely beaten and renamed from Kwihnai Tosaabitʉ (English: White Eagle) to Isatai'i (Wolf's Vulva). Isatai'i was discredited and publicly humiliated.[4]
Later life
[edit]In an entry from the Handbook of Texas, Gaines Kincaid writes that "although many military historians do not consider the Second Battle of Adobe Walls a major historic engagement, it was a crushing spiritual defeat for the Southern Plains Indians, who had come to believe fully in the superhuman prophetic powers of the medicine man".[4] Being driven off by civilian buffalo hunters certainly marked the end of their time as any sort of military power. Within a year, the Comanche and Kiowa were all on the reservation.[4] Isatai'i died in 1916, and is buried in a family cemetery in Stephens County, Oklahoma.
Footnotes
[edit]- ^ Spelling on his headstone.
- ^ Kavanagh, Thomas W. (1996). The Comanches: A History, 1706-1875. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 445. ISBN 0-8032-7792-X.
- ^ Haley, James L. (1976). The Buffalo War: The History of the Red River Indian Uprising of 1874. Doubleday. p. 232 note. ISBN 1-880510-58-8.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Kincaid, Gaines. "ISA-TAI". The Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
References
[edit]- Frontier Blood: the Saga of the Parker Family, by Jo Ann Powell Exley
- Quanah Parker, by Clyde L. and Grace Jackson
Isatai'i
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
Isatai'i (c. 1840 – c. 1916), originally named Kwihnai Tosabitʉ ("White Eagle"), was a Comanche medicine man and warrior of the Quahadi band who briefly emerged as a influential prophet in 1873–74, claiming visions from the Great Spirit that granted supernatural powers, including immunity to bullets for Native warriors through ritual practices.[1][2]
His prominence stemmed from accurate predictions, such as the disappearance of a comet in 1873 and an ensuing drought, which bolstered his credibility among Comanche bands and allied tribes like the Kiowa and Cheyenne.[1] In May 1874, Isatai'i organized a sun dance ceremony, preaching total war against white buffalo hunters encroaching on tribal hunting grounds, and rallied approximately 700 warriors for an assault on the Adobe Walls trading post in the Texas Panhandle.[1][3]
The ensuing Second Battle of Adobe Walls on June 27, 1874, proved catastrophic for the attackers, as the 28 defenders, armed with powerful Sharps rifles, repelled the assault and inflicted around 15 Indian casualties despite Isatai'i's assurances of invincibility; he stayed at a safe distance during the fighting and later blamed the failure on a violated taboo rather than his own failed prophecies.[3][1] This debacle led to his public humiliation by fellow Comanches, who beat him, stripped him of his regalia, and renamed him Isatai'i—translating to "coyote vagina" or "coyote anus"—a mocking epithet reflecting the contempt for his discredited status.[1]
Though he collaborated with leaders like Quanah Parker during the campaign, Isatai'i's influence rapidly declined post-battle, and he faded from historical prominence, surviving into the reservation era but without regaining his former authority.[1][4]
Following the surrender of the Kwahadi Comanche band on June 2, 1875, at Fort Sill, Isatai'i relocated to the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation in southwestern Oklahoma Territory, where the remnants of the Southern Plains tribes were confined after the Red River War. [16] [18] He adopted the name Eschiti and lived as a family man, married to To-Vet-Ty, with children, integrating into the administrative framework of reservation life through tribal enrollment and census records. [6] Despite being forgiven by the Comanche for his failed prophecies at Adobe Walls, Isatai'i did not reclaim leadership or prophetic authority, instead becoming a figure of tribal humor and recollection rather than influence. [1] His participation in reservation activities appears limited to private traditional practices, possibly including minor healing as a former medicine man within his family and immediate community, amid the broader tribal shift toward adaptation under leaders like Quanah Parker, who promoted ranching and accommodation with federal authorities. [1] No records indicate involvement in formal tribal councils or public roles. [7] Isatai'i resided on the reservation until his death around 1916, at approximately age 76, and was interred in the Eschiti family cemetery near Duncan in Stephens County, Oklahoma, reflecting his settled, unremarkable later years among his people.
Origins and Early Career
Birth, Name, and Tribal Affiliation
Isatai'i was born around 1840 in what is now Texas.[1][2] His original name was Kwihnai Tosaabitʉ, translated as "White Eagle" in Comanche.[5] He belonged to the Quahadi (also spelled Kwahari or Kwaharʉ) band of the Comanche tribe, known for their resistance to reservation confinement during the late 19th century.[1][2] Following the defeat at the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in June 1874, where his promised supernatural protections failed, tribal members derogatorily renamed him Isatai'i, literally combining Comanche terms for "coyote" (or wolf) and "vagina" (or anus in some interpretations), reflecting scorn for his unfulfilled visions of invincibility.[1][5]Initial Roles as Warrior and Medicine Man
Isatai'i, originally named Kwihnai Tosabitʉ ("White Eagle"), was born circa 1840 into the Quahadi (Kwaharʉ) band of Comanches, a nomadic group that maintained independence in the Texas Panhandle and Llano Estacado regions through the 1860s.[1] [6] As an adult male in Comanche society, he fulfilled the role of warrior, participating in the band's characteristic raids against Mexican settlements, rival tribes, and Anglo-American frontiersmen to secure horses, buffalo hides, and captives—essential for economic and social status—amid escalating conflicts following the Mexican-American War.[7] Specific personal coups or raids attributed to him before 1873 remain undocumented in primary accounts, reflecting the oral tradition of Comanche warfare records and the scarcity of contemporaneous settler reports on individual Quahadi fighters.[1] Transitioning into the role of medicine man, Isatai'i practiced traditional Comanche spiritualism centered on puha (mystical power derived from natural sources), performing healing rituals, weather invocations, and divinations for band members facing illness or misfortune during a period of environmental stress from overhunting and settler encroachment.[7] This dual capacity as warrior-healer was common among Plains Indian leaders, enabling influence through both martial prowess and supernatural authority, though Isatai'i distinguished himself more through the latter by the early 1870s.[1] His initial medicine man activities laid the groundwork for bolder prophetic visions, including drought-ending rituals in 1873 that elevated his status within the band.[1]Rise to Influence Pre-1874
Development of Claimed Supernatural Abilities
Isatai'i, originally named Quenatosavitʉ or Kwihnai Tosabitʉ ("White Eagle"), emerged as a medicine man among the Quahada Comanches around 1873, claiming supernatural abilities derived from a visionary ascent above the clouds where he conversed with the Great Spirit.[1] This purported communion granted him powers including protection from bullets, control over weather, and the ability to heal the sick or resurrect the dead, according to Comanche oral traditions and contemporary accounts.[1] [8] To substantiate his claims, Isatai'i demonstrated supernatural prowess by reportedly regurgitating a wagonload of cartridges—symbolizing ammunition conjured from the spirit realm—and then swallowing them whole, an act witnessed by tribal members that bolstered his credibility.[1] He further enhanced his reputation by accurately foretelling a severe drought in 1873 and specific astronomical phenomena, events interpreted by followers as divine validation amid the Comanches' existential threats from white settlement and buffalo hunting.[1] [8] These predictions, aligning with observable natural occurrences, aligned with traditional Comanche shamanistic practices where prophetic accuracy signified spiritual authority, though skeptics later attributed successes to coincidence rather than causation.[1] By early 1874, Isatai'i's influence peaked as he prescribed ritual body paint for warriors, asserting it would render them invincible to gunfire, a claim rooted in his alleged spirit-granted knowledge rather than empirical testing.[1] This development of his persona from local healer to prophetic messiah figure temporarily unified disparate Comanche bands and allied tribes like the Kiowas, driven by his synthesis of personal visions, performative rituals, and timely prophecies amid escalating conflicts over the Southern Plains.[1] Historical records, primarily from settler eyewitnesses and later ethnographic reports, note no prior documented supernatural assertions by Isatai'i, suggesting his bold claims arose reactively to the band's desperation following intensified U.S. military pressures and ecological disruptions.[1]Early Prophecies and Tribal Unification Efforts
In 1873, Isatai'i, originally known as Kwihnai Tosabitʉ or White Eagle, emerged as a self-proclaimed prophet among the Quahadi Comanche by asserting that he had ascended far above the earth into the clouds, where he conversed directly with the Great Spirit.[1] The Great Spirit purportedly endowed him with extraordinary powers, including the ability to heal the sick, resurrect the dead, manipulate weather patterns, and cause enemy bullets to dissolve into dust or fall harmlessly upon warriors painted with his prescribed ritual mixtures.[1] To substantiate these claims, Isatai'i publicly demonstrated feats such as regurgitating and re-swallowing an entire wagonload of rifle cartridges, symbolizing his mastery over ammunition and reinforcing his message of invincibility against white settlers' firearms.[1] His early prophecies gained traction when he accurately foresaw the disappearance of a prominent comet and the arrival of a severe drought in 1873, events that Comanche observers interpreted as divine validation amid mounting pressures from buffalo hunters and U.S. military incursions depleting traditional resources.[1] These predictions framed a broader vision of restoration: the Comanche could reclaim their nomadic hunting lifestyle by purging "tainted" influences, such as agency beef rations believed to weaken warriors, and by uniting against external threats to preserve the buffalo herds essential to their survival.[2] Isatai'i's unification efforts targeted the historically fractious Comanche bands, which prized independence and rarely coalesced under single leadership, marking a novel attempt at pan-Comanche solidarity in response to reservation policies and territorial losses.[1] By late 1873, he rallied disparate groups, including the Quahadi, through evangelical gatherings emphasizing shared prophecies of triumph, while criticizing allied tribes like the Caddo and Wichita for collaborating with whites and urging recruitment of Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors to amplify the coalition.[9] This temporary alignment, unprecedented in its scope for the autonomous Comanche, positioned Isatai'i as a messianic figure alongside emerging leaders like Quanah Parker, setting the stage for coordinated resistance.[1]Role in the Second Battle of Adobe Walls
Mobilization and Promises of Invincibility
In May 1874, Isatai'i organized the first sun dance ritual among Comanche bands, adapting a Kiowa ceremony to unite disparate groups and galvanize them for offensive action against white buffalo hunters in the Texas Panhandle.[1] This event elevated his status as a prophet, allowing him to preach a campaign of extermination against the encroaching settlers whose activities threatened the bison herds essential to Plains Indian sustenance.[1] Through visions and demonstrations of power, Isatai'i claimed to have received medicine from the Great Spirit that would cause enemy bullets to fall harmlessly to the ground, rendering warriors invulnerable if they adhered to his prescribed taboos, such as avoiding certain actions during the ritual.[1] He bolstered these promises by publicly swallowing and then regurgitating a reported wagonload of cartridges, symbolizing his control over ammunition and affirming the supernatural protection for the impending raid.[1] These assurances of effortless victory and bulletproof invincibility persuaded approximately 700 fighters—primarily Comanches, supplemented by Kiowas and Southern Cheyennes—to mobilize under leaders like Quanah Parker for a coordinated dawn assault on Adobe Walls.[1][10]Execution of the Attack
The assault began shortly after dawn on June 27, 1874, as approximately 700 to 1,000 Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne warriors, led primarily by Quanah Parker with Isatai'i positioned on a distant hilltop, charged the buffalo hunters' outpost comprising three adobe buildings: Hanrahan's Saloon, Myers and Leonard's Store, and Rath and Wright's Store.[1][11] The defenders, numbering 28 men and one woman who had been roused by a falling ridgepole in the saloon around 2 a.m., hurriedly barricaded themselves inside and opened fire from windows and makeshift loopholes using long-range Sharps .50-caliber buffalo rifles, pistols, and a small cannon.[3][11] The initial wave approached silently from timber along Adobe Walls Creek before accelerating into a massed horseback charge, warriors firing rifles and carbines while wielding lances, shields, and war clubs, accompanied by war whoops and signals from a bugle to coordinate movements.[11] Reaching within 20 to 30 yards, attackers surrounded the structures, pounded on doors with rifle butts, shot into windows, and attempted to breach a corral, coming close enough to nearly overrun the positions but suffering heavy losses from the defenders' concentrated fire at point-blank range.[11] Two hunters, the Shadler brothers, were killed during this phase, along with their dog, while an estimated 15 Indians fell immediately, with more wounded.[3][11] Subsequent charges repeated the pattern of mounted rushes and circling fire from horseback, interspersed with dismounted advances and efforts to retrieve fallen comrades under covering fire, persisting until around noon with a final major push in the early afternoon.[11] The thick adobe walls absorbed volleys without breaching, and the hunters' superior range and accuracy—enabled by heavy-caliber weapons effective up to 1,000 yards—prevented any penetration, inflicting cumulative casualties of 70 to 100 warriors killed, including 13 bodies left on the field.[3][11] One additional defender died from gunfire and another from an accidental self-inflicted wound during the assaults, after which the attackers shifted to a desultory siege rather than risking further direct engagements.[3]Tactical Failure and Casualties
The initial mass charge by approximately 250–700 warriors on June 27, 1874, sought to overrun the trading post through speed and numbers but faltered due to the loss of surprise; defenders had been roused minutes earlier by the sound of a cracking ridgepole in one of the sod buildings.[12][13] Isatai'i's tactical direction from the rear, combined with overreliance on ritualistic assurances of invincibility—such as yellow body paint and peyote-derived visions promising that white men's bullets would turn to dust—left the attackers exposed without adaptive strategies against fortified positions featuring thick walls and firing loopholes.[14][12] Superior defensive firepower exacerbated the failure, as the 28 buffalo hunters employed .50-caliber Sharps rifles capable of accurate fire beyond 1,000 yards, outranging most Native bows, lances, and carbines; a emblematic long-distance shot by Billy Dixon from roughly 1,500 yards felled a key warrior leader on a distant hill, shattering morale and prompting a withdrawal to cover.[14][12] Subsequent attempts at sniping and probing attacks over three days yielded no penetration, as the lack of siege equipment or coordinated flanking maneuvers allowed hunters to maintain enfilading fire from multiple structures.[13] The collapse of Isatai'i's "medicine," later rationalized by him as invalidated by a warrior killing a skunk en route (violating a taboo), further eroded cohesion, transforming anticipated invincibility into evident vulnerability.[12][14] Defender casualties totaled three to four killed, including the Shadley brothers and William Tyler (or William Olds in some accounts), with wounded numbers unrecorded but limited by the confined defensive posture.[12][14][13] Native forces suffered at least 13 confirmed deaths near the buildings—bodies too close for retrieval—alongside estimates of 15 to 35 total killed and many more wounded, though precise counts vary due to hasty removal of fallen warriors and the absence of post-battle enumeration.[12][13] These losses, disproportionate to the defenders' despite vast numerical odds, underscored the tactical mismatch between massed assault and technological disparity.[14]Immediate Aftermath and Decline
Attribution of Blame Within the Tribe
Following the failure of the Second Battle of Adobe Walls on June 27, 1874, where Comanche-led forces suffered approximately 15 deaths despite Isatai'i's assurances of supernatural protection against bullets, the prophet faced swift and severe recrimination from allied tribes, particularly the Cheyennes and Comanches involved in the raid.[1] Tribal warriors, who had mobilized under his influence expecting invincibility, attributed the tactical collapse and casualties directly to the inefficacy of his claimed medicine, viewing it as a betrayal of the spiritual authority he had asserted during the preceding Sun Dance rituals in spring 1874.[1] This internal scapegoating eroded his standing, as the defeat not only exposed vulnerabilities to modern firearms like the Sharps rifle but also undermined the unity he had briefly forged among Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho bands.[3] Isatai'i attempted to deflect responsibility by citing ritual taboos violated en route to the battle, specifically alleging that a Cheyenne warrior had killed a skunk, an act he claimed dissipated the protective powers of his medicine.[1] In some accounts, he extended blame to broader Cheyenne indiscipline or other unspecified infractions, such as the consumption of prohibited foods like dog meat by participants, which purportedly invalidated the incantations.[15] These explanations, however, failed to mitigate the backlash; several Cheyenne warriors physically assaulted him in retribution, symbolizing the tribe's rejection of his prophetic credibility and highlighting intertribal tensions exacerbated by the raid's outcome.[1] The Comanche Kwahadi band, his primary base, similarly withdrew support, interpreting the fiasco as evidence of fallible leadership rather than external factors like the hunters' preparedness or Billy Dixon's long-range shot that killed a prominent chief.[3] This attribution of blame reflected deeper Comanche cultural norms, where medicine men's efficacy was empirically tested in warfare; failure invited demotion from revered status to that of a disgraced figure, accelerating the fragmentation of resistance efforts against buffalo hunters and U.S. forces.[1] While Isatai'i retained some personal followers, the tribal consensus held him accountable for overpromising invulnerability, contributing to a cascade of distrust that weakened coordinated offensives in the ensuing Red River War campaigns of 1874–1875.[7]Renaming and Loss of Authority
Following the failed attack on Adobe Walls on June 27, 1874, which resulted in approximately 15 Comanche warriors killed and others wounded, Isatai'i—originally named Kwihnai Tosabitʉ, meaning "White Eagle"—faced severe tribal recrimination.[1][8] The Comanche renamed him Isatai'i, a mocking epithet variously translated as "coyote vagina," "coyote anus," "rear-end-of-a-wolf," or "coyote droppings," reflecting the contempt for his unfulfilled promises of invincibility and supernatural protection.[1][8] Isatai'i attempted to deflect blame by claiming his spiritual powers had been undermined when a Cheyenne ally violated a taboo by killing a skunk en route to the battle, thus weakening the collective medicine.[1] This explanation provoked outrage among the Cheyenne participants, who physically assaulted him in response, exacerbating his public humiliation before the assembled warriors.[1] The incident marked his complete discrediting as a prophet and leader, stripping him of the authority he had briefly wielded through claims of divine visions and tribal unification efforts.[1] Though Isatai'i survived the immediate backlash and was eventually forgiven by some within the Quahadi band, his influence never recovered; he came to be viewed as a figure of ridicule rather than reverence, diminishing his role in subsequent Comanche affairs.[1]Interpersonal Conflicts, Including with Quanah Parker
Following the failure at Adobe Walls on June 27, 1874, Isatai'i attempted to evade accountability by claiming his protective medicine had been nullified when a Cheyenne warrior killed a skunk before the battle, angering the spirits and rendering the ritual ineffective.[1] This rationale provoked outrage among the assembled warriors, who rejected it and collectively deposed him from his roles as prophet and war leader.[1] In the ensuing confrontation, tribesmen stripped Isatai'i of his ceremonial regalia, physically beat him, and bestowed the mocking name Isatai'i—translating roughly to "coyote vagina"—as a public symbol of his discredited status and perceived cowardice, given his decision to observe the battle from a distant hill rather than participate directly.[1] These actions reflected broader interpersonal strife within the Kwaharu band, as the heavy casualties, including around 15 dead and numerous wounded, fueled resentment toward Isatai'i for misleading the coalition and contributing to the tactical debacle.[16] Quanah Parker, the young war chief who had spearheaded the assault and suffered a shoulder wound from a buffalo gun, exemplified this rift; he and other Comanche leaders thereafter refused to collaborate with or place faith in Isatai'i, viewing his prophecies and medicine as fraudulent in light of the empirical failure against the hunters' Sharps rifles.[2] This loss of trust isolated Isatai'i from key figures in the band's resistance efforts, hastening his marginalization amid ongoing U.S. military campaigns during the Red River War.[16]Later Life and Rehabilitation
Alliance with Quanah Parker
Following the disastrous Second Battle of Adobe Walls in June 1874, Isatai'i (also known as Eschiti) faced deposition and loss of authority among the Quahadi Comanche, including blame directed toward war leaders like Quanah Parker. However, by 1875, amid relentless U.S. Army campaigns during the Red River War, Isatai'i participated in the Quahadi band's surrender to federal authorities, facilitating their relocation to the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation in southwestern Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). There, under Quanah Parker's emerging role as principal chief of the Quahadi, Isatai'i reintegrated into tribal structures, recovering limited prestige as a minor civil leader and medicine man.[1][17] This reintegration marked a pragmatic alliance, as Isatai'i's survival and subordinate status aligned with Quanah's consolidation of leadership over reservation Comanche affairs, including negotiations with Indian agents and adaptation to federal policies on agriculture and stock-raising. In 1881, both leaders were jointly compensated by Texas cattlemen—such as those associated with the Texas and Pacific Railway—to serve on cattle police units, patrolling against theft and rustling in the Texas Panhandle, demonstrating cooperative enforcement efforts amid economic pressures on the reservation.[17][4] Despite occasional challenges, such as Eschiti's opposition to Quanah during reservation land allotment disputes in the early 1900s, their shared Quahadi affiliation and mutual dependence on federal allotments and off-reservation labor sustained a functional partnership until Quanah's death in 1911. Isatai'i outlived him, maintaining a lesser chieftain role until his own death around 1916.[1]Participation in Reservation Life
Following the surrender of the Kwahadi Comanche band on June 2, 1875, at Fort Sill, Isatai'i relocated to the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation in southwestern Oklahoma Territory, where the remnants of the Southern Plains tribes were confined after the Red River War. [16] [18] He adopted the name Eschiti and lived as a family man, married to To-Vet-Ty, with children, integrating into the administrative framework of reservation life through tribal enrollment and census records. [6] Despite being forgiven by the Comanche for his failed prophecies at Adobe Walls, Isatai'i did not reclaim leadership or prophetic authority, instead becoming a figure of tribal humor and recollection rather than influence. [1] His participation in reservation activities appears limited to private traditional practices, possibly including minor healing as a former medicine man within his family and immediate community, amid the broader tribal shift toward adaptation under leaders like Quanah Parker, who promoted ranching and accommodation with federal authorities. [1] No records indicate involvement in formal tribal councils or public roles. [7] Isatai'i resided on the reservation until his death around 1916, at approximately age 76, and was interred in the Eschiti family cemetery near Duncan in Stephens County, Oklahoma, reflecting his settled, unremarkable later years among his people.