Ten Bears was orphaned as a baby when his family group was murdered by
Lakotas. Later Comanche oral history states that in his young adult years, he was noted for leading horse-mounted spear attacks on Lakota villages. In 1840 the Yamparika chief, Ten Bears, was one among the principal promoters (together with the Kiowa chiefs
Dohasan and
Satank and the Arapaho
Hosa Little Raven) of the peace and large alliance between the Comanche and Kiowa alliance and the Cheyenne and Arapaho alliance after the Cheyenne and Arapaho's victory at Wolf Creek during the spring 1838. To reach his purpose, Ten Bears (Parrawasamen) was able to gain the approval of such chiefs as the Kotsoteka
Shaved Head (
Wulea-boo) and, even through Shaved Head’s support,
Big Eagle (a.k.a. Sun Eagle) (
Tawaquenah), likely the Nokoni
Tall Tree (
Huupi-pahati) and certainly the Penateka
Buffalo Hump (
Pocheha-quehip,
Potsʉnakwahipʉ) and
Yellow Wolf (
Isaviah) and probably the Kwahadi
Iron Jacket (
Pohebits-quasho); together with Ten Bears (Parrawasamen), probably Tawaquenah and Huupi-pahati, certainly Buffalo Hump (Pocheha-quehip) and eventually Iron Jacket (Pohebits-quasho) represented Comanche nation during the negotiation near the Two Butte Creek, resulting in a peace agreement and a strong alliance between the two groups. Ten Bears first came to the attention of
Anglo-Americans in 1853 when he, among others, signed the Treaty of Fort Atkinson. His name was written as "Parosawano" and translated as 'Ten Sticks', a confusion of /pawʉʉra/ 'bear' with /paria/ 'dogwood stick'. The error was corrected in the 1854 revision of the treaty. Ten Bears became the principal Yamparika chief about 1860 after the death of the man known to Anglos as 'Shaved Head' (
Wulea-boo, possibly a Kotsoteka rather than a Yamparika Comanche); the latter's Comanche name is uncertain as there were several men whom Anglos called by that name. In August 1861 Ten Bears (likely being himself the chief named as “Bistevana”) signed the
Fort Cobb Treaty with gen.
Albert Pike, the Confederate Indian Commissioner, sanctioning an alliance with the “Gray Jackets”. In 1863, along with a delegation of Western Indians, including Southern Cheyennes, Southern Arapahoes, and Kiowas, Ten Bears visited Washington, but he was unable to get any major concessions for his people from the U.S. government. In November 1864, Ten Bears was the chief of the Yamparika Comanches nearest the ruins of the Bent brothers' old adobe trading post (the first
Adobe Walls, Texas, built ca 1840) when troops under
Col. Christopher 'Kit' Carson attacked a nearby Kiowa village . Warriors from Ten Bear's village led the counterattack which drove off Carson's men, although one of Ten Bears' sons,
Ekamoksu 'Red Sleeve' was killed.
Treaty of the Little Arkansas River In 1865, Ten Bears and two of his sons,
Isananaka 'Wolf's Name' and
Hitetetsi 'Little Crow', along with other Comanches, mostly Yamparikas, signed the Treaty of the Little Arkansas River in Kansas. The treaty created a
reservation for the Comanches encompassing the entire panhandle of Texas. This was problematic, as the Federal government did not then "own" that territory and therefore could not reserve it: the Republic of Texas was annexed to the United States in 1849, but the Republic did not recognize any native land claims within its borders — this opinion was based on a faulty reading of Spanish and Mexican law and therefore in 1865 there were no "federal" versus "state" owned lands within the boundaries of Texas which the Government could "reserve" to the Native Americans.
Medicine Lodge Treaty Two years later, at the October 1867
Medicine Lodge Treaty Conference, Ten Bears and other Yamparikas as well as a few other Comanches (but none of the newly emergent
Kwahada division, who were delayed by sickness), agreed to a smaller reservation in western Indian territory of
Oklahoma. At that conference, Ten Bears gave an eloquent address: == Death ==