First Comanche-German Meeting

The treaty that grew from this meeting was signed by the Comanche (Numunuu) head chiefs Buffalo Hump, Santa Anna and others, and by Meusebach, whom the Comanches called El Sol Colorado for his red beard. An earlier German expedition under Dr. Friedrich Schubert had angered the Comanches and wildly overstated their numbers. The treaty let settlers enter Comanche country and Comanches visit the settlements unharmed, promised each side would report wrongs, and allowed surveys near the San Saba for a payment of at least $1,000. The original document came back from Europe in 1970.

What the plaque says

First Comanche-German Meeting At this site on February 5, 1847, seven or eight Penateka Comanches headed by chief Ketumusua (also Ketumsee, Katemcy, Katemoczy) had their first encounter with an expedition of German immigrants led by John O. Meusebach. The group of about forty settlers left Fredericksburg on January 22 to explore the area between the Llano and Colorado rivers included in the Fisher-Miller land grant. The Society for the Protection of German Immigrants (Adelsverein) had acquired colonization rights to the tract, and Meusebach, the society's general agent, chose a diplomatic approach to interacting with the people already living here. The Comanches, carrying a white flag, approached the Germans' camp and asked whether they intended to wage war. Meusebach replied that they had come in peace and presented gifts. After they held a consultation through an interpreter, Ketumusua invited the Germans to visit his village on the San Saba River. The parties had a meal together, and the Comanches escorted the Germans to their camp. This first meeting laid the groundwork for a successful peace council on March 1-2, 1847, a rare instance in American history when native people and immigrant settlers negotiated a voluntary agreement for sharing territory. The Comanches honored their treaty with the Germans even as they continued to be in conflict with other settlers. Ketumusua later became the Principal Chief of the Southern Comanches, and Meusebach was elected to the Texas State Senate. Their first meeting is remembered as a significant exchange between two cultures who added to the intertwined history of the Texas Hill Country. (2013)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Mason — 0.3 mi
  A reconstructed officers' quarters on Post Oak Hill above Mason, standing where the army's stone fort was taken apart by the town that grew up below it.
• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 14 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.
• Enchanted Rock State Natural Area — 30 mi
  A dome of pink granite north of Fredericksburg that rises some 385 feet above Sandy Creek, creaks as it cools at night, and has drawn people for thousands of years.

More markers nearby

• The Commercial Bank — steps away
• Methodism in Mason County — steps away
• Hofmann Dry Goods Company — steps away
• St. Joseph's Catholic Church — 0.2 mi