Battle of the Twin Villages

Three miles away, a military post, Presidio San Luis de las Amarillas, was established at the same time to protect the Mission.

The purpose of the Mission was to convert and pacify the Lipan Apache and extend Spanish influence into the Great Plains.

On March 16, 1758, a Wichita army, described as numbering 2,000 men, destroyed the San Saba Mission, killing two Franciscan priests and several Christian native assistants.

[4] The Commander of the San Luis Presidio, Diego Ortiz Parrilla, an experienced soldier and fighter, organized a punitive mission against the Norteños, especially the Wichita.

The force he slowly assembled consisted of two cannons, 1,600 horses, mules, and cattle, and 636 men: 139 Spanish soldiers, 241 militiamen, 134 Apache, 30 Tlaxcala, 90 Christian Mission natives, and two priests.

The village at Spanish Fort became "a lively emporium where Comanches brought Apache slaves, horses and mules to trade for French packs of powder, balls, knives, and textiles and for Taovaya-grown maize, melons, pumpkins, squash, and tobacco.

They were among the first North American natives to acquire the horse from the Spanish and to create the nomadic, equestrian culture that would typify the Plains tribes.

They were in the process of establishing suzerainty over a large area of the southern Great Plains with allies such as the Wichita.

The various tribes making up the people the Spanish called Norteños were united only in that they shared a common enemy, the Apache, and a concern that a Spanish-Apache alliance would be detrimental to their interests.

On October 2, Ortiz Parrilla found a Yojuane village, probably along the Clear Fork of the Brazos River near present-day Graham, Texas.

Some of the captive Yojuanes offered to guide Ortiz Parilla north to a large Taovaya and Iscani village.

The Spanish formed up in line of battle and dispersed the small force, pursuing them through the woods to the banks of a river, undoubtedly the Red.

Next morning, he ordered a return to San Saba which the Spanish force and their Yojuane captives reached on October 25.

The destruction of the San Saba mission is depicted in the earliest extant painting of an event in Texas history. [ 2 ]
The Wichita were farmers who lived in beehive-shaped houses thatched with grass and surrounded by extensive maize fields. They were skilled farmers who traded agricultural products to nomadic tribes in exchange for meat.