Older than the two war chiefs, Old Owl was a member of the same band of the Comanche as the more famous Buffalo Hump (Potsʉnakwahipʉ), Yellow Wolf (Saviah) and Santa Anna.
He was originally, along with Buffalo Hump and Santa Anna, a leader of Comanche resistance to Anglo settlement in Texas, especially during the period following the Council House Fight.
He, along with Santa Anna, was part of the Great Raid of 1840 which Buffalo Hump organized to take revenge for what the Comanche viewed as the "utter betrayal of their people at the Council House."
Old Owl arrived with 40 warriors and, in a manner the Major called "most insolent," demanded that the Tonkawa feed the war party and their horses, and provide for them entertainment.
When the Mexicans declined to sell beef to a Republic of Texas official on credit, Old Owl told them two beeves were to be forthcoming immediately, or the hacienda would be burned down and every living being killed.
Geologist Dr. Ferdinand von Roemer was present at those treaty talks, which resulted in the Meusebach-Comanche Treaty, and left an enduring and vivid portrait of the three chiefs who were representing the Comanche bands, including Old Owl (the others being Buffalo Hump and Santa Anna): The three chiefs, who were at the head of all the bands of the Comanches roaming the frontiers of the settlements in Texas looked very dignified and grave.
[Old Owl] the political chief, was a small old man who in his dirty cotton jacket looked undistinguished and only his diplomatic crafty face marked him.
With his long, straight black hair hanging down, he sat there with the earnest (to the European almost apathetic) expression of countenance of the North American savage.