Mukewater is a name you’ve probably heard. There’s a sign for Mukewater Cemetery, just west of Bangs off Highway 84. There used to be a community called Mukewater, close to the county line between Brown and Coleman. A creek by the same name flows through southeast Coleman County near Trickham. I did some reading on the name Mukewater to track down where it comes from and what it means. I got some pretty interesting results.

According to an article in the May 1925 edition of Frontier Times, Texas Ranger “Uncle” B. F. Gholson, [who was one of the men with Sul Ross when he captured Cynthia Ann Parker on the Pease River in 1860] wrote in a letter a few details about Mukewater Creek. He said, “Another band of Indians in winter quarters, not far from the headquarters of Santana [at Santa Anna], on a small stream were under the command of Chief Mukewaka. The stream and locality took its name from the chief by that name.”

In a book entitled They Came in Peace, by local historian Leona Banister Bruce, the origin of the name Mukewater was briefly discussed. “Among the counties created in 1858 by the Legislature, was that from Travis and Brown, named Coleman for the San Jacinto hero,” wrote Mrs. Bruce. “Near the center of the state, it is drained by several noteworthy creeks, including two named for Comanche chiefs, the Jim Ned and the Mukewater.” The author further states, “Most of the well-known Indians of the time had one or more names, spelling them in different ways; thus the Mukewater was an attempt at the name of the Comanche Mukewarrah, Mukewaka or Mugua-ra.” Chasing down this name in different publications is not for the faint of heart, as it quickly becomes complicated.

Depending on how one spells the name, Mukewaka was possibly uncle to the noted war chiefs Buffalo Hump and Yellow Wolf. If that is true, then Chief Santa Anna was more than likely also his nephew. I can’t remember where off the top of my head, but I read that Yellow Wolf and Santa Anna were reputedly brothers. Mukewaka may have been a shaman, or medicine man, if the Wikipedia account found here of a Penateka Chief called Mukwoowo refers to the same person. The dates are right, the area is right, the family associations would be right. I think this could be the case, but I’m not going to swear to it.

Texas Ranger Noah Smithwick, in his memoir The Evolution of a State, recalls interacting with a Comanche Chief by the name of Mugua-ra at a council meeting near Brushy Creek, just north of Austin, in 1837. This, according to Bruce, would be our same chief, aka Mukewater. Smithwick recorded that a band of about 50 lodges, with approximately 200 members, received his delegation cordially. The Chief spoke Spanish, which was used to communicate between the Anglo party and the Comanche. According to Smithwick, Mugua-ra’s band held about six Anglo captives, one of whom, a woman, spoke with Smithwick, relating a desire to remain with the Comanche and not be rescued.

On March 19, 1840, at the infamous Council House fight in San Antonio, a peace treaty attempt that went very much awry, a Penateka Comanche chief called Muguara was killed. Could this also have been our Chief Mukewater? Yes, it seems almost certain to be, because of the name and his known association with Chief Santa Anna, Buffalo Hump and Yellow Wolf. If that is the case, then the chief known to us as Mukewater would have met a violent end that resulted in years of revenge raids by the Comanche on Anglo settlements across central Texas. It is good to know that even while his life story remains shadowed in uncertainty, Chief Mugua-ra is not forgotten. His name lives on through the nearby places we call Mukewater.

***

Diane Adams is a local journalist whose columns appear Thursdays on BrownwoodNews.com