By 1850 nearly all Native Americans had been removed from East Texas. In West Texas, however, the Comanches, Kiowas, and other Plains people raided settlements to stop further intrusion. In 1867 federal agents and the chiefs of several Native American nations met and signed a peace treaty called the Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek. According to its terms, Native Americans would live on reservations in the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), and they would receive food and supplies from the government. Many Native American leaders did not sign the treaty, though. Satanta, the most famous Kiowa chief, insisted that West Texas belonged to the Comanches and Kiowas. Many other chiefs could not bring themselves to surrender to reservation life.

Quaker agents tried peaceful ways to settle the Native American question. After Satanta attacked a wagon train, this peace policy was abandoned. Army expeditions were sent to locate and destroy Native American camps. Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie led the operations. His troops chased Comanches, led by Quanah Parker, and Kickapoos and Apaches in South Texas. African American troops, called "buffalo soldiers" by the Native Americans, were famous throughout Texas as skilled fighters against the Native Americans.

South Texas also faced lawlessness from Civil War deserters and outlaws. Many people believe that even the Texas Rangers added to the problem by mistreating Mexican Americans along the Rio Grande border.

When buffalo hunters slaughtered buffalo by the thousands, Native Americans of the Plains fought back. In June 1874, Quanah Parker led several hundred warriors in an attack on a buffalo hunters' camp at Adobe Walls. Frustrated by failure, the warriors increased their attacks on settlements throughout the Southwest. President Grant put the army in charge of capturing the Native Americans. By 1875 the last Comanche bands surrendered, and their lives changed forever.