| The Amorous Man | |
| Native Name: | Pahayoko |
| Birth Date: | late 1780s |
| Death Date: | after 1852 |
| Known For: | Comanche chief |
| Occupation: | War Chief |
The Amorous Man (Pahayoko,, ; – p. 1852) was a civil chief of the "Honey-Eaters" or Penateka band of the Comanche.
The height of his prominence was in the 1830s and 1840s.
Nothing is known of his youth or early years. Amorous Man was a member of the same Comanche band, the "Honey-Eaters", as Buffalo Hump (Potsʉnakwahipʉ), Yellow Wolf, and Santa Anna, although he was older than these other war chiefs. Although known as a civil, or peace, chief, he was known to lead war parties during the 1820s. He was an important chief during the 1830s and 1840s who had diplomatic relations with Anglo settlements in Texas, following the Council House Massacre.
His name is variously spelled Pahhauca,[1] Pahayoko, Payayuca,[2] Pahajoko, and Taqquanno,[3] which is translated as "The Amorous Man" or more colorful descriptions.
See main article: Council House Massacre. The Amorous Man represented the Penateka division at the Camp Holmes Council in 1835, signing the treaty with Gen. M. Arbuckle and Sen. Monfort Stokes, along with chiefs such Tawaquenah ("Sun Eagle") of the Kotsoteka or "Buffalo-Eaters" band and Iron Jacket (Puhihwikwasu'u or Pohowetowshah, or 'Brass Man') of the Quahadi or "Antelope-Eaters" band of Comanche.[3]
In 1838, The Amorous Man went to Houston, where he, Mukwoorʉ (Spirit Talker), Mupitsukupʉ (Old Owl), and Potsʉnakwahipʉ (Buffalo Hump) met Texas President Sam Houston and signed a treaty. Like most Comanche chiefs, the Amorous Man came to white attention following the Council House Massacre in 1840. But, if Old Owl was the first among the Comanche Chiefs to recognize that defeating the whites was unlikely, Pahayoko was, probably, the second among the Penatekas: in 1843 he accepted to meet the Indian agent Daniel Watson and, in 1844, he attended the Tehuacana Creek Council, along with Mupitsukupʉ (Old Owl), Potsʉnakwahipʉ (Buffalo Hump), and other chiefs, not including Yellow Wolf and Santa Anna, but refused to sign the treaty. Nor was he part in the Meusebach-Comanche Treaty, signed by Mupitsukupʉ, Potsʉnakwahipʉ and Santa Anna.
The Amorous Man, Mupitsukupʉ (Old Owl), Potsʉnakwahipʉ (Buffalo Hump), Yellow Wolf, Santa Anna, Ketumse, Tosahwi, and Asa-havey (Wolf's Road or Starry Road) signed the Tehuacana Treaty in April 1846, allowing the federal jurisdiction without getting any recognition of the borders of Comanche territory. The Amorous Man was a signatory of the Butler-Lewis Treaty of 1846.[2]
After the cholera and smallpox epidemics of 1848 and 1849 reduced the Comanche population from approximately 20,000 to fewer than 12,000 within two years, The Amorous Man went to settle as a permanent guest among the Kotsoteka, later, in 1852, going to settle near the springs of the Big Wichita River with Potsʉnakwahipʉ, Ketumse and Shanaco. The date of his death is unknown.