Iron Jacket

Iron Jacket (, ; born died 1858) was a Native American War Chief and Chief of the Quahadi band of Comanche Native Americans.

Iron Jacket was a Comanche chieftain and medicine man whom the Comanche believed had the power to blow bullets aside with his breath. His name probably resulted from his habit of wearing a Spanish coat of scale mail into battle, which protected him from most light weapons fire.

Early life Not much is known about Iron Jacket's early life. He was born in the late 1780s or early 1790s, likely being son or nephew to Kwahadi chief Waakakwasi ("Trotter", called by Mexicans "Cota-de-Maya" or "Cota-de-Malla", i.e. "Iron Shirt" or "Iron Jacket"). He became a chief among the Kwahadi, or Antelope-eaters, Band of the Comanche. He appears to have been both a hereditary chief and a War Chief. Little else is known about Iron Jacket, except that he led dozens of terrifying raids on settlers from the 1820s to the 1850s in Texas and Mexico.

Evidently, this was because of the coat of old Spanish mail the chief wore, which appears to have protected him from light weapons fire. In any event, he was a feared and dangerous figure along the Texas and Mexican border, and in the Comancheria in the decades leading up to the American Civil War. undertook a campaign with approximately an equal number of Texas Rangers against the Comanches. Ford and Plácido were determined to follow the Comanche and Kiowa up to their strongholds amid the hills of the Canadian River, and into the Wichita Mountains, and if possible, "kill their warriors, decimate their food supply, strike at their homes and families and generally destroy their ability to make war".

In April 1858, Ford established Camp Runnells near what used to be the town of Belknap. Ford was still operating under Governor Runnell's explicit orders to "follow any and all trails of hostile and suspected hostile Indians, inflict the most severe and summary punishment", This claim is repeated verbatim in John Wesley Wilbarger's 1889 book, Indian Depredations in Texas.

However, T. R. Fehrenbach wrote in his 1974 book, Comanches, The Destruction of a People; "the Rangers broke up his scale mail and kept the shingles for souvenirs. His other accoutrements, such as his lance and shield, were sent to the Governor in Austin for display."

In popular culture The 1980 film The Mountain Men featured a fictionalized version of Iron Jacket named "Chief Iron Belly", portrayed by Victor Jory.