John Conner, as Houston’s aide, was present at nearly all negotiations and treaties during the 1830s and 1840s not just as an interpreter, but as a persuasive diplomat to the Comanches, whom he successfully convinced to attend treaty talks, which were made more difficult after the 1840 Council House treachery. Conner was described as “justly renowned as having a more minute and extensive knowledge of the continent than any other man,” making him the ideal choice for frequent missions into Mexico and as a guide to the Chihuahua-El Paso Expedition in 1848. He was compensated with a league of land (4,428 acres) granted by the Texas legislature in 1853, the only Native American to receive such a grant. By 1857 Conner was dividing his time between Texas and Kansas when he was authorized by the U.S. Department of Indian Affairs to become the principal chief of the Delaware Nation. Two other Delawares spent time in the Bosque River village were the brothers, Jim (Bear Head) and Bill Shaw (Tall Man). Jim Shaw was described by William B. Parker as “the finest specimen of the Indian I saw during the trip, about fifty years old, full six feet six in height, as straight as an arrow, with sinewy, muscular frame, large head, . . . his countenance indicative of the true friend and dangerous enemy.”