Did You Know Thursday: Native American Heritage Month, The Comanche

Did you know that November is Native American Heritage Month?

Did you also know that Native American History was some of my absolute favorite while I was studying for my degree?

I’ve decided that every Thursday in the month of November is going to be dedicated to a Native American nation/tribe! I did a Did You Know Thursday on the Cherokee last year you can read that here.

First up this November: The Comanche.

Did you know that the Texas Rangers were organized during the 1840s primarily to fight the Comanche?

The Comanche are a Native American nation from the Great Plains whose historic territory consisted of most of present day northwestern Texas and adjacent areas in eastern New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, western Oklahoma, and northern Chihuahua.

The Comanche were arguably the most important tribe of the Great Plains. In spite of this fact, they have become something of a historical footnote. Texans do not like to talk about them because the memories are painful. Some writers have deliberately avoided the Comanche because it is a little awkward to describe them as victims, because of their violent history. Yet others because Comanche society largely lacked the intricate ceremony and rituals that are appealing to anthropologists. Their name has become synonymous with the stereotypical image of the wild native.

However, I find the Comanche and their history to be incredibly interesting.

Comanche Feats of Horsemanship. Between 1834 and 1835. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Wikimedia.

The Comanche were known as equestrian nomads and the name Comanche is derived from a Ute word meaning “anyone who wants to fight me all the time.” They had been part of the Wyoming Shoshone. They moved south in stages, attacking and displacing other tribes, most notably the Apache. Whom they drove from the southern Plains. By the early 1800s the Comanche were incredibly powerful, with a population estimated at from 7,000 to as many as 30,000 individuals.

By the end of the 18th century, more than 13 bands of Comanche existed. However, there were five major bands: Yamparika (Root Eaters), Kotsoteka (Buffalo Eaters), Penateka (Honey Eaters), Nokoni (Wanderers), and Quahadis (Antelopes).

The Comanche were one of the initial tribes to acquire horses from the Spanish. The Comanche are believed to have been the first native people on the plains to utilize the horse significantly. As such, they were the source for other plains tribes of the horses that made the buffalo culture possible, even for their enemies. They also fought battles on horseback, a skill unknown among other Native peoples. This is what the Comanche are most famed for today. They truly epitomized the mounted plains warrior. Until the 1750s, they often employed leather armor and large body shields to protect both horse and rider.

Three mounted Comanche Indian warriors, photographed 1892. Wikimedia.

They were also one of the only tribes to breed horses. They valued pinto and paints above other breeds and selectively bred for those characteristics. Through trade, meticulous breeding, and most especially massive theft, the Comanche acquired large herds.

These highly skilled Comanche horsemen set the pattern of nomadic equestrian life that became representative of the Plains tribes in the 18th and 19th centuries. Comanche raids for material goods, horses, and captives carried them as far south as Durango in present-day Mexico. On foot a Comanche warrior was threatening but nothing extraordinary, an Apache or Pawnee could probably have beaten them. However, mounted, the Comanche had no equal.

Their weapon of choice was pretty traditional although they acquired their first firearms from French traders as early as the 1740s, the Comanche continued to rely heavily on the lance and the bow and arrow. If a Comanche warrior did carry a firearm, it was usually a musket or shotgun. They generally disliked the rifle because of its heaviness, and its advantage of greater accuracy was pretty useless on horseback.

Comanche raiders were legen-wait for it-DARY. War parties generally travelled at night following separate routes to an agreed upon location. Strings of horses were used to avoid fatiguing their mounts. Their war paint was black and usually consisted of two black stripes across the forehead and lower face. The Comanche war hoop was something of a collective rah-rah-rah (the original cheerleaders perhaps haha).

Comanche warriors, circa 1867-1874, courtesy of the Center for American History (#01355), The University of Texas at Austin. Wikimedia.

After their seemingly sudden attack, a rapid retreat began using separate routes and dividing into smaller groups to stop pursuits. Returning war parties often wore some of their stolen loot: stovepipe hats, womens corsets (can you just imagine that?). It gave the returning war parties an almost circus-esque appearance. The effect may seem slightly comical to us, but you’ve got to remember the Comanche were incredibly dangerous.

War parties often returned with prisoners. Male prisoners were almost always killed on the spot; however, women and children were taken back to the village. Women were usually raped, enslaved, and kept for ransom or sale as slaves. Children might also be sold but were often adopted and raised as part of the band. The Comanche made little distinction between natural-born and adopted members.

Much like many other tribes of Plains Indians, the Comanche were organized into sovereign bands, local groups that were formed on the basis of kinship and other social relationships. The core of the Comanche economy was based on buffalo products. These included robes, tepee covers, sinew thread, and a wide variety of other goods. Buffalo were pretty handy and available back then.

A group of Comanche watch on a caravan travelling through a Trans Pecos valley in West Texas. Circa 1850. Lee Arthur Tracy (1814–1879). Wikimedia.

Comanche leadership was exclusively male and not hereditary. Unsurprisingly, leadership was based on status acquired through a combination of war honors. Perhaps its most apparent characteristic was the lack of absolute rules. The power of a Comanche parabio, or chief, could vary from pretty minimal control of his own band to absolute authority over an entire division.

The most infamous Comanche chief was inarguable Quanah Parker, or he is at least the most famous among Americans. He gained fame because his mother was an Anglo-Texan who was captured when she was only 9 years old. As mentioned above, children who are captured generally became part of the band that captured them. This was true or Parkers mother, Cynthia who eventually married a Comanche and had 3 children.

While most Americans may be familiar with Quanah Parker, the Comanche regarded several other chiefs in higher honor then him, those included: Ten Bears, Red Sleeves, Green Horn, Iron Shirt, Leather Cape, and Buffalo Hump.

Comanche Spoilers by Howard Terpning. Found here.

Of those, the most famous is Buffalo Hump thanks largely to Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove series. Buffalo Hump was a fictional character BUT he did have a very real counterpart. Funny enough, his name wasn’t actually Buffalo Hump, but the Texans believed his Comanche name, Po-cha-na–quar-hip, loosely translated to an “erection that won’t go down” was just a little too vulgar for mixed company.