Comanches on the March
“THE COMANCHE INDIANS”
One of the largest of the nomadic tribes, the Comanches moved about their hunting territory in a carefree manner. Their superb horsemanship, dashing courage, and craftiness in battle made them formidable foes. Their stocky muscular bodies gave them a fine appearance, although they lacked the usual primitive interest in dress and decoration. They were shrewd traders, and in later years they bartered their fine horses for white man’s trade goods. The Comanches are here shown as they pass the prairie landmark known as Pawnee Rock in what is now Barton County, Kansas. Pawnee rock is an outcropping of sandstone on the north side of the Arkansas River near the old Santa Fe Trail. Wagon trains were often surprised and attacked by Indians who waited behind the rock.”
“NOMADIC PRAIRIE INDIANS”
Most of the tribes living west of central Kansas never had fixed villages. They traveled over the prairie grasslands, living in temporary teepee camps, wherever food was most abundant and enemies were least likely to discover them. Before the white man brought horses to America, the Indians’ few belongings were carried on their backs and by dog pack, but the advent of the horse brought many changes in the customs of these wandering hunters. Tribal warfare increased as the use of the horse allowed them to invade the hunting lands of other groups. Tribes became larger and more powerful for greater protection and for strength in raiding enemy camps, to battle and to plunder.”
A Contemporary Perspective
Prior to the 17th century, Comanche ancestors had primarily inhabited the Great Basin region where they hunted and gathered wild resources such as jackrabbits, antelope, waterfowl, pine nuts, berries, and roots. Gradually, these people—along with their Shoshone relatives–migrated across the Rocky Mountains and into Wyoming in search of new hunting grounds. In the meantime, the Spanish established a colonial outpost in New Mexico where they exploited and missionized the various Pueblo peoples. They also introduced domesticated animals like horses.
Horses spread northward along Indigenous trade routes. This process received a boost in 1680 after the Spanish temporarily abandoned the Southwest following the Pueblo Revolt, leaving their herds behind. When the animals arrived in Wyoming, the Comanche swiftly recognized their potential as a new technology that would revolutionize travel, hunting, and warfare. As discussed in the original text, prior to the introduction of horses, Indigenous people hunted on foot and had only dogs to use as pack animals. Horses made it possible for tribes to span great distances in record time, which facilitated bison hunting but also brought new conflicts as disparate tribes encountered one another and competed over resources.
Migrating onto the southern Plains in successive waves, the Comanche embraced a nomadic equestrian lifestyle centered on the bison hunt by the mid-18th century. As noted in the original text, they became skilled riders and horse breeders who accrued enormous herds. Their prowess as mounted warriors, meanwhile, led them to dominate the southern Plains by the early 19th century, creating what one scholar has termed “the Comanche Empire.” Raiding and trading from northern Mexico to Wyoming, the Comanche posed a formidable challenge to American expansion.
Beginning in the 1860s, the U.S. launched several campaigns to subdue the Comanche to protect migrating wagon trains as well as White settlers venturing onto the Plains. In 1864, Col. Kit Carson led an unsuccessful operation against the tribe. The following year, the Comanche signed a treaty that established their territorial boundaries from the Red River to the Cimarron. When the U.S. failed to protect these lands from squatters, however, violence resumed. Along with the leaders of other southern Plains tribes, the Comanche signed a new treaty at Medicine Lodge Creek in Kansas in 1867 and agreed to settle on a reservation in Indian Territory. Dissatisfied with the assigned lands, the Comanche frequently left the reservation to hunt. These expeditions provoked renewed conflict with White settlers and commercial buffalo hunters that culminated in the Red River War of 1874. Depleted by disease and unable to find sufficient game due to dwindling bison numbers, the Comanche eventually accepted defeat and retreated to their reservation in 1875.
The federal government allotted the Comanche reservation in the early twentieth century, which further reduced their land holdings and undermined their political cohesion. Faced with severe economic hardship, many Comanche turned to the peyote religion for comfort. During WWII, many tribal citizens left to find jobs in the defense industry, which accelerated the breakup of Comanche society. In the 1960s, however, the tribe began to rebuild itself by reestablishing a tribal government and gaining federal recognition.
Today, approximately 17,000 people are enrolled citizens of the Comanche Nation. The Comanche preserve their heritage and kinship through annual gatherings and powwows.
