[image] [image] [image] The Comanche are a Native American group whose historical range (the Comancheria) consisted of present-day Eastern New Mexico, Southern Colorado, Southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of Northern and Southern Texas. There might once have been as many as 20,000 Comanches. Today, the Comanche Nation consists of approximately 10,000 members, about half of whom live in Oklahoma (centred at Lawton), with the remainder concentrated in Texas, California, and New Mexico.
There are two accounts of the origin of the name Comanche. Perhaps the most widely accepted is that it derives from Komantcia, a Spanish corruption of "Kohmahts", the Ute name for the people. "Kohmahts" is variously translated as "enemy", "those who want to fight (us)", "those who are against us", or "strangers". Alternatively the name may come from the Spanish camino ancho, meaning "wide trail". Early French and American explorers knew the Comanche as Padouca (or Paducah), their Siouan name. The Comanches' own preferred name is Numunuu, meaning "the People".
The Comanche speak an Uto-Aztecan language, sometimes classified as a Shoshone dialect.
Their original Migration took them to central plains, from where they moved southward into a sweep of territory extending from the Arkansas River to central Texas. During that time, their population increased dramatically due to the abundance of buffalo, an influx of Shoshone migrants, and the adoption of significant numbers of women and children taken captive from rival groups. Nevertheless, the Comanches never formed a single cohesive tribal unit but were divided into almost a dozen autonomous groups. These groups shared the same language and culture but may have fought among themselves just as often as they cooperated.
The horse was a key element in the emergence of a distinctive Comanche culture, and there have been suggestions that it was the search for additional sources of horses among the Mexican settlers to the south (rather than the search for new herds of buffalo) that first led the Comanches to break off from the Shoshone. The Comanches may have been the first group of Plains natives to fully incorporate the horse into their culture, and to have introduced the animal to the other Plains peoples. By the mid-nineteenth century, they were supplying horses to French and American traders and settlers, and later to migrants passing through their territory on their way to the Californian Gold Rush. Many of these horses were stolen, and the Comanches earned a reputation as formidable horse and later cattle thieves. Their victims included Spanish and American settlers, as well as the other Plains tribes, often leading to war. They were formidable opponents who developed strategies for fighting on horseback with traditional weapons. Warfare was a major part of Comanche life.
Comanche raids into Mexico were a yearly event for many decades, with the warriors seeking weapons, cattle, horses, mules, women, goods and slaves. At least one such raid went so far south into Mexico that the returning raiders spoke of seeing "little men in the trees who would not speak to us", referring to monkeys. The Comanche raids were greatly feared. The Comanche mobility on horseback made these raids unstoppable until their final defeat by the United States. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War, addressed the issue of Comanche raids, and the United States promised to stop the raids, but was not able to do so for many years.
While the Comanches managed to maintain their independence and even increase their territory, by the mid-nineteenth century they faced annihilation because of a wave of epidemics introduced by white settlers. Outbreaks of Smallpox (1817, 1848) and Cholera (1849) took a major toll on the Comanches, whose population dropped from an estimated 20,000 in mid-century to just a few thousand by the 1870s.
Efforts to move the Comanches into reservations began in the late 1860s with the Treaty of Medicine Lodge (1867), which offered them churches, schools, and annuities in return for a vast tract of land totaling over 60,000 square miles (160,000 kmē). The government promised to stop the buffalo hunters, who were decimating the great herds of the Plains, provided that the Comanches, along with the Apaches, Kiowas, Cheyennes, and Arapahos, moved to a reservation totaling less than 5,000 square miles (13,000 kmē) of land. However, the government failed to prevent the slaughtering of the herds, which provoked the Comanches under Isa-tai (White Eagle) to attack a group of hunters in the Texas Panhandle in the Second Battle of Adobe Walls (1874). The attack was a disaster for the Comanches and the army was called in to drive all the remaining Comanche in the area into the reservation. Within just ten years, the buffalo were on the verge of extinction, effectively ending the Comanche way of life as hunters.
In 1892 the government negotiated the Jerome Agreement, with the Comanches, Kiowas, and Apaches, further reducing their reservation to 480,000 acres (1,940 kmē) at a cost of $1.25 per acre ($308.88/kmē), with an allotment of 160 acres (0.6 kmē) per person per tribe to be held in trust. New allotments were made in 1906 to all children born after the Jerome Agreement, and the remaining land was opened to white settlement. With this new arrangement, the era of the Comanche reservation came to an abrupt end.
The peace chief was usually an older individual, who could bring his experience to the task of advising. There was no formal instatement to the position, it being one of general consensus.
The council made decisions about where the band should hunt, whether they should war against their enemies, and whether to ally themselves with other bands. Any member could speak at council meetings, but the older men usually did most of the talking.
In times of war, the band selected a war chief. To be chosen for this position, a man had to prove he was a brave fighter. He also had to have the respect of all the other warriors in the band. While the band was at war, the war chief was in charge, and all the warriors had to obey him. After the conflict was over, however, the war chief's authority ended.
The Comanche men did most of the hunting and always fought the wars. They learned how to ride horses when they were young and they were eager to prove themselves in battle. On the plains, Comanche women carried out the demanding but menial tasks of cooking, skinning animals, setting up camp, and transporting household goods.
First, the midwives softened the earthen floor of the tipi and dug two holes. One of the holes was for heating water and the other for the afterbirth. One or two stakes were driven into the ground near the expectant mother's bedding for her to grip during the pain of labor.
After the birth, the midwives hung the Umbilical cord on a Hackberry tree. If the umbilical cord was not disturbed before it rotted it was believed that the baby would live a long and prosperous life.
The newborn was swaddled and remained with its mother in the tipi for a few days. The baby was then placed in a cradleboard, and the mother went back to work. She could easily carry the cradleboard on her back, or prop it against a tree where the baby could watch her while she collected seeds or roots.
Cradleboards consisted of a flat board attached to which was a basket made from rawhide straps, or a leather sheath that laced up the front. With soft, dry moss as a diaper, the young one was safely tucked into the leather pocket. During cold weather, the baby was wrapped in blankets, and then placed in the cradleboard. The baby remained in the cradleboard for about ten months, then it was allowed to crawl around.
Both girls and boys were welcomed into the band, but boys were favored. If the baby was a boy, one of the midwives informed the father or grandfather, "It's your close friend". Families might paint a flap on the tipi to tell the rest of the tribe that they had been strengthened with another warrior.
Sometimes a man named his child, but mostly the father asked a Medicine man (or another man of distinction) to do so. He did this in hope of his child living a long and productive life. During the public naming ceremony, the medicine man lit his pipe and offered smoke to the heavens, earth, and each of the four directions. He prayed that the child would remain happy and healthy. He then lifted the child to symbolize its growing up and announced the child's name four times. He held the child a little higher each time he said the name. It was believed that the child's name foretold its future; even a weak or sick child could grow up to be a great warrior, hunter, and raider if given a name suggesting courage and strength.
Boys were often named after their grandfather, uncle, or other relative. Girls were usually named after one of their father's relatives, but the name was selected by the mother. As children grew up they also acquired nicknames.
Children learned from example, by observing and listening to their parents and others in the band. As soon as she was old enough to walk, a girl followed her mother about the camp playing at the daily tasks of cooking and making clothing. She was also very close to her mother's sisters, who were called not aunt but "pia", meaning mother. She was given a little deerskin doll, which she took with her everywhere. She learned to make all the clothing for the doll.
A boy identified not only with his father but with his father's family, as well as with the bravest warriors in the band. He learned to ride a horse before he could walk. By the time he was four or five he was expected to be able to skillfully handle a horse. When he was five or six, he was given a small bow and arrows. He was often taught to ride and shoot by his grandfather since his father and other men were on raids and hunts. His grandfather also taught him about his own boyhood and the history and legends of the Comanche.
As he grew older, he joined the other boys to hunt birds. He eventually ranged farther from camp looking for better game to kill. Encouraged to be skillful hunters, boys learned the signs of the Prairie as they learned to patiently and quietly stalk game. They became more self-reliant, yet, by playing together as a group, also formed the strong bonds and cooperative spirit that they would need when they hunted and raided.
When he was ready to become a warrior, at about age fifteen or sixteen, a young man first "made his medicine" by going on a Vision Quest (a rite of passage). Following this quest, his father gave the young man a good horse to ride into battle and another mount for the trail. If he had proved himself as a warrior, a Give Away Dance might be held in his honor. As drummers faced east, he and other young men danced. His parents, along with his other relatives and the people in the band, threw presents at his feet - especially blankets and horses symbolized by sticks. Anyone might snatch one of the gifts for themselves, although those with many possessions refrained; they did not want to appear greedy. People often gave away all their belongings during these dances, providing for others in the band but leaving themselves with nothing.
Girls learned to gather berries, nuts, and roots. They carried water and collected wood, and when about twelve years old learned to cook meals, make tipis, sew clothing, and perform other tasks essential to becoming a wife and mother. They were then considered ready to be married.
When he wished to marry, a boy offered a gift. The gift was usually one or more horses for the girl's father or guardian. He might also agree to work as a hunter or trader for the family, to convince the girl's family that he would be able to provide for her. Usually a young man asked an uncle or friend to make the offer for him. This messenger brought horses and other goods, spoke briefly with the parents, and left. To avoid embarrassment he did not immediately receive an answer. If the proposal was turned down, the horses were simply released and driven back to the suitor's herd; if accepted, the horses were taken into the father's herd, thereby announcing the engagement. Sometimes a marriage was arranged with an older man of wealth, but girls resisted such unions, often eloping with the young men they truly loved.
A very old and ill person was "thrown away" by everyone other than close family. This was not because they lacked sympathy, but because they were afraid that evil spirits were invading his body. As death approached, the old person gave away his belongings. He made his last medicine, then found a quiet place to lie down and waited to die. After he died, the Comanches immediately buried his body. His knees were folded to his chest, and his head tilted forward before the warmth left his body. The body was bound in this position with a rope, and then bathed. The face was painted red, and the eyes sealed with clay.
The deceased was attired in the finest available clothing, and then laid upon a blanket. Loved ones took a final look at the deceased, and then the body was wrapped in another blanket and tied with buffalo-hide rope. Placed in a sitting position on a horse, with a woman riding behind, the body was taken to the burial place, which was usually a cave, a deep ravine, or a crevice high among the rocks.
The body was placed in a sitting position, or on its side, in a hole, or on the ground, around stacked rocks and wooden poles. In the late 1800s, some Comanches, especially those living along the Red River, built tree or scaffold burial structures like those used by the Cheyenne and other Plains Indians. The Comanche did not fear death, but death worried them, and they often broke camp after a burial to get away from the place of death.
There was little mourning for the old people who died, but intense mourning for a young man who died.
For meat, the Comanche ate buffalo, bison, elk, black bears, pronghorn antelope, and deer. When game was scarce the men hunted wild mustangs, sometimes eating their own ponies. In later years the Comanche raided Texas ranches and stole longhorn cattle. They did not eat fish or fowl, unless starving, when they would eat virtually any creature they could catch, including armadillos, skunks, rats, lizards, frogs, and grasshoppers.
Buffalo meat and other game was prepared and cooked by the women. The women also gathered wild fruits, seeds, nuts, berries, roots, and tubers - including plums, grapes, juniper berries, persimmons, mulberries, acorns, pecans, wild onions, radishes, and the fruit of the prickly pear cactus. The Comanche also acquired Maize, dried pumpkin, and tobacco through trade and raids.
Most meats were roasted over a fire or boiled. To boil fresh or dried meat and vegetables, women dug a pit in the ground, which they lined with animal skins or buffalo stomach and filled with water to make a kind of cooking pot. They placed heated stones in the water until it boiled and had cooked their stew. After they came into contact with the Spanish, the Comanche traded for copper pots and iron kettles, which made cooking easier.
Women used berries and nuts, as well as honey and tallow, to flavor buffalo meat. They stored the tallow, or fat, in intestine casings or rawhide pouches called parfleches. They especially liked to make a sweet mush of buffalo marrow mixed with crushed mesquite beans. The Comanches sometimes ate raw meat, especially raw liver flavored with gall. They also drank the milk from the slashed udders of buffalo, deer, and elk. Among their delicacies was the curdled milk from the stomachs of suckling buffalo calves, and they also enjoyed buffalo tripe, or stomachs.
Comanche people generally had a light meal in the morning and a large evening meal. During the day they ate whenever they were hungry, or when it was convenient. Like other Plains Indians, the Comanche were very hospitable people. They prepared meals whenever a visitor arrived in camp, which led to the belief that the Comanches ate at all hours of the day or night. Before calling a public event, the chief took a morsel of food, held it to the sky, and then buried it as a peace offering to the Great Spirit. Many, but not all, families offered thanks as they sat down to eat their meals in their tipis.
Comanche children ate Pemmican, but this was primarily a tasty, high-energy food reserved for war parties. Carried in a parfleche pouch, pemmican was eaten only when the men did not have time to hunt. Similarly, in camp, people ate pemmican only when other food was scarce. Traders ate pemmican sliced and dipped in honey, which they called Indian bread.
The Comanches lived in cone-shaped tipis. The basic structure consisted of poles, each about fourteen feet long, made from slender pine or Juniper trees, stripped, treated, and pared down to the appropriate width. To set up the frame, women tied four of the poles together, set the frame upright, and spread the poles. They next placed between twelve and thirty smaller poles around the frame (the average was twenty).
The Comanche sheathed their tipis with a covering made of buffalo hides sewn together. To prepare the buffalo hides, women first spread them on the ground, then scraped away the fat and flesh with blades made from bones or antlers, and left them in the sun. When the hides were dry, they scraped off the thick hair, and then soaked them in water. After several days, they vigorously rubbed in a mixture of animal fat, brains, and liver to soften the hides. The hides were made even more supple by further rinsing and working back and forth over a rawhide thong. Finally, they were smoked over a fire, which gave the hides a light tan color.
To finish the tipi covering, women laid the tanned hides side by side and stitched them together. As many as twenty-two hides could be used, but fourteen was the average. When finished, the hide covering was tied to a pole and raised, wrapped around the cone-shaped frame, and pinned together with pencil-sized wooden skewers. Two wing-shaped flaps at the top of the tipi were turned back to make an opening, which could be adjusted to keep out the wind and create a draft of air to draw away smoke. The tipi doorway, facing east toward the rising sun, was covered with a hide flap. Some Comanches decorated their tipis with stripes and geometric designs.
A buffalo hide called a "dew cloth" was hung on the inside wall, from about shoulder-height down to the ground. Dew cloths kept out moisture and held pockets of insulating air. With a fire pit in the center of the earthen floor, the tipis stayed warm in the winter. In the summer, the bottom edges of the tipis could be rolled up to let cool breezes in. Cooking was done outside during the hot weather.
Tipis were very practical homes for itinerant people. Women, working together, could quickly set them up or take them down. An entire Comanche band could be packed and chasing a buffalo herd within about fifteen minutes.
The Comanche men wore nothing on the upper body except in the winter, when they wore warm, heavy robes made from buffalo hides (or occasionally, bear, wolf, or coyote skins) with knee-length buffalo-hide boots. Young boys usually went without clothes except in cold weather. When they reached the age of eight or nine they began to wear the clothing of a Comanche adult.
In the 19th Century, woven cloth replaced the buckskin breechclouts, and the men began wearing loose-fitting buckskin shirts. They decorated their shirts, leggings and moccasins with fringes made of deer-skin, animal fur, and human hair. They also decorated their shirts and leggings with patterns and shapes formed with beads and scraps of material.
Comanche women wore long deerskin dresses. The dresses had a flared skirt and wide, long sleeves, and were trimmed with buckskin fringes along the sleeves and hem. Beads and pieces of metal were attached in geometric patterns. Comanche women wore buckskin moccasins with buffalo soles. In the winter they, too, wore warm buffalo robes and tall, fur-lined buffalo-hide boots.
Unlike the boys, young girls did not go naked. As soon as they were able to walk, they were dressed in breechclouts. By the age of twelve or thirteen they adopted the clothes of Comanche women.
Comanche men rarely wore anything on their heads, and had no tradition of wearing the large feathered bonnets seen among the northern Plains peoples. Only after they moved onto a reservation late in the 19th Century would Comanche men begin to wear the typical Plains headdress. If the winter was severely cold they might wear a brimless, woolly buffalo hide hat.
When they went to war, some warriors wore a headdress made from a buffalo's scalp. Warriors cut away most of the hide and flesh from a buffalo head, leaving only a portion of the woolly hair and the horns. This type of woolly, horned buffalo hat was worn only by the Comanche.
Comanche women did not let their hair grow as long as the men did. Young girls might wear their hair long and braided, but women parted their hair in the middle and kept it short. Like the men, they painted their scalp along the parting with bright paint.
Except for black, which was the color for war, there was no standard color or pattern for face and body painting: it was a matter of individual preference. For example, one Comanche might paint one side of his face white and the other side red; another might paint one side of his body green and the other side with green and black stripes. One Comanche might always paint himself in a particular way, while another might change the colors and designs when so inclined. Some designs had special meaning to the individual, and special colors and designs might have been revealed in a dream.
Comanche women might also tattoo their face or arms. They were fond of painting their bodies, and were free to paint themselves however they pleased. A popular pattern among the women was to paint the insides of their ears a bright red, and paint great orange and red circles on their cheeks. They usually painted red and yellow around their eyes.
Removing the lining of the inner stomach, women made the paunch into a water bag. The lining was stretched over four sticks, and then filled with water to make a pot for cooking soups and stews. With wood scarce on the plains, women relied on buffalo chips (dried dung) to fuel the fires that cooked meals and warmed the people through long winters.
Stiff rawhide was fashioned into saddles, stirrups and cinches, knife cases, buckets, and moccasin soles. Rawhide was also made into rattles and drums. Strips of rawhide were twisted into sturdy ropes. Scraped to resemble white parchment, rawhide skins were folded to make parfleches in which food, clothing, and other personal belongings were kept. Women also tanned hides to make soft and supple buckskin, which was used for tipi covers, warm robes, blankets, cloths, and moccasins. They also relied upon buckskin for bedding, cradles, dolls, bags, pouches, quivers, and gun cases.
Sinew was used for bowstrings and sewing thread. Hooves were turned into glue and rattles. The horns were shaped into cups, spoons, and ladles, while the tail made a good whip, a fly-swatter, or a decoration for the tipi. Men made tools, scrapers, and needles from the bones, as well as a kind of pipe, and fashioned toys for their children. As warriors, however, men concentrated on making bows and arrows, lances, and shields. The thick neck skin of an old bull was ideal for war shields that deflected arrows as well as bullets. Since they spent most of each day on horseback, they also fashioned leather into saddles, stirrups, and other equipment for their mounts. Buffalo hair was used to fill saddle pads, and was also used in rope and halters.
The Comanche language is a member of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan Language family. Although efforts are now being made to ensure its survival, much of the original language has been lost. In the late 1800s, Comanche children were placed in boarding schools where they were discouraged from speaking their native language, and even severely punished for doing so. During World War II, a group of seventeen young men referred to as "The Comanche Code Talkers" were trained and used by the U.S. Army to send messages conveying sensitive information that could not be deciphered by the enemy.