Comanche

I

Introduction

Comanche, Native Americans of the Uto-Aztecan language family and of the Great Plains culture area. The name Comanche is thought to be derived from the Spanish phrase camino ancho, meaning “main road,” although some scholars believe it is from the Ute term komen'teia, meaning “someone who wants to fight me.” The Comanche call themselves Numunuh, which means “the people.”

II

History

Scholars believe that the Comanche once lived west of the Rocky Mountains alongside the Shoshone people in the area of present-day Wyoming. In the 1500s or 1600s the Comanche separated from the Shoshone and migrated to the Great Plains. In the late 1600s they acquired horses. By 1740 they had driven out Apache bands from the Southern Plains. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries they dominated a vast area. Their heartland became the upper Cimarron, Brazos, Red, and Canadian rivers in northwestern Texas, but they roamed into Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and northern Mexico as well.

The Comanche were the most skillful equestrians of the Plains. The paint (pinto) horses they preferred were originally acquired by raiding the Spanish or by trading with other tribes and later were bred by them. The Comanche made frequent raids on both European and Native American settlements over a wide area and kept settlers out of their territory for more than a century. They probably numbered about 30,000 in the early 1800s, but shortly thereafter an epidemic reduced their population to fewer than 10,000. In the mid-1800s the Texas Rangers tried to pacify the Comanche. A number of violent conflicts during and after the American Civil War (1861-1865) culminated in what is generally called the Red River War (1874-1875). In this war, Comanche bands under Chief Quanah Parker, along with Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux allies, carried out raids on non-Indian settlements before being defeated at Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle. The Comanche were granted reservation lands with the Kiowa in the southwestern Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).

III

Customs

A nomadic people, the Comanche lived by hunting buffalo (American bison). Families dwelt in tipis and were organized socially into patrilineal bands (those in which descent is traced through the male line). Tribal members wore buckskins, with fur hats in the winter. The favored Comanche war helmet was a bison scalp complete with horns. Both men and women practiced tattooing. Comanche religion stressed visionary experiences, which an individual deliberately sought out in isolated situations of privation. Animal spirits were believed to favor particular individuals and to render aid to them; protective spirits were also believed to dwell in rocks and thunder.

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After settling on their reservation lands, Quanah Parker and many Comanche began the sacramental use of peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus, for visionary experiences. The Native American Church, founded in 1918, combined this practice with certain Christian beliefs and rituals. See Peyotism; Native American Religions.

IV

Contemporary Life

In the 2000 U.S. census about 10,000 people identified themselves as Comanche only; an additional 9,300 reported being part Comanche. Today many live on private landholdings in Oklahoma. The Comanche Indian Tribe (also called the Comanche Nation) has its headquarters at Anadarko, Oklahoma. Ranching, farming, and the leasing of mineral rights to shared trust lands provide income for tribal members. Powwows, intertribal celebrations of Native American culture, help preserve traditional songs, dances, arts, and crafts. The annual Comanche Homecoming in Walters, Oklahoma, is one of the largest powwows in the region.