The comanche indians

The known history of the Comanche Indians dates back to the early 1500’s. The Comanche were originally part of the Eastern Shoshoni who lived near the upper reaches of the Platte River in eastern Wyoming. With the coming of the Spaniards to the new world the Comanche obtained horses and broke away from the Shoshoni moving south. Other groups followed until about 1830.

For about 50 years the Comanche lived between the Platte and Arkansas Rivers in eastern Colorado and western Kansas. Then they began crossing the Arkansas River and established themselves in large areas of Oklahoma and Texas and into New Mexico. When they separated from the Shoshoni, it is believed they numbered about 10,000. As they moved south their numbers increased. More groups joined them, and they kidnapped many women and children, adding significantly to their number. It is estimated they numbered as many as 20,000 (some estimates are much higher). Epidemics and famine reduced this number to less than 8,000 by 1870. Today they are listed among the top 25 American Indian tribes their number listed just fewer than 12,000 by the 1990 U.S. Census.

The Comanche language is almost identical to the Shoshoni from which they originated. The Shoshoni language in turn is related to the Ute and Paiute. The Comanche were not a unified tribe in the usual sense of the word. Experts agree there were from 8 to 12 independent divisions among them. These so-called divisions were generally cooperative among themselves, but not always. Further, each division might contain several independent bands. Most often the names of the divisions described the most prevalent food they ate or the area they lived in.

The Comanche are thought to have been the first native people of the plains to have horses. It was by this means that the Great Plains horse and buffalo culture existed. The Comanche were primarily a hunter-gatherer nomadic society, at least in the beginning. But trade also played a big part in their existence. They stole, bred and traded horses to other plains Indians allowing them also to become more productive buffalo hunters. And for at least two hundred years before white men started to infringe upon their territory, they raided Indian and Mexican settlements stealing anything of value including women and children. These stolen goods, including the women and children, they would take to established Spanish or Mexican outposts and sell back to those they had stolen from. The Comanche were fierce fighters and able to well endure the hardships of the Great Plains. Those they stole from found it much simpler and safer to buy back the stolen commodities rather than fight for them. Between 1700 and 1875 it is said they stole every horse and mule in New Mexico and Northern Mexico and enough to make them scarce in Texas. During the 1800’s they began also to steal cattle from the settlers in Texas, reselling them in New Mexico. During this period they fought not only the Mexicans and white settlers but also many of the other plains Indians. Their wars with other tribes were often the result of a tribe stealing horses from them.

As white settlers came to the plains it was, in a way, a mixed blessing for the Comanche. While they hated the infringement upon their territory, the white people were a new supply of horses, cattle, and hostages to be stolen. Being the fierce warriors that they were, the first white settlers posed little opposition. They had already driven the fierce Apaches out of their homeland, and the Mexicans also were no match. The Comanche were the personification of the ‘wild Indian’ in the eyes of the white man. He was misunderstood, hated, and feared.

Many historians debate whether the Comanche deserved their reputation. Some say they were only fighting for retrieval of the land they felt was theirs. The famous Council House fight in San Antonio in 1840 is often cited as an example of how the Comanche Indians were lied to and mistreated. The Texans used a white flag of truce to lure 33 Comanche chiefs into town to talk and make peace. The chiefs were asked to bring all the white prisoners in their possession as a show of good faith. The Texan’s goal was to get back the white prisoners. The Comanche attended the meeting but brought only one captive. When the Comanche chiefs refused to hand over all the captives immediately, the Texans opened fire on them, killing them all. This episode is said to have set off the Great Raid of 1840, in which the Comanche, led by the great warrior chief Buffalo Hump, raided all the way to the Texas coast. While this example is certainly tragic, it does not disprove the opinion that the Comanche were abusive and cruel to their captives.

The Comanche Indians did not treat their captives as it is hoped and expected that modern day captives of war will be treated. To the Comanche a captive in their possession was little more than a slave and a commodity. They were, in most cases, treated harshly from the moment of their capture until their death or release. They were both physically and mentally abused and enslaved.

In the spring of 1836 the Comanche raided Fort Parker in Texas. Five prisoners were taken, including Cynthia Ann Parker who later became the mother of the famous chief Quannah Parker. Within five years, all the prisoners except for Cynthia Ann (who chose to stay with her captors) were returned to their people. Among those captured and subsequently returned was Mrs. Rachel Plummer and her 18-month-old son, James Pratt. Mrs. Plummer was released in 1838 and shortly after wrote a thorough and horrifying account of her captivity with the Comanche Indians.

During her initial capture Mrs. Plummer wrote that she received a severe head wound, which was never treated but allowed to bleed profusely. Her son was taken from her, given to another band, and she never again saw him. Her hands and feet were bound so tightly in the beginning that even after she gained her release years later the scars remained on her wrists and ankles. She was deprived of food and given very little water for almost a week after her capture.

Mrs. Plummer, in the beginning, was physically beaten with regularity. These were not beatings given to her by another woman, but beatings with various implements given to her by several braves at one time. Eventually, she wrote, she was given certain tasks she must accomplish on a daily basis. For instance, she might be required to scrape a specific number of buffalo hides each day. Her tasks were often so many that she spent sleepless nights accomplishing the day’s tasks before beginning another. At the time of her capture, Mrs. Plummer was pregnant. Despite the arduous constant travel, daily tasks, and physical abuse, Mrs. Plummer gave birth to a healthy baby. After only a few weeks, the Indian braves decided the child was taking too much of Mrs. Plummer’s time away from her daily tasks. Her gruesome account tells of how they came and took the baby whom she was feeding at her breast and several times holding him aloft above their heads let him fall unprotected to the ground. Then believing him dead they returned him to her. Miraculously, she was able to revive the child. When this was discovered it angered the braves. They once again took the infant from her, and tying him to one end of a rope, dragged him through cactus until his body was literally torn to shreds. Once again, he was returned to Mrs. Plummer, and she was allowed to bury her child.

Mrs. Plummer’s account of her captivity, and countless other’s with similar accounts demonstrates that although the Comanche surely felt wronged by the spread of white society, their brutal taking and torture of prisoners was a common and accepted practice among them.

Eventually, the Comanche war chief Quannah Parker took command of the Comanche effort to halt the spread of white settlements. He fought ten years but failed. The last battle between the Indians and the U.S. Cavalry was fought at what was later to become Fort Holland, Texas. Quannah Parker then became a diplomat doing much to mend the wounds between the Indians and the white people. A treaty was signed promising the Indians a reservation including three million acres of land. That reservation now consists of only about 256 acres and is inhabited by only a small percentage of the remaining great Comanche Indians.