3/11/2024 0 Comments Comanche numic language![]() ![]() ![]() They were formidable opponents who developed strategies for using traditional weapons for fighting on horseback. With a population around 30,000 to 40,000 and in possession of herds many times that number, the Comanche had a surplus of about 90,000 to 120,000 horses. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Comanche lifestyle required about one horse per person (though warriors each possessed many more). The Comanche also had access to vast numbers of feral horses, which numbered about 2,000,000 in and around Comancheria, and which the tribe was particularly skilled at breaking to saddle. The Comanche had stolen many of the horses from other tribes and settlers they earned their reputation as formidable horse thieves, later extending their rustling to cattle. Their stealing of livestock from Spanish and American settlers, as well as the other Plains tribes, often led to war. Curtis Marez suggests that this contributed to the development of mestizaje in the borderlands, as the descendants of such captives were mixed-race.īy the mid-19th century, the Comanche were supplying horses to French and American traders and settlers, and later to migrants passing through their territory on the way to the California Gold Rush, along the California Road. They were estimated to have taken captive thousands of people from the Spanish, Mexican, and American settlers in their lands. ![]() They were said to be the best horsemen on the Plains.ĭuring that time, their population increased dramatically because of the abundance of buffalo, an influx of Shoshone migrants, and their adoption of significant numbers of women and children taken captive from rival groups. Highly skilled Comanche horsemen set the pattern of nomadic equestrian life that became characteristic of the Plains tribes in the 18th and 19th centuries. They also fought battles on horseback, a skill unknown among other Indian peoples at the time. They separated from the Shoshone after this, as the horses allowed them greater mobility in their search for better hunting grounds. The Comanche 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. The Comanche were one of the first tribes to acquire horses from the Spanish and one of the few to breed them to any extent. In 1680, the Comanche acquired horses from the Pueblo Indians after the Pueblo Revolt. They also took thousands of captives from the Spanish, Mexican, and American settlers. They were the dominant tribe on the Southern Plains and often took captives from weaker tribes during warfare, selling them as slaves to the Spanish and later Mexican settlers. There may have been as many as 45,000 Comanches in the late 1700s. The Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian culture, including the horse. Membership: Membership in the tribe requires a 1/8 blood quantum (equivalent to one great-grandparent). Language: Uto-Aztecan>Northern Uto-Aztecan> Central Numic>ComancheĮnemies: Apache during the period of their expansion onto the Great Plains. Home Territories: New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas Native Name: Numunuu, means ‘the People.’ Nermernuh is another name they use for themselves. Tribal Name: The name Comanche is derived from a Ute word, kɨmantsi , meaning “anyone who wants to fight me all the time.” They also traveled down into Chihuahua, Mexico. The Comanche Indians are a Native American ethnic group whose historic lands (the Comancheria) consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. ![]()
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