Comanche - Lords of The Plains

The Comanche / k m n tʃ i / or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (NUH-MUH-NUH "people") was a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche State, headquartered in Lawton, Oklahoma.

The Comanche language is a Numic language that belongs to the Uto-Aztecan family. Initially, it was a Shoshoni dialect, but it diverged and became a separate language. The Comanche were once part of the Shoshone tribe in the Great Basin.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Comanche lived in much of present-day northwestern Texas and surrounding areas in eastern New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, southwest Kansas, western Oklahoma, and northern Chihuahua. The Spanish colonists and later the Mexicans called their historic region Comanchería.

See Other Native American Tribe in the United States

During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Comanche practised a nomadic horse culture and hunting, especially bison. They traded with neighbouring Native Americans and Spanish, French, and American colonists and settlers.

When European Americans invaded their territory, the Comanche waged war. It invaded their settlements, as well as neighbouring Native American tribal settlements. They took captives from other tribes during wars, enslaved them, sold them to Spanish and (later) Mexican settlers, or adopted them into their tribe. Thousands of prisoners from raids on Spanish, Mexican, and American settlers were assimilated into Comanche society.

Devastated by European disease, war, and encroachment by Europeans on the Comanchería, most of the Comanche were forced to live on reservations in the Indian Territory in the late 1870s.

In the 21st century, the Comanche Nation has 17,000 members, about 7,000 of whom live in tribal jurisdictions around Lawton, Fort Sill, and the area around southwestern Oklahoma. The Annual Comanche Homecoming Dance takes place in mid-July in Walters, Oklahoma.

Comanche real name

Comanche's autonym is nʉmʉnʉʉ (NUH-MUH-NUH), which means "human" or "people". The earliest known use of the term "Comanche" dates back to 1706 when the Comanche was reported by Spanish officials to be preparing to attack the remote settlement of Pueblo in southern Colorado. The Spaniards adopted the Ute name for the people: kɨmantsi (enemy) and transliterated it into the phonetics of their own language. Before 1740, French explorers from the east sometimes used the name Padouca for Comanche; it's already used for Plains Apache.

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Government

Comanche Nation is headquartered in Lawton, Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdictions are located in Caddo, Comanche, Cotton, Greer, Jackson, Kiowa, Tillman and Harmon counties. Their current Chieftain is Mark Woommavovah. The tribe requires registered members to have at least 1/8 blood quantum levels (equivalent to one great-grandfather).

Economic growth

The tribe has its own housing authority and its own vehicle labels. They have their own Department of Higher Education, mainly providing scholarships and financial aid for member college education. They have ten tribal smoke shops as well as four casinos:

• Comanche Nation Casino in Lawton.
• Red River Casino in Devol, Oklahoma.
• Comanche Spur Casino in Elgin, Oklahoma.
• Star Comanche Casino in Walters, Oklahoma.

Cultural Institute

The National Museum and Comanche Cultural Center in Lawton, Oklahoma, hosts permanent and ongoing exhibitions on the history and culture of the Comanche. Opened to the public in 2007.

Comanche Nation College, a two-year tribal college in Lawton, was established by the tribe in 2002. Closed in 2017 due to accreditation and funding issues.

Every July, Comanche gather from across the United States to celebrate their heritage and culture at Walters at the annual Comanche Homecoming powwow. Every September, the Comanche Nation Fair is held. Comanche Little Ponies holds two annual dances—one on New Year's Eve and another in May.

Comanche History

Tribe formation

The movement of the Proto-Comanche into the Plains was part of a more significant phenomenon known as the "Shoshonean Expansion", in which the language family spread across the Great Basin and across the mountains into Wyoming. 

Kotsoteka ('Bison Eaters') may be among the first. Another group followed. Contact with the Shoshones of Wyoming was maintained. Until the 1830s, when the advancing Cheyennes and Arapahoes broke it.

After the Pueblo Rebellion of 1680, various inhabitants of the Plains acquired horses. Still, it might take some time before there were too many of them. As late as 1725, Comanches were depicted using large dogs rather than horses to carry their bison skin "campaign tents".

Horses became a key element in the emergence of a distinctive Comanche culture. It was so strategic that some scholars suggest that the Comanche broke away from the Shoshone and moved to the south in search of additional horses among the New Spanish settlers to the south (rather than seeking new herds of buffalo.) The Comanche have the longest documented existence as a Plains people who are horseback riding; they had horses when the Cheyennes were still living in the earth lodges.

The Comanche provided horses and mules for all arrivals. As early as 1795, the Comanche sold horses to Anglo-American merchants. By the mid-19th century, horses supplied by Comanche flowed to St. Louis through other Indian intermediaries (Seminole, Osage, Shawnee).

Their original migration took them to the southern Great Plains, into a region stretching from the Arkansas River to central Texas. The earliest reference to them in Spanish records dates back to 1706 when reports reached Santa Fe that the Utes and Comanches were about to attack. 

In the Comanche raid, the Apaches were driven out of the Plains. By the end of the 18th century, the struggle between the Comanches and the Apaches had taken on legendary proportions: in 1784, in recounting the history of the southern Plains, Texas Governor Domingo Cabello y Robles noted that some 60 years earlier (i.e., ca. 1724) the Apaches had been diverted from the Plains. 

South in a nine-day battle at La Gran Sierra del Fierro, 'The Great Mountain of Iron', in northwest Texas. However, no other records, documentary or legendary, of such a fight exist.

They were formidable opponents who developed strategies for using traditional weapons to fight on horseback. Warfare was a significant part of Comanche's life. The Comanche's raids into Mexico traditionally occurred during the full moon, when the Comanche could see to rise at night. 

This led to the term "Comanche Moon", in which the Comanche raided horses, captives, and weapons. The majority of the Comanche's attacks on Mexico were carried out in the state of Chihuahua and adjacent northern states.

Division

Kavanagh has defined four levels of socio-political integration in traditional pre-reserved Comanche society:

• Patrilineal and patrilocal nuclear families
• Large family group (nʉmʉnahkahni – "people living together in a household", no size limit, but recognition of kinship is limited to relatives two generations above or three below)
• The local group or 'band' of the settlement, consisting of one or more nʉmʉnahkahni, one of which forms the core. Band _is the main social unit of the Comanche. A typical band may number several hundred people. It was a family group centred around a group of men, all of whom were relatives, sons, brothers or cousins. Since marriage with known relatives was forbidden, wives came from other groups, and sisters left to join their husbands. The central person in the group is their grandfather, father, or uncle. He is called 'paraivo', 'head'. After his death, another man took his place; if none is available, band's members may separate into other groups. where they may have relatives and/or form new relationships by marrying existing members. There is no separate term or status for 'head of peace' or 'head of war'; Everyone who leads the war party is a 'warlord'.
• Divisions (sometimes called tribes, Spanish nación, Rama – "branch", consisting of several local groups linked by kinship, sodality (political, medical, and military) and common interests in hunting, gathering, war, peace, trade).

Unlike the Cheyenne and Arapaho to the north, a single Comanche political unit or "Nation" has never been recognized by all Comanches. Rather than a division, most "tribal-like" units, acting independently, pursue their own economic and political goals.

Before the 1750s, Spain identified three Comanche Naciones (divisions): Hʉpenʉʉ (Jupe, Hoipi), Yaparʉhka (Yamparika), and Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka).

After the Mescalero Apaches, Jicarilla Apaches, and Centipede Apaches had been largely removed from the Southern Plains by the Comanche and their allies in the 1780s, Spain began to divide the now dominant Comanche into two geographical groups, only partially related to the previous three tribes.

Nación. Cuchanec Orientales ("Eastern Cuchanec/Kotsoteka") or Eastern Comanche were the Khtsthka (Kotsoteka) ('Buffalo Eaters') who had moved southeast in the 1750s and 1960s to the Southern Plain in Texas, while Khtsthka (Kotsoteka)) remaining in the northwest and west, along with the Hpen (Jupe, Hoi The "Western Comanche" are indigenous to Arkansas, Canada, the Red River, and the Llano Estacado. 

The "Eastern Comanche" live in Texas' Edwards Plateau and plains, near the confluence of the Brazos and Colorado rivers, and extend east to Cross Timbers. They could be the ancestors of Penatka N ('Honey Eater').

Over time, this division changed in various ways, mainly due to changes in political resources. As noted above, the Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) were probably the first proto-Comanche group to break away from the Eastern Shoshones.

The names Hʉpenʉʉ (Jupe, Hoipi) disappeared from history in the early 19th century, possibly merging with another division. They may have been the forerunners of the Nokoni N (Nokoni), Kwaarʉ Nʉʉ (Kwahadi, Quohada), and Hʉpenʉʉ (Hois) local Penatʉka groups N (Penateka). 

Due to pressure from Kiowa invaders and the Plain Apache (Naishan) moving south, many Yaparʉhka (Yamparika) moved southeast, joining the "Eastern Comanche" and becoming known as Tahnahwah (Tenawa, Tenahwit). Many Kiowa and Plain Apaches moved to northern Comancheria and later became closely associated with Yaparʉhka (Yamparika).

In the mid-19th century, other powerful divisions emerged, such as Nokoni N (Nokoni) ('wanderers', literally 'go somewhere and return'), and Kwaarʉ N (Kwahadi, Quohada) ('Antelope Eaters'). The latter was originally several local groups of Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) from the Cimarron River Valley as well as descendants of several Hʉpenʉʉ (Jupe, Hoipi), who had pulled the two south.

The northernmost division of the Comanche is the Yaparʉhka (Yapai N or Yamparika — '(Yap)Root Eaters'). As the last band to move to the Plains, they retained much of their Eastern Shoshone tradition.

The strength and success of the Comanche attracted neighbouring community groups who joined them and became part of the Comanche community; an Arapaho group known as the Saria Tʉhka band (Charities, Sata Teichas - 'Dog Eaters'), an Eastern Shoshone group as the Pohoi band (Pohoee - 'wild sage'), and a Plains Apache group as the Tasipenan band.

Texans and Americans divide the Comanche into five major dominant groups - Yaparʉhka (Yamparika), Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka), Nokoni N (Nokoni), Penatʉka Nʉʉ (Penateka) and Kwaarʉ Nʉʉ (Kwahadi, Quohada), which in turn are divided geographical terms into the first three regional groups (later four): the North Comanche, the Central Comanche, the South Comanche, the East Comanche, and then the West Comanche. However, these terms generally do not correspond to native language terms. 

The "Northern Comanche" label includes the Yaparʉhka (Yamparika) between the Arkansas River and the Canadian River and the prominent and powerful Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) that roams the highlands of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandles between the Red River and Canada, the famous Palo Duro Canyon on offer them and their horse herds protection from strong winter storms as well as from enemies, as two groups dominate and range in northern Comancheria. 

The aggressive Nokoni N (Nokoni) ("wanderers", "those who turn") live between the headwaters of the Red and Colorado Rivers to the south and the West Cross to the east, with their preferred range being in the upper reaches of the Brazos and its tributaries, the Pease River offering protection from storms and enemies. 

With them, they share two small groups in the same tribal area: Tahnahwah (Tenawa, Tenahwit) ("Those Living Downstream") and Tanimʉʉ (Tanima, Dahaʉi, Tevawish) ("Heart Eaters"). The three bands are known as the "Middle Comanche" because they live "in the middle" of the Comancheria.

The "Southern Comanche" label includes Penatʉka Nʉʉ (Penateka) ("Honey Eaters"), the southernmost, largest, and most famous band among whites because they lived near the first Spanish and Texas settlements; their tribal area stretches from the headwaters of central Texas and the Colorado River southward, including much of the Edwards Plateau, and eastward to the Western Cross Timbers; because they dominate the southern Comancheria they are called the "South Comanche".

The "Western Comanche" label includes Kwaarʉ Nʉʉ (Kwahadi, Quohada) ('Antelope Eaters'), which was the last band to develop as an independent band in the 19th century. They live in the hot, low-shaded desert highlands of Llano Estacado in eastern New Mexico and find refuge in Tule Canyon and Palo Duro Canyon in northwestern Texas. 

They were the only band that never signed with Texas or America, and they were the last to give up the fight. Due to their relative isolation from other bands on the westernmost edge of the Comancheria, they were called the "West Comanche".

There was, and continues to be, much confusion in the presentation of the Comanche group name. Groups at all levels of organization, family, nʉmʉnahkahni, group, and division, are named, but many 'band lists' do not distinguish between these levels. In addition, there may be alternative names and nicknames. The differences in spelling between Spanish and English add to the confusion.

Some Comanche group names

• Yaparʉhka or Yamparika (also Yapai Nʉʉ — '(Yap)Root-Eaters'; One of the local groups may be called Widyʉ Nʉʉ / Widyʉ / Widyʉ Yapa — 'Awl People'; after the death of a man named 'Awl' they changed their name to Tʉtsahkʉnanʉʉ or Legalized — 'The Tailor' [Titchahkaynah]. Other local Yapai groups include:
• Ketahtoh or Ketatore ('Don't Wear Shoes', also called Napwat Tʉ — 'Don't Wear Shoes')
•  Motso (′Bearded Ones′, derived from Motso — 'Beard')
• Pibianigwai ('Loud Speaker', 'Hard Questioner')
• Sʉhmʉhtʉhka ('Eat Everything')
• Wahkoh ('Shell Decoration')
• Waw'ai or Wohoi (also Waaih – Many Maggots in Penis′, also called Nahmahe'enah – Somehow to be (sexually) together′, have sex′, are called by other groups because they prefer to marry endogenously and choose their partners from their own local group; this was seen critically by the rest of the Comanche)
• Hʉpenʉʉ or Jupe ('Wooden People' because they live in the more forested areas of the Central Plains north of the Arkansas River. Also spelt Hois.
• Kʉhtsʉtʉʉka or Kotsoteka ('Buffalo Eaters', spelt in Spanish as Cuchanec)
• Kwaarʉnʉʉ or Kwahadi/Quohada ( Kwahare — 'Antelope-Eaters'; nicknamed Kwahihʉʉki — 'Sunshades on Their Backs', because they live in the desert plains of Llano Estacado in eastern New Mexico, the westernmost Comanche Band). One of their local groups was nicknamed the Parʉhʉya ('Deer', literally 'Water Horse').
• Nokoninʉʉ or Nokoni ('Activator', 'Return'); allegedly, after the death of the head of the Nocona Map, they called themselves Noyʉhkan — 'Not Staying in one place, and/or Tʉtsʉ Noyʉkanʉʉ / Detsanayʉka — 'Bad Camper', 'Poor Wanderer'.
• Tenawa or Tahnahwah (also Tenahwit — 'Those Who Live Downstream',
• Tanimʉʉ or Tanima (also called Dahaʉi or Tevawish — 'Heart Eater',
• Penatʉka Nʉʉ or Penateka (other variants: Pihnaatʉka , Penanʉʉ — 'Honey Eater';

Some of the names given by others include:

• WahaToya (literally 'Two Mountains'); (given as Foothills in Cloud People - those living near Walsenburg, CO)<Whatley: Jemez-Comanche-Kiowa repatriation, 1993-1999>
• Toyanʉmʉnʉ (′Foothills People′ - those living near Las Vegas, NM) <Whatley: Jemez-Comanche-Kiowa repatriation, 1993-1999>

Names that cannot be assigned include:

• Tayʉʉwit / Teyʉwit ('The Friendly')
• Kʉvahrahtpaht ('Steep Climber')
• Taykahpwai / Tekapwai ('Meatless')
• Pagats ( Pa'káh'tsa — 'Leader of the Stream', also called Pahnaixte — 'Those Who Live Upstream')
• Mʉtsahne or Motsai ('Bank Undercut')

Old Shoshone name

• Pekwi Tʉhka ('Fish Eater')
• Pohoi / Pohoee ('Wild Sage')

Other names, which may or may not refer to the Comanche group, include:

• Hani Nʉmʉ ( Hai'ne'na'ʉne — 'The Corn Eater') Wichitas.
• It'chit'a'bʉd'ah ( Utsu'it — 'Cold People', i.e. 'Northern People', probably another name for the Yaparʉhka or one of their local groups - because they live in the north)
• Itehtah'o ('Burn Meat', nicknamed by the other Comanche because they throw away their excess meat in the spring, where it dries up and turns black, looking like burnt meat)
• Naʉ'niem ( No'na'ʉm — 'Backbone'

Modern Local Group

• Ohnonʉʉ (also Ohnʉnʉnʉʉ or Onahʉnʉnʉʉ, 'Salty Man' or 'Salt Creek Man') lives in Caddo County around Cyril, Oklahoma; mostly descended from Nokoni Pianavowit.
• Wianʉʉ ( Wianʉ, Wia'ne — 'Hill Wearing Away'), lives east of Walters, Oklahoma, and descends from Waysee.

The war the Comanche went through

The Comanche fought several conflicts against the Spanish and later Mexican and American armies. These were expeditionary, such as the attack on Mexico, and defensive. The Comanche were fierce warriors who fought hard for their homeland in Comancheria. 

However, the large population of settlers from the east and the disease they brought caused the pressure and decline of the Comanche's power and the cessation of their main presence in the southern Great Plains.

Relations with Settlers

The Comanche maintained ambiguous relations with Europe, and later, settlers tried to colonize their territory. Since 1786, the Comanche have been valued as trading partners. through the Comancheros of New Mexico but feared for their attacks on settlers in Texas. 

Similarly, at one time or another, it was at war with nearly every other Native American group living on the Southern Plains, leaving opportunities for political manoeuvring with the colonial powers of Europe and the United States. At one point, Sam Houston, president of the newly formed Republic of Texas, nearly succeeded in reaching a peace treaty with the Comanche in the 1844 Treaty of Tehuacana Creek. His efforts were thwarted in 1845 when the Texas legislature refused to make a formal boundary between Texas and the Comancheria.

While the Comanche were able to maintain their independence and expand their territory, they faced extinction in the mid-nineteenth century due to a wave of epidemics caused by Eurasian diseases against which they had no body ’s immune system, such as smallpox and measles. 

The outbreaks of smallpox (1817, 1848) and cholera (1849) took a heavy toll on the Comanche, whose population had fallen from 20,000 in the mid-century to just a few thousand in the 1870s.

The U.S. began efforts in the late 1860s to move the Comanche into the reservation with the Treaty of Medicine Lodge (1867), which offered churches, schools, and annuities in exchange for large plots of land totalling over 60,000 square miles (160,000 km2). 

The government promised to stop buffalo hunters, who were wiping out large herds from the Plains, provided the Comanche, along with Apaches, Kiowas, Cheyenne, and Arapahos, moved into reservations with a total of less than 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2) of land. However, the government does not prohibit livestock slaughter. 

The Comanche, led by the Quenatosavit White Eagle (later renamed Isa-tai "Coyote's Vagina"), retaliated in the Second Battle of Adobe Walls by attacking a group of hunters in the Texas Panhandle (1874). The Comanche were devastated by the attack. 

During the Red River War, US troops were called in to drive the remaining Comanche in the location into the reservation, culminating in the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon. In just 10 years, the buffalo was on the verge of extinction, effectively ending the Comanche's way of life as hunters.

The last free group of Comanches, led by warrior Quahada Quanah Parker, agreed to surrender and relocated to the Fort Sill reservation in Oklahoma in May 1875. The last independent Kiowa and Kiowa Apache have also surrendered.

The 1890 census showed 1,598 Comanche on the Fort Sill reservation, which they shared with 1,140 Kiowa and 326 Kiowa Apache.

Cherokee Commission

Treaties with Comanche, Kiowa and Apache were signed with the Cherokee Commission 6–21 October 1892, further reducing their reservation to 480,000 acres (1,900 km 2 ) at the cost of $1.25 per acre ($308.88/km 2 ), with the allotment 160 acres (0.65 km 2 ) per person per tribe to be kept in the trust. 

New allotments were made in 1906 for all children born after the treaty, and the remaining land was cleared for white settlement. With this new arrangement, the Comanche reservation era ended abruptly.

Meusebach–Comanche

The Peneteka band signed a peace treaty with John O. Meusebach's German Immigration Company. This agreement has no relations to any level of government. Meusebach brokered an agreement to settle land on the Fisher-Miller Land Grant, which formed the 10 counties of Concho, Kimble, Llano, Mason, McCulloch, Menard, Schleicher, San Saba, Sutton, and Tom Green.

In contrast to many treaties of his time, this one was concise and simple, with all parties agreeing to cooperate and share the land. The treaty was approved at a meeting in San Saba County and signed by all parties on May 9, 1847, in Fredericksburg, Texas. 

The agreement was very special between the band Peneteka and the German Immigration Company. No other bands or tribes were involved. The German Immigration Company was dissolved by Meusebach himself not long after that goal was achieved. In 1875, the Comanches were transferred to the reservation.

Friedrich Richard Petri, an artist, and his family moved to Pedernales, near Fredericksburg, five years later. Petri's sketches and watercolours testify to the friendly relations between Germany and various Native American tribes.

Fort Martin Scott Agreement

In 1850, another treaty was signed in San Saba between the United States government and several local tribes, including the Comanches. The treaty is named for a nearby military stronghold, Fort Martin Scott. The treaty was never formally ratified by any level of government. It was only binding on a subset of Native Americans.

Prisoner Herman Lehmann

Herman Lehmann, a German boy, was one of Texas' most famous prisoners. He'd been kidnapped by the Apaches, only to be rescued by the Comanches. Quanah Parker adopted Lehmann as her son. On August 26, 1901, Quanah Parker issued an official affidavit verifying Lehmann's life as his adopted son 1877–1878. On May 29, 1908, the US Congress authorized the U. S. Secretary of the Interior to allot Lehmann 160 acres of Oklahoma land near Grandfield as an adopted member of the Comanche Nation.

Recent History

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Comanche faced difficulties in entering the Western economy.. Many tribespeoples were conned over whatever was left of their land and possessions. Appointed supreme head by the United States government, Chief Quanah Parker campaigned vigorously for better deals for his people, frequently meeting with Washington politicians; and helping manage the land for the tribe.

Parker became wealthy as a rancher. He also campaigned for permission for Comanches to practice Native American Church religious rituals, such as the use of peyote, which European-Americans condemned.

During World War II, many Comanche left traditional tribal lands in Oklahoma in search of work and more opportunities in the cities of California and the Southwest. About half of the Comanche population still lives in Oklahoma, centred in Lawton.

More recently, an 80-minute, 1920s silent film was "rediscovered", titled The Daughter of Dawn. It features a cast of over 300 Comanche and Kiowa.

Culture of Comanche

If a woman gave birth while the band was in camp, she was transferred to a tipi or brush hut if it was summer. One or more older women are assisted as midwives. Men are not allowed in the tipi during or immediately after delivery.

First, the midwife softened the tipi dirt floor and dug two holes. One of the holes is for heating the water, and the other is for giving birth. One or two stakes were driven into the ground near the pregnant woman's bed for her to hold during labour pains. After delivery, the midwives hung the umbilical cord from a hackberry tree. People believe that if the umbilical cord is not disturbed before it rots, the baby will live a long and prosperous life.

The newborn was swaddled and remained with his mother in the tipi for several days. The baby is placed in the cradle, and the mother returns to work. He can easily carry the cradleboard on his back or lean it against a tree where the baby can watch as he collects seeds or roots. Cradleboards consist of a flat board on which the basket is mounted. 

The latter is made of rawhide straps or leather sheaths tied at the front. The youngster was safely tucked into a leather pocket with the soft, dry moss as a diaper. The baby is wrapped in a blanket and placed on a cradleboard during cold weather. The baby remains in the cradle for about ten months; then allowed to crawl.

Both girls and boys were welcomed into the band, but boys were preferred. If the baby is a boy, one of the midwives tells the father or grandfather, "That's your close friend." Families might paint the ends to let the rest of the tribe know they have been reinforced with other warriors.

Sometimes a man names his son, but mostly the father asks a healer (or other person of distinction) to do so. She did this, hoping her son would live a long and productive life. During the public naming ceremony, the shaman lit his pipe. He offered smoke to the heavens, the earth, and each of the four directions. He prayed that the child would remain happy and healthy. 

He then raised the child to symbolize his growth and announced the child's name four times. He carried the child a little higher every time he said the name. It is believed that the name of the child will predicts his future; even a weak or sick child can grow up to be a great warrior, hunter, and robber if given a name that denotes courage and strength. 

Boys are often named after their grandfathers, uncle, or other relatives. Daughters are usually named after one of their father's relatives, but the mother chooses the name. As children grow, they also acquire nicknames at various points to express some aspects of their lives.

Children

The Comanche treated their children to be their most precious treasure. Children are rarely punished. Sometimes, however, an older sister or relative, is called upon to discipline a child, or a parent arranges for a boogeyman to frighten the child. 

Sometimes, parents put on bed sheets and frighten disobedient boys and girls. The kids are also told about the Big Maneater Owl (Pia Mupitsi), which lives in a cave on the south side of the Wichita Mountains and eats bad boys at night.

Children learn by example, observing and listening to their parents and band members. Once she is old enough to walk, a girl follows her mother about camp and plays in the daily chores of cooking and making clothes. 

She is also very close to her mother's sister, who is called not aunt but pia, which means mother. He was given a small deerskin doll, which he carried everywhere. He learned to make all the clothes for the doll.

A boy is identified not only with his father but with his father's family and the bravest fighters in the band. Before he could walk, he taught to ride a horse. By the time he is four or five years old, he is expected to be able to handle a horse skillfully. 

He was given a small bow and arrow when he was five or six years old. Often, a boy was taught to ride and shoot by his grandfather because his father and other warriors were on raids and hunting. His grandfather also taught him about his own childhood and the history and legends of the Comanche

When the boy grew up, he joined other boys to hunt birds. He eventually ranges further from the camp, searching for a better game to kill. Driven to become skilled hunters, the boys learn the signs of the prairie as they learn to patiently and quietly stalk the game. They become more independent, however, by playing together as a group, and also form the bond and cooperative spirit they need when hunting and raiding.

Boys are highly respected because they will become warriors and may die young in battle. As he approached adulthood, a boy went on his first buffalo hunt. If he kills, his father honors him with a feast. Only after he had proven himself in the buffalo hunt a young man was allowed to go to war.

When he is ready to become a warrior, at about 15 or 16 years old, a young man first "makes the cure" by doing a vision quest ( rite of passage). After this quest, his father gave him a good horse to ride on the battlefield and another mount for the trails.

 A Give-Away Dance might be held in his honor if he had proven himself to be a warrior. As the drummers face east, honorable boys and other young men dance. His parents, along with his other relatives and people in the band, threw gifts at his feet – notably a blanket and a horse symbolized by a stick. 

Anyone could seize any of the prizes for themselves, though those with great wealth held back; they don't want to look greedy. People often give up all their stuff during these dances, providing for others in the band, but leaving themselves with nothing. 

Girls learn to collect berries, nuts and roots. They brought water and gathered wood. At about 12 years of age, they learned to cook, thin, sew clothes, prepare leather, and perform other tasks essential to being a wife and mother. Then, They are considered marriage-ready.

Dead

During the 19th century, the traditional Comanche burial custom was to wrap the deceased's body in a blanket and place it on a horse behind the rider, who would then ride in search of an appropriate burial place, such as a safe cave.

After the burial, the riders covered the body with stones and returned to the camp, where mourners burned the deceased's treasures. The main mourner slashed his arm to express his sorrow. The Quahada band followed this custom longer than any other band and buried their relatives in the Wichita Mountains. Christian missionaries persuaded the Comanche to bury their dead in coffins in the cemetery, which is the practice today.

Transportation and Residence

When they lived with Shoshone, the Comanche mainly used dog-drawn travois for transportation. Later, they obtained horses from other tribes, such as the Pueblo and Spain. Because horses were faster, easier to control, and stronger, they helped with hunting, fighting, and moving camps. Larger dwellings were created because of the ability to drag and carry more items. 

Being herbivores, horses are also easier to feed than dogs, as meat is a valuable resource. The horse was precious to the Comanche. A Comanche man's wealth is measured by the size of his horse herd. Horses are prime targets for stealing during raids; Often, raids were carried out specifically to catch horses. 

Herds of horses numbering in the hundreds were often stolen by the Comanche during raids against other Indian states, Spain, Mexico, and later from Texas farms. The horses used to fight the Comanche are considered among history's finest light cavalry and hussars.

The Comanche covered them thinly with buffalo skin sewn together. To prepare the skin, women spread it on the ground, scrape off the fat and flesh with bone blades or horns, and dry it in the sun. Then the women scrape the thick hair and soak the skin in water. 

After a few days, they rubbed it vigorously into a mixture of fat, brain, and liver to soften it. They soften it further by rinsing and working back and forth over the rawhide straps. Finally, they are smoked over a fire, which gives them a brown color. To complete the tipi cover, women lay the tanned leather side by side and sew them together. A total of 22 skins can be used, but 14 is the average. 

The sprinkled cover is tied to a post, lifted, wrapped around a conical frame, and secured with a pencil-sized wooden skewer. The two wing-shaped wings at the top of the tip rotate backward to create an opening, which can be adjusted to retain moisture and insulate air pockets. The thin bottom edge can be rolled up in summer for a gentle breeze. With a fire pit in the middle of the earthen floor, thin keep warm in winter.

Cooking is done outside in hot weather. This is an efficient house for nomads. Working together, women can quickly set it up or down. An entire Comanche herd can pack up and chase a herd of buffalo in about 20 minutes. 

The women do most of the food processing and preparation. The thin bottom edge can be rolled up for a light breeze. Cooking is done outside in hot weather. This is an efficient house for nomads. Working together, women can quickly set it up or down. An entire Comanche herd can pack up and chase a herd of buffalo in about 20 minutes. 

The women do most of the food processing and preparation. The thin bottom edge can be rolled up for a light breeze. Cooking is done outside in hot weather. This is an efficient house for nomads. Working together, women can quickly set it up or down. An entire Comanche herd can pack up and chase a herd of buffalo in about 20 minutes. The women do most of the food processing and preparation.

Food

Comanche were initially hunter-gatherers. When they lived in the Rocky Mountains during their migration to the Great Plains, both men and women shared the responsibility for gathering and providing food. When the Comanche reached the plains, hunting dominated. Hunting was considered a male activity and was a major source of prestige. 

The Comanche hunted buffalo, deer, black bear, forked horn, and elk for meat. When the game was scarce, the men hunted wild mustangs and sometimes ate their own ponies. In the years that followed, the Comanche raided Texas ranches and stole longhorns. They do not eat fish or poultry unless they are starving.

Women prepare and cook bison meat and other games. Women also collect wild fruits, seeds, nuts, berries, roots and tubers, including plums, grapes, juniper berries, persimmons, mulberries, acorns, pecans, wild onions, turnips, and tuna, the fruit of prickly pear cactus. 

The Comanche also purchased corn, dried squash, and tobacco through trade and raids. They grill the meat over a fire or boil it. To boil fresh or dried meat and vegetables, women dig holes in the ground, lined with animal skin or buffalo belly and filled with water to make a cooking pot. 

They put hot stones in water until it boils and cook their stew. After contact with the Spanish, the Comanche swapped out a copper pan and an iron kettle, which made cooking easier.

Women use berries, nuts, honey, and fat to season buffalo meat. They store fat in an intestinal sheath or bag of rawhide called oyóot. They especially like to make a sweet porridge from buffalo marrow mixed with crushed mesquite beans.

The Comanches sometimes eat raw meat, incredibly raw liver seasoned with gall. Among their delicacies is condensed milk from the belly of a suckling calf. They also drink milk from the udders of buffalo, deer, and elk slaughtered. They also enjoyed buffalo tripe or belly.

Comanche generally eats a light breakfast and a large dinner. They eat during the day when they are hungry or when it is convenient. Like other Plains Indians, the Comanche are very friendly. They prepared food whenever a visitor arrived at the camp, which led to outsiders' belief that the Comanches ate around the clock, day or night. Many families thanked them as they sat down to eat.

The Comanche kids eat pemmican, but it's primarily a high-energy delicacy reserved for war parties. Carried in parfleche pouches, pemmicans are eaten only when the males do not have time to hunt. Similarly, in the camps, people eat pemmican only when other foods are scarce. Merchants eat pemmican sliced ​​and dipped in honey, which they call Indian bread.

Clothes

Comanche outfits are simple and easy to wear. Men wore leather belts with a breech—a long piece of deerskin tucked between the legs, looped above and below the belt at the front and back, and loose-fitting buckskin leggings. The moccasin shoe has a thick, tough buffalo leather sole with a soft deerskin upper. 

Men wore nothing on the upper body except in winter when they wore thick cloaks of buffalo skin (or sometimes, bear, wolf, or coyote skin) with knee-length buffalo skin boots. Boys are usually naked except in cold weather. At 8 or 9 years old, they wear adult clothes. By the 19th century, men had replaced the buckskin breech with woven fabric and wore loose-fitting buckskin shirts. 

Women wear long buckskin dresses with flared skirts and wide sleeves, with deerskin fringes on the sleeves and hem. Beads and metal pieces are glued together in a geometric pattern. Women were wearing deerskin shoes with buffalo soles. 

Women decorated their shirts, leggings, and moccasins with deerskin fringes, animal fur, and human hair. They also adorn their shirts and leggings with patterns and shapes of beads and pieces of material. In winter, they also wear warm buffalo robes and tall, fur-lined buffalo leather boots. Unlike boys, girls who are old enough to walk wear covered clothes.

Hairstyle and Comanche headgear

The Comanche people are proud of their hair, which is worn long. They set it with a hedgehog bristle brush, smeared it and parted it down the middle from the forehead to the back of the neck. They paint the scalp along the parting with yellow, red, or white clay (or another color). 

They wore their hair in two long braids tied with leather cords or colored cloth and were sometimes wrapped in beaver fur. They also braid a strand of hair from the top of their head. This thin braid, called a scalp lock, is decorated with strips of fabric and colored beads, and a strand of feathers. Comanche men rarely wear anything on their heads. Only after they moved to the reservation in the late 19th century did men begin to wear the distinctive Plains headdress. 

They may wear a buffalo skin hat without a brim in severely cold weather. In war, some soldiers wore head coverings made of buffalo skin. Soldiers cut off most skin and flesh from the buffalo's head, leaving only part of the fuzzy head and horns. This type of hat is worn only by the Comanche. 

Women don't let their hair grow as long as men do. Young women may wear long hair and braids, but women part their hair in the middle and keep it short. Like the men, they painted their scalps along the parting with bright paint.

Body decoration

Comanche men usually have their ears pierced with dangling earrings made of cut shells or brass or silver wire hoops. A female relative will indeed pierce the ear's outer edge with six or eight holes. The men also tattooed their faces, arms and chest with geometric designs and painted their faces and bodies. 

Traditionally they used paint made from berry juice and colored clay from Comancheria. Later, traders supplied them with vermilion (red pigment) and bright oil paint. Men wear leather bands and metal strips on their arms. Except for black, the color of war, there is no standard color or pattern for face and body painting: it is a matter of individual preference. 

For example, a man might paint one side of his face white and the other red; another might paint one side of his body green and the other with green and black stripes. One Comanche may always paint itself in a certain way, while another may change colors and designs if desired. Some designs have special meanings for individuals, and unique colors and designs may be revealed in dreams. Women may also get their faces or arms tattooed.

They love to paint their bodies and are free to do as they please. It was famous for women to paint the inside of their ears bright red and paint large orange and red circles on their cheeks. They usually have red and yellow paint around their lips..

Art and material culture

Since they traveled a lot, the Comanche had to ensure that household and other items were not damaged. They did not use pottery that was easily damaged on long journeys. Weaving, wood carving, and metalworking are unknown. Instead, they depend on buffalo for most of their tools, household items, and weapons. They made nearly 200 different utilitarian items, from horns, skins, and bones.

Removing the inner lining of the stomach, women make the stomach into a water bag. The layer is stretched over four sticks and filled with water to make a pot for cooking soups and stews. With wood scarce in the plains, women rely on buffalo chips (dry dung) as fuel for cooking and heat. 

Tough rawhide was made into saddles, stirrups and cinches, knife cases, buckets, and shoe soles. Rawhide is also used to make rattles and drums. Pieces of rawhide are twisted into a sturdy rope. Scratched to resemble white parchment, the rawhide is folded to make parfleches where food, clothing, and other personal items are stored. 

Women also tanned leather to make soft and supple deerskin, which was used for tipi covers, warm robes, blankets, cloth, and shoes. They used deerskin for bedding, cradles, dolls, bags, pouches, quiver holders, and gun cases.

Muscles are used for bowstrings and sewing thread. Nails turn to glue and rattles. The horns are shaped into cups, spoons, and spoons, while the tail is used as a whip, fly swatter, or tipi decoration. Men make tools, scrapers, needles, pipes, and children's toys from bones. But men concentrated on making bows and arrows, spears, and shields.

The thick old bull neck skin was ideal for a war shield that repelled arrows and bullets. Since they spent almost every day on horseback, they also made leather for their mounts' saddles, stirrups, and other equipment. Buffalo hair is used to fill saddle pads and is used in ropes and dumbbells.

Language

The language spoken by the Comanche people, Comanche (Nu u tekwap u), is a Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan language group. It is closely related to the Shoshone language, from which the Comanche diverged around 1700. The two languages ​​remain closely related, but some low-level sound changes hinder mutual intelligibility. 

Comanche's earliest records from 1786 clearly indicate the Shoshone dialect. Still, by the early 20th century, this sound change had changed how Comanche sounded in subtle but profound ways. Although efforts are underway to ensure the language's survival, most of its speakers are elderly, and less than 1% of Comanches can speak it.

In the late 19th century, many Comanche children were placed in boarding schools with children from different ethnic groups. Children are taught English and are prohibited from speaking their mother tongue. Anecdotally, enforcement of speaking English is severe.

Quanah Parker learns and speaks English and insists her own children do the same. The second generation later grew up speaking English because it was believed [ who? ] that it would be better if they didn't know the Comanche. 

See Other Native American Tribe in the United States

Comanches were among the first Native Americans to be used as Code Speakers by the US Army during World War I. 

During World War II, the US Army trained and used a group of 17 young men known as "The Comanche Code Talkers" to send messages containing sensitive information that the Germans could not decipher.

Reference:
wikipedia