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44-570: The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group. Comanche or Commanche may also refer to: Comanche The Comanche / k ə ˈ m æ n tʃ i / or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( Comanche : Nʉmʉnʉʉ , "the people" ) is a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation , headquartered in Lawton, Oklahoma . The Comanche language

88-624: A Plains Apache group as Tasipenanʉʉ band. The Texans and Americans divided the Comanche into five large dominant bands – the Yaparʉhka (Yamparika) , Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) , Nokoni Nʉʉ (Nokoni) , Penatʉka Nʉʉ (Penateka) and Kwaarʉ Nʉʉ (Kwahadi, Quohada) , which in turn were divided by geographical terms into first three (later four) regional groupings: Northern Comanche, Middle Comanche, Southern Comanche, Eastern Comanche, and later Western Comanche. However, these terms generally do not correspond to

132-423: A fight. They were formidable warriors who developed strategies for using traditional weapons for fighting on horseback. Warfare was a major part of Comanche life. Comanche raids into Mexico traditionally took place during the full moon, when the Comanche could see to ride at night. This led to the term "Comanche Moon", during which the Comanche raided for horses, captives, and weapons. Comanche raids, especially in

176-688: A mutual cooperation and a sharing of the land. The treaty was agreed to at a meeting in San Saba County, and signed by all parties on May 9, 1847, in Fredericksburg, Texas . The treaty was very specifically between the Peneteka band and the German Immigration Company. No other band or tribe was involved. The German Immigration Company was dissolved by Meusebach himself shortly after it had served its purpose. By 1875,

220-755: A number of local tribes, among which were the Comanches. This treaty was named for the nearest military fort, which was Fort Martin Scott . The treaty was never officially ratified by any level of government and was binding only on the part of the Native Americans. Tribal vehicle tags The legal status of these plates varies by tribe, with some being recognized by the federal government and others not. Some nations issue plates for both tribal and personal vehicles, while others issue plates only for official tribal vehicles. Some nations' plates indicate

264-615: Is Mark Woommavovah. The tribe requires enrolled members to have at least 1/8 blood quantum level (equivalent to one great-grandparent). The tribe operates its own housing authority and issues tribal vehicle tags . They have their own Department of Higher Education, primarily awarding scholarships and financial aid for members' college educations. They own 10 tribal smoke shops and four casinos: The Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center in Lawton, Oklahoma, has permanent and changing exhibitions on Comanche history and culture. It opened to

308-692: Is a Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family. Originally, it was a Shoshoni dialect, but diverged and became a separate language. The Comanche were once part of the Shoshone people of the Great Basin . In the 18th and 19th centuries, Comanche lived in most of present-day northwestern Texas and adjacent areas in eastern New Mexico , southeastern Colorado , southwestern Kansas , and western Oklahoma . Spanish colonists and later Mexicans called their historical territory Comanchería . During

352-520: Is the last to develop as an independent band in the 19th century. They lived on the hot, low-shadow desert plateaus of Llano Estacado in eastern New Mexico and found shelter in Tule Canyon and Palo Duro Canyon in northwestern Texas. They were the only band that never signed a contract with the Texans or Americans, and they were the last to give up the resistance. Because of their relative isolation from

396-703: The Edwards Plateau and the Texas plains of the upper Brazos and Colorado Rivers, and east to the Cross Timbers . They were probably the ancestors of the Penatʉka Nʉʉ (Penateka – 'Honey Eaters'). Over time, these divisions were altered in various ways, primarily due to changes in political resources. As noted above, the Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) were probably the first proto-Comanche group to separate from

440-473: The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, various Plains peoples acquired horses, but it was probably some time before they were very numerous. As late as 1725, Comanches were described as using large dogs rather than horses to carry their bison hide "campaign tents". The horse became a key element in the emergence of a distinctive Comanche culture. It was of such strategic importance that some scholars suggested that

484-658: The Second Battle of Adobe Walls (1874). The attack was a disaster for the Comanche, and the US army was called in during the Red River War to drive the remaining Comanche in the area into the reservation, culminating in the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon . Within just 10 years, the buffalo were on the verge of extinction, effectively ending the Comanche way of life as hunters. In May 1875, the last free band of Comanches, led by

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528-473: The U.S. state with which they are most closely associated, while others do not. This variation may even exist among the nations associated with one particular state. Federally recognized tribes may also lease vehicles through the U.S. General Services Administration under certain circumstances. Such vehicles carry U.S. government license plates. All tribal plates in South Dakota are issued by

572-666: The "Eastern Comanche" and becoming known as the Tahnahwah (Tenawa, Tenahwit). Many Kiowa and Plains Apache moved to northern Comancheria and became later closely associated with the Yaparʉhka (Yamparika). In the mid 19th century, other powerful divisions arose, such as the Nokoni Nʉʉ (Nokoni) ('wanderers', literally 'go someplace and return'), and the Kwaarʉ Nʉʉ (Kwahadi, Quohada) ('Antelope Eaters'). The latter originally some local groups of

616-549: The 1780s, the Spanish began to divide the now dominant Comanche into two geographical groups, which only partially corresponded to the former three Naciones. The Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) ('Buffalo Eaters'), which had moved southeast in the 1750s and 1760s to the Southern Plains in Texas, were called Cuchanec Orientales ("Eastern Cuchanec/Kotsoteka") or Eastern Comanche , while those Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) that remained in

660-399: The 1840s, reached hundreds of miles deep into Mexico devastating northern parts of the country. Kavanagh has defined four levels of social-political integration in traditional pre-reservation Comanche society: In contrast to the neighboring Cheyenne and Arapaho to the north, there was never a single Comanche political unit or "Nation" recognized by all Comanches. Rather the divisions;

704-507: The 18th and 19th centuries, Comanche practiced a nomadic horse culture and hunted, particularly bison. They traded with neighboring Native American peoples, and Spanish , French , and American colonists and settlers. As European Americans encroached on their territory, the Comanche waged war on the settlers and raided their settlements, as well as those of neighboring Native American tribes. They took with them captives from other tribes during warfare, using them as slaves , selling them to

748-664: The Comanche advance, the Apaches were driven off the Plains. By the end of the 18th century the struggle between Comanches and Apaches had assumed legendary proportions: in 1784, in recounting the history of the southern Plains, Texas governor Domingo Cabello y Robles recorded that some 60 years earlier (i.e., c. 1724) the Apaches had been routed from the southern Plains in a nine-day battle at La Gran Sierra del Fierro ‘The Great Mountain of Iron’, somewhere northwest of Texas. There is, however, no other record, documentary or legendary, of such

792-593: The Comanche broke away from the Shoshone and moved south to search for additional sources of horses among the settlers of New Spain to the south (rather than search for new herds of buffalo.) The Comanche have the longest documented existence as horse-mounted Plains peoples; they had horses when the Cheyennes still lived in earth lodges. The Comanche supplied horses and mules to all comers. As early as 1795, Comanche were selling horses to Anglo-American traders and by

836-482: The Comancheria. While the Comanche managed to maintain their independence and increase their territory, by the mid-19th century, they faced annihilation because of a wave of epidemics due to Eurasian diseases to which they had no immunity, such as smallpox and measles . Outbreaks of smallpox (1817, 1848) and cholera (1849) took a major toll on the Comanche, whose population dropped from an estimated 20,000 in

880-590: The Comanches had been relocated to reservations. Five years later, artist Friedrich Richard Petri and his family moved to the settlement of Pedernales , near Fredericksburg. Petri's sketches and watercolors gave witness to the friendly relationships between the Germans and various local Native American tribes. In 1850, another treaty was signed in San Saba, between the United States government and

924-557: The Eastern Shoshones. The name Hʉpenʉʉ (Jupe, Hoipi) vanished from history in the early 19th century, probably merging into the other divisions, they are likely the forerunners of the Nokoni Nʉʉ (Nokoni), Kwaarʉ Nʉʉ (Kwahadi, Quohada), and the Hʉpenʉʉ (Hois) local group of the Penatʉka Nʉʉ (Penateka). Due to pressure by southwards moving Kiowa and Plains Apache (Naishan) raiders, many Yaparʉhka (Yamparika) moved southeast, joining

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968-712: The Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) from the Cimarron River Valley as well as descendants of some Hʉpenʉʉ (Jupe, Hoipi), which had pulled both southwards. The northernmost Comanche division was the Yaparʉhka (Yapai Nʉʉ or Yamparika — ‘(Yap)Root-Eaters’). As the last band to move onto the Plains, they retained much of their Eastern Shoshone tradition. The power and success of the Comanche attracted bands of neighboring peoples who joined them and became part of Comanche society; an Arapaho group became known as Saria Tʉhka (Chariticas, Sata Teichas – 'Dog Eaters') band, an Eastern Shoshone group as Pohoi (Pohoee – 'wild sage') band, and

1012-544: The Native language terms. The "Northern Comanche" label encompassed the Yaparʉhka (Yamparika) between the Arkansas River and Canadian River and the prominent and powerful Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) who roamed the high plains of Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles between Red and Canadian River, the famous Palo Duro Canyon offered them and their horse herds of protection from strong winter storms as well as from enemies, because

1056-519: The Plains was part of the larger phenomenon known as the "Shoshonean Expansion" in which that language family spread across the Great Basin and across the mountains into Wyoming. The Kotsoteka ("Bison Eaters") were probably among the first. Other groups followed. Contact with the Shoshones of Wyoming was maintained until the 1830s when it was broken by the advancing Cheyennes and Arapahoes. After

1100-536: The Plains, provided that the Comanche, along with the Apaches , Kiowas , Cheyenne , and Arapahos , move to a reservation totaling less than 5,000 square miles (13,000 km ) of land. However, the government did not prevent the slaughtering of the herds. The Comanche under Quenatosavit White Eagle (later called Isa-tai "Coyote's Vagina") retaliated by attacking a group of hunters in the Texas Panhandle in

1144-641: The Quahada warrior Quanah Parker , surrendered and moved to the Fort Sill reservation in Oklahoma. The last independent Kiowa and Kiowa Apache had also surrendered. The 1890 Census showed 1,598 Comanche at the Fort Sill reservation, which they shared with 1,140 Kiowa and 326 Kiowa Apache. The Peneteka band agreed to a peace treaty with the German Immigration Company under John O. Meusebach . This treaty

1188-536: The South Plains, leaving opportunities for political maneuvering by European colonial powers and the United States. At one point, Sam Houston , president of the newly created Republic of Texas , almost 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 create an official boundary between Texas and

1232-546: The Spanish and (later) to Mexican settlers, or adopting them into their tribe. Thousands of captives from raids on Spanish, Mexican, and American settlers were assimilated into Comanche society. At their peak, the Comanche language was the lingua franca of the Great Plains region. Diseases, destruction of the buffalo herds, and territory loss forced most Comanches on reservations in Indian Territory by

1276-500: The confusion. Some names given by others include: Unassignable names include: Old Shoshone names Other names, which may or may not refer to Comanche groups include: Modern Local Groups The Comanche fought a number of conflicts against Spanish and later Mexican and American armies. These were both expeditionary, as with the raids into Mexico , and defensive . The Comanche were noted as fierce warriors who fought vigorously for their homeland of Comancheria . However,

1320-564: The first Spanish and Texan settlements; their tribal areas extended from the upper reaches of the rivers in central Texas and Colorado River southward, including much of the Edwards Plateau, and eastward to the Western Cross Timbers; because they dominated the southern Comancheria they were called "Southern Comanche". The "Western Comanche" label encompassed the Kwaarʉ Nʉʉ (Kwahadi, Quohada) ('Antelope Eaters'), which

1364-546: The late 1870s. In the 21st century, the Comanche Nation has 17,000 enrolled citizens, around 7,000 of whom reside in tribal jurisdictional areas around Lawton, Fort Sill , and the surrounding areas of southwestern Oklahoma. The Comanche Homecoming Annual Dance takes place in mid-July in Walters, Oklahoma . The Comanche's autonym is nʉmʉnʉʉ , meaning "the human beings" or "the people". The earliest known use of

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1408-463: The late 18th century to just a few thousand by the 1870s. The US began efforts in the late 1860s to move the Comanche into reservations, with the Treaty of Medicine Lodge (1867), which offered churches, schools, and annuities in return for a vast tract of land totaling over 60,000 square miles (160,000 km ). The government promised to stop the buffalo hunters, who were decimating the great herds of

1452-657: The massive population of the settlers from the east and the diseases they brought led to pressure and decline of Comanche power and the cessation of their major presence in the southern Great Plains . The Comanche maintained an ambiguous relationship with Europeans and later settlers attempting to colonize their territory. The Comanche were valued as trading partners since 1786 via the Comancheros of New Mexico, but were feared for their raids against settlers in Texas. Similarly, they were, at one time or another, at war with virtually every other Native American group living on

1496-495: The mid-19th century, Comanche-supplied horses were flowing into St. Louis via other Indian middlemen (Seminole, Osage, Shawnee). Their original migration took them to the southern Great Plains , into a sweep of territory extending from the Arkansas River to central Texas. The earliest references to them in the Spanish records date from 1706, when reports reached Santa Fe that Utes and Comanches were about to attack. In

1540-475: The most "tribe-like" units, acted independently, pursuing their own economic and political goals. Before the 1750s, the Spanish identified three Comanche Naciones (divisions): Hʉpenʉʉ (Jupe, Hoipi), Yaparʉhka (Yamparika), and Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka). After the Mescalero Apache, Jicarilla Apache and Lipan Apache had been largely displaced from the Southern Plains by the Comanche and allied tribes in

1584-578: The name Padouca for the Comanche since it was already used for the Plains Apache and the French were not aware of the change of tribe in the region in the early 18th century. The Comanche Nation is headquartered in Lawton, Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdictional area is located in Caddo , Comanche , Cotton , Greer , Jackson , Kiowa , Tillman and Harmon counties. Their current Tribal Chairman

1628-559: The northwest and west, together with Hʉpenʉʉ (Jupe, Hoipi – 'Timber/Forest People') (and sometimes Yaparʉhka (Yamparika)), which had moved southward to the North Canadian River, were called Cuchanec Occidentales ("Western Cuchanec/Kotsoteka") or Western Comanche . The "Western Comanche" lived in the region of the upper Arkansas , Canadian , and Red Rivers, and the Llano Estacado . The "Eastern Comanche" lived on

1672-475: The other bands on the westernmost edge of the Comancheria, they were called the "Western Comanche". There has been, and continues to be, much confusion in the presentation of Comanche group names. Groups on all levels of organization, families, nʉmʉnahkahni, bands, and divisions, were given names, but many 'band lists' do not distinguish these levels. In addition, there could be alternate names and nicknames. The spelling differences between Spanish and English add to

1716-701: The public in 2007. In 2002, the tribe founded the Comanche Nation College , a two-year tribal college in Lawton. It closed in 2017 because of problems with accreditation and funding. Each July, Comanche gather from across the United States to celebrate their heritage and culture in Walters at the annual Comanche Homecoming powwow . The Comanche Nation Fair takes place every September. The Comanche Little Ponies host two annual dances—one over New Year's Eve and one in May. The Proto-Comanche movement to

1760-423: The same tribal areas: the Tahnahwah (Tenawa, Tenahwit) ("Those Living Downstream") and Tanimʉʉ (Tanima, Dahaʉi, Tevawish) ("Liver Eaters"). All three bands together were known as "Middle Comanche" because they lived "in the middle" of the Comancheria. The "Southern Comanche" label encompassed the Penatʉka Nʉʉ (Penateka) ("Honey Eaters"), the southernmost, largest, and best known band among whites as they lived near

1804-693: The state. There are nine tribes recognized. All nine have non-graphic, tax exempt plates beginning with a tribe-specific prefix, for use on official vehicles. Seven of the nine tribes also have graphic plates available for private vehicles. The graphic plates are available to all South Dakota residents (no tribal affiliation is required.) Official, tribally owned vehicles bearing plates issued by tribes are allowed to use public roads under Washington state law. The Yakama tribe began issuing plates to all members in 2011. Wisconsin Department of Transportation has reciprocal recognition of vehicle registration with

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1848-455: The term "Comanche" dates to 1706, when the Comanche were reported by Spanish officials to be preparing to attack far-outlying Pueblo settlements in southern Colorado. The Spanish adopted the Ute name for the people: kɨmantsi (enemy), spelling it Comanche (or Comanchi , Cumanche , Cumanchi ) in accord with the Spanish pronunciation. Before 1740, French explorers from the east sometimes used

1892-714: The two bands dominated and ranged in the northern Comancheria. The "Middle Comanche" label encompassed the aggressive Nokoni Nʉʉ (Nokoni) ("wanderers", "those who turn back") between the headwaters of the Red River and the Colorado River in the south and the Western Cross Timbers in the east, their preferred range were on the Brazos River headwaters and its tributaries, the Pease River offered protection from storms and enemies. With them shared two smaller bands

1936-479: Was not affiliated with any level of government. Meusebach brokered the treaty to settle the lands on the Fisher-Miller Land Grant, from which were formed the 10 counties of Concho , Kimble , Llano , Mason , McCulloch , Menard , Schleicher , San Saba , Sutton , and Tom Green . In contrast to many treaties of its day, this treaty was very brief and simple, with all parties agreeing to

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