This practice led to many wars with the Spanish, the American settlers, and other Plains tribes.Īlthough Comanches had acquired their first firearms from French traders as early as the 1740s, they continued to rely heavily on their traditional weapons: the lance and the bow and arrow, and they were formidable opponents who developed strategies for using traditional weapons for fighting on horseback. They began to steal horses from other tribes and settlers, which gave them the reputation of being as formidable horse, and later, cattle thieves. The French from Louisiana were first, followed by the Americans, and Comanches were hard-pressed to keep pace with the rising demand. Horses were prevalent in the Comanche tribe, and by the early 1800s, Comanches had horses in numbers beyond the dreams of other tribes, which helped them to become profitable traders.Īs the horse with its corresponding buffalo culture spread, Comanches found other markets for their horses. The Comanche population increased because of the large amount of buffalo, an influx of Shoshone people, and the captives taken from rival groups. Comanche skills on horseback quickly reached levels which, in many ways, exceeded those of Europeans. Besides its mobility, buffalo were easy to hunt, and mounted warriors enjoyed a tremendous advantage in warfare. The horse radically changed the lives of the Comanches for the better. They migrated to the southern Great Plains, the Arkansas River, and to central Texas.Ĭomanches are believed to have been the first native people on the plains to utilize the horse extensively, and as such, they were the source for other plains tribes of the horses that made the buffalo culture possible. Before contact with Europeans, the Comanches were part of the southern groups of Eastern Shoshoni that lived near the upper reaches of the Platte River in eastern Wyoming.Īfter acquiring the horse, Comanche groups separated from the Shoshoni and began to move south, sometime around 1700.
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