"The appearance of a Comanche fully equipped on horseback, with his lance and quiver and shield by his side is beautifully classic."
The women usually wore "a gown or slip that reaches from the chin quite down to the ankles, made of deer or elkskins," and, by one soldier's estimate, were good looking. The men were generally bare except for moccasins, leggings, and breechclout, and were "fine looking."
These are independent observations, cited by Rupert N. Richardson, of three of the men who accompanied Colonel G. M. Dodge and his dragoons on a visit to a large Comanche village near the Arkansas River in the summer of 1834. They found the Comanches peaceful and friendly, feasting on the fat of the land, for the buffalo were in prime condition and so numerous along the river that at times they were a nuisance, even a danger. George Catlin recorded the following:
In one of these spirited scenes when the regiment were on the march, and the Indians with their bows and arrows were closely plying a band of affrighted animals, they made a bolt through the line of dragoons, and a complete break, through which the whole herd passed, upsetting horses and riders in the most amusing manner, and receiving such shots as came from those guns and pistols that were aimed, and not fired into the empty air.
On another occasion,
… the poor beasts seem completely bewildered, running here and there, and as often as otherwise come singly advancing to the horsemen, as if to join them, and are easily shot down. In the turmoil and confusion, when their assailants have been pushing them forward, they have galloped through our encampment, jumping over fires, upsetting pots and kettles, driving horses from their fastenings and throwing the whole cantonment into the greatest consternation and alarm.
But even in this fine buffalo country the herds would wander off from their accustomed ranges and be gone for weeks at a time, and the Comanche hunters would return to camp empty-handed. Even after two centuries of following the herds for their living the Indians were unable to predict their movements according to any regular pattern. With the buffalo absent, the hunters chased and killed horses from the many wild herds all about and thus kept the camp supplied with fresh meat until the buffalo reappeared. Only in times of real distress did the Comanches kill and eat any of their own stock.
Far to the south in Texas the Comanche bands were much less friendly and less prosperous than these along the Arkansas. A Texan who showed no appreciation for any Indians, and who seemed to have a special apathy for Comanches, visited a southern village:
… we found the village of the principal chief to be filled with naked, half-starved savages; and one of the very lowest of the human species. They appeared to be but one removed from the brute creation…. They were badly armednot having more than six or eight guns in the village, and were but indifferent marksmen…. They have about five hundred horses and mules, some of very good quality…. The women are destitute of even the semblance of virtue, and the men as corrupt as the females are degraded.
This village was in poorer hunting country and bordered by unfriendly white settlers. These two accounts give some indication of the wide expanse of the Comanche lands, the varying quality of their hunting grounds, and the diversity to be found in widely separated bands of one tribe. In fringe areas with scanty buffalo herds, the conduct of a Comanche band toward a body of white visitors might depend on the extent of the whites' competition for the buffalo.
Once the Comanche tribe had become firmly established on the plains, it had the continuing problem of protecting its new hunting grounds against enemy attacks and intrusions from all sides, for there were no natural barriers to block raiders and the possession of good buffalo country was essential to the very existence of the tribe.
A secondary problem for the tribe, especially in the nineteenth century, was that of securing guns, ammunition, and an adequate supply of trade goods from a reliable source. This problem of trade with the outside world was complicated by the shortage of commercial furs in Comanche lands. While the tribe could produce a large supply of buffalo robes and dressed skins each year, only a small number could be marketed; but the traders gladly paid with their goods for Comanche horses. Comanche attempts to protect their buffalo lands and secure trade goods strongly influenced their relationships with all their neighbors, and help explain their seemingly inconsistent pattern of behavior toward whites in various places around the tribal domain.
The Comanche trade meant very little to the Texas settlements to the southeast, for the settlers had no use for Comanche horses when they were raising a surplus of their own, and they were understandably reluctant to sell guns and ammunition to their enemy. Over a long period the Comanches had been making occasional raids on these settlements, lifting a scalp here and there, picking up a captive woman or child, and running off stock. When the Anglo-Americans moved into Texas in large numbers at the invitation of the Mexican government, they settled along the outer edge of the settlements, encroaching on Comanche lands, and thus bore the brunt of the Comanche attacks.
After Texas secured its independence in 1836, both the Texans and the Comanches knew that they would profit greatly from a permanent peace on the border, but the many attempts at securing a formal treaty always failed. The Texans insisted that the Comanches stay far from the settlements, behind a boundary along the western and northern limits of the pioneer advance. The Comanches demanded a boundary farther to the south and east, which would permit them to continue hunting on some of their best buffalo country along the Colorado River, and they wanted the Texas officials to give a binding promise that no Texan would cross the boundary without Comanche permission. But the officials would make no such promise. They wanted the boundary to work just one way, against the Indians, and they were both unwilling and unable to halt the westward push of their people.
The border problem was complicated further when the smallpox scourge of 1837 finally reached the Comanche country. In May 1838 the Indians wiped out a trading party of fifteen suspected of deliberately introducing the disease into one of their villages. Later that year all peaceful communications were broken off for several months when the Texans treacherously attacked sixty-five Comanche delegates attending a meeting on a specific invitation. Thirty-five of the Comanches were killed, and the rest were taken prisoner. A retaliatory raid by a large Comanche force proved costly to both sides. Later a force of Texans made a surprise attack on a small Comanche village, killing or capturing every person. All captured Comanches were sold as slaves.
In this fighting on the Texas border and other places the Comanches showed great ability as raiders fighting in small groups, but they were rather ineffective in a large war party. They lacked the discipline, training, and organization to win a pitched battle against a force of trained soldiers. It is probable that the unwillingness of the Comanche individual to accept firm control, even from a war leader, was the key factor. Hence a large Comanche war party acted like a disorganized mob, and they were further handicapped by a shortage of good guns.
Along the northeastern border the Comanches lost a wide strip of their buffalo grounds to the better-organized and better-armed Osages and their allies, the Wichitas. As the federal government continued to move Indian tribes from the southeastern states into Indian Territory, the Osages welcomed the newcomers as allies in taking over more of the plains country and in beating back the Comanches. On the north, just across the Arkansas River, the Comanches were driven back by a large force of Cheyennes and Arapahoes in a bloody battle in 1838.
With such aggressive enemies encroaching on Comanche lands on three sides, the tribe had little time, energy, or inclination to attack the wagon trains on the Santa Fe Trail. Also, they wanted to remain friendly with the traders so they could buy goods from them each year.