In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Comanche were the dominant American tribe on the Southern Great Plains of what is now the United States.

They held control over a large area known as Comancheria, which they shared with allied tribes, which included the Kiowa, the Kiowa Apache (Plains Apache), the Wichita, and later, the southern Cheyenne and Arapaho. Their power was derived from their skills with horses, trading, and raiding, along with diplomatic skills. Largely nomadic, they hunted bison for food and skins.

The vast area of land that was under the dominance of the Comanche might have been considered an empire, except that the Comanche were never united under a single government or leader. Rather, they were made up of several allied but independent tribes that shared a common language.

At their height, there may have been as many as 40,000 Comanche. They regularly fought neighboring tribes and European settlers infringing on their area. They also regularly undertook raids into Mexico, taking captives from other tribes or European settlers on the frontier. These captives were kept as slaves, traded to the Spanish, or assimilated as members of the tribe.

However, by 1875, the Comanche were devastated by European disease epidemics, warfare, the near-extinction of the bison, and unrelenting settlement of their lands by European-Americans. At that point, the remaining Comanche were forced onto a reservation in Oklahoma.

The 1920 census listed fewer than 1,500 Comanche, but tribal enrollment in the 21st century was more than 15,000, approximately half of them residing in the Lawton and Fort Sill areas of southwestern Oklahoma. Of the three million acres promised the Comanche, Kowa, and Kiowa-Apache by an 1867 treaty, only 235,000 acres have remained in tribal hands, and only 4,400 acres are owned by the Comanche Nation.

Originally, the Comanche were part of the Shoshone, and they inhabited the region that would later become Wyoming. It is believed that the Comanche split off from the Eastern Shoshone in the 16th century, sometime after the Eastern Shoshone migrated south to Colorado, where they became bison-hunting Great Plains nomads. A group of Eastern Shoshone moved further south into Texas, eastern New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, and western Oklahoma, where they became the Comanche. The earliest use of the term Comanche dates to 1706, when the Spanish wrote of their preparations to attack outlying Pueblo settlements in southern Colorado. The Spanish sometimes referred to the Comanche as Utes, however, while French explorers sometimes called them Padouca, a term that was also used in reference to the Plains Apache.

Today, the Comanche Nation is headquartered in Lawton, Oklahoma, and their tribal jurisdictional area includes Caddo, Comanche, Cotton, Greer, Jackson, Kiowa, Tillman, and Harmon counties. The tribe issues its own tribal vehicle tags and operates its own housing authority and department of higher education. They own ten tribal smoke shops, and casinos in Devol, Elgin, Lawton, and Walters, Oklahoma.

The Comanche language is a Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan language group, closely related to the Shoshone. Although efforts are in place to ensure the survival of the Comanche language, fewer than one percent of Comanches can speak it.

Sometimes referred to as the "Last Chief of the Comanche," Quanah Parker grew up among the Kwahadi band of the Comanche Nation, the son of Kwahadi Comanche chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, an Anglo-American who had been abducted as an eight-year-old child and assimilated into the Nokoni tribe. A dominant figure in the Red River War, Quanah Parker eventually surrendered and led the Kwahadi to the reservation at Fort Sill. Although never elected, he was appointed by the federal government as principal chief of the Comanche Nation and became an emissary of Southwest American Indians to the U.S. legislature. He encouraged Comanche children to learn and speak English, and, while he encouraged Comanche people to become Christians, he also advocated for the syncretic Native American Church alternative, fighting for the use of peyote in the movement's religious practices. After his death in 1911, the leadership title of "Chief" was replaced with "Chairman."

Other influential people involved in the Comanche Wars against the Spanish, Mexican, and American militaries included Iron Jacket, Peta Nocona, Buffalo Hump, and Santa Anna.

Topics relating to the Comanches and the Comanche Nation are the focus of this portion of our web guide, and may include tribal websites, tribal businesses, industries, health facilities, schools, museums, events, and other entities. Informational sites focused on the Comanche may also be listed here.

Recommended Resources

Search for Comanche on Google or Bing