Comanche Indian Tribe: Feared, Vicious, and Historically Unique

Empire of the Summer Moon -- Non-Fiction American History Book

What The Book Is About

In the various books about Native Americans published over the years and the myriad history classes students have taken, a great deal of information about Native Americans and their activities has been presented. Much has been written and chronicled about the Sioux and Apache tribes, but how many students who took high school history classes can name the Comanche Tribe as the most powerful Indian tribe in American history? And how many alert readers of the history of the American West can recall that the last and greatest chief of the Comanches was the mixed blood son of Caucasian pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker? These facts are all contained in the wonderfully written book by S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon.

The Comanche tribe -- according to the best accounts available to the author -- thrived for an estimated 170 years, beginning roughly in 1706 and ending in 1875 when the last free Comanche arrived at Fort Sill carrying the white flag of surrender. The story is very well presented, and it begins about six years after the end of the U.S. Civil War. The author opens by describing the challenges that Colonel Mackenzie of the U.S. Cavalry as he and his men sought to locate and kill Comanches. On page 4 the reader gets a taste of what the Comanches did in the Salt Creek Massacre:

"Seven men were killed…stripped, scalped, and mutilated…beheaded…(with) brains scooped out…their fingers, toes and private parts had been cut off and stuck in their mouths [and their bodies] were filled full of arrows, which made them resemble porcupines" (Gwynne, 4).

The centerpiece of Gwynne's book is the story of Cynthia Ann Parker, who was taken captive at the age of 9 (her family was slaughtered by the Comanches) and raised as a Comanche. Eventually she married Peta Nocona, a war chief, and had a child, Quanah, who became the last chief of the Comanche tribe. He was so notorious for his leadership and the viciousness with which his warriors carried out their killing of white people. The Comanches were so fierce they dominated huge portions of Texas at a time then the war with Mexico was going on. On page 131 the author asserts that the Comanches "…killed thousands more Texans than the Mexicans ever did." The Texans had weapons, but they took time to load after firing one shot -- and for accuracy had to pretty much be fired while the shooter was on the ground. But the Comanche warrior arriving on horseback could "…grasp five to ten [iron-tipped] arrows in his left hand and discharge them so rapidly that the last will be on its flight before the first touched the ground" (Gwynne, 132).

"War was what they did, all their social status was based on it"; and when the white armies instituted their strategies to kill the Comanches, it was usually the Comanches who outsmarted the white man and ended up killing huge numbers of fighters that had been sent to exterminate the Indians. At their peak of power the Comanches dominated about 200 million acres, mostly in northern Mexico, Texas, Colorado, and Oklahoma.

Throughout this interesting, fascinating, vividly narrated and well-received book, the story of the chief Quanah, comes up again and again. He is presented by the author as the "most successful and influential Native American of the late nineteenth century," and in the #13 photo in the photographic insert (after page 150) he is photographed in a three piece English-style suit, with a bowler hat and his long braided hair. "He refused to give up his long hair," the caption reads. And for Quanah, he also refused to give up his optimism. While speaking to a crowd in Fort Worth, Texas, in October, 1910, he said (according to the Dallas Morning News): "I used to be a bad man. Now I am a citizen of the United States. I pay taxes same as you people do. We are the same people now" (Gwynne, 317). Well there were no doubt people in the overflow audience that day that would argue that he was not the same as the typical American, but his point was well made. What he did have was very American, though, according to Gwynne: "Boundless optimism" (319).

What the book provides -- a greater understanding of the frontier west

The viciousness of the Comanche tribe was brought to focus in this book, because although most U.S. high school and college graduates were aware there were atrocities committed by some tribes, there was nothing to compare to the killing skills of the Comanche. After Spanish explorers had defeated tribes in Mexico, and were moving north, the Comanche stopped those explorers (led by Francisco Coronado in 1540) from further exploration into the North American plains. The Spanish turned around and made haste away from Comanche territory. What isn't well-known is that the Comanches typically would not roar into an army encampment firing arrows; instead, they would chase off the horses of the cavalry at night, leaving the men wide open to carnage.