Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

The Penateka band of Comanches was the largest and most powerful. They freely raided deep into Mexico, defeated the Apaches, and kept the Spanish from expanding further north. The other bands had less interaction with Europeans. The close proximity and recurrent interaction with Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans had a profound effect on the history of the Penatekas. The more they raided, the more Western goods they acquired, and “[there] developed a sort of cultural pollution that could not be stopped” (90). The Penatekas became increasingly dependent on goods like tin and iron from which they would make their arrowheads, knives, and spear tips. However, this proximity also brought them in contact with disease, which decimated their numbers over the following years.

A Penateka chief named Buffalo Hump had a vision predicting that the Texans would be driven into the sea. He began to spread word of his vision. Warriors assembled over the following months; however, many of the other bands of Comanches only sent a handful of warriors. They were wary of the Penatekas and the raid. In their eyes, the Penatekas were changing, becoming something degraded, not Comanche, because of their many interactions with white men. Most Penatekas joined in, as did Kiowas, who had a long-standing kinship with the Comanches.