Numerous Indian tribes populated what is now North America for centuries, all cultures
rich in beliefs and customs that roamed the arid terrain of the Wild West and indomitably
opposed the European settlers.
Most will have heard of the Apaches, one of the best known tribes portrayed in the movies,
but among the Native Americans, there also existed a particularly powerful and numerous
nation called "Comanches".
They instilled fear during battles, being called "Invincible Warriors" by their adversaries
during the 19th century.
Today we will learn how this forgotten culture lived, fought and punished its enemies.
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Native American life before the arrival of Europeans.
European colonization brought with it knowledge of architecture, metal manipulation, firearms
and many resources that the North American tribes did not have.
But, the conquest of these territories was not exactly peaceful and it is certainly questionable
whether it really helped the development of these civilizations.
The North American natives were not complete savages, nor did they really live as badly
as we are often led to believe.
It is true that they were behind in terms of knowledge and the manipulation of raw materials,
but their abilities and skills in other areas were enviable.
Not to mention that until the arrival of the Europeans, most of these Indian tribes lived
peacefully among themselves.
In what is now the United States alone, at least 300 different languages were spoken.
The closer a tribe was to the other, the more alike their languages would be, while with
a greater linguistic gap the further apart they were.
Thanks to this, many members of different tribes spoke more than one language to communicate
with each other and to trade.
Most of them were excellent farmers and hunters, harvesting mainly pumpkins, beans, sunflowers
and corn because the climate and soil of some regions were ideal for cultivation, adapting
their lives to the agrarian calendar.
While at the same time they supplemented their diet by hunting animals such as buffaloes,
which they treated with respect, capturing only those they needed to eat and using all
their parts to make tools and clothing.
Those who inhabited places with extreme climates were mainly nomadic, as the land and climate
were not conducive to settle in one place, with little or no vegetation occurring.
Tribes living in the arctic, for example, used to move continuously, following the herds
of animals on which they fed, while those who lived in arid areas built small portable
dwellings called wickiups.
They were gatherers, eating whatever they found, such as seeds, nuts or even lizards.
The North American tribes revered nature.
Their divinities were related to elements or animals.
They deeply believed that they belonged to mother earth and that is why they had to respect
and take care of all living beings, plants and the resources that nature offered them,
taking only and exclusively what was indispensable to live.
They were closely connected with everything that surrounded them... beliefs and customs
that wouldn’t hurt to apply today.
Horses: The animal that empowered the Comanche.
The great success of the conquest of the New Continent by the Spaniards is due in large
part to the horses.
These new, unknown animals for the native peoples caused them immense terror on the
battlefield because of their size, speed and bearing, which gave the Spanish armies a great
advantage.
Once they had conquered a large part of the territory, the Catholic kings ordered twenty
horses and five mares to be sent to help the new Spanish colonies with the necessary tasks.
Little by little, these beautiful creatures began to populate the different regions until
they reached the great North American plains thanks to the expedition of Juan de Oñate.
It was at this point that the Comanche Indians had contact with horses, at the end of the
XVII century, demonstrating great capacity for their domestication.
This was a turning point in the life of this tribe when they went from being quiet nomadic
gatherers to warriors who based their entire life and economy on war.
Leaving aside gathering and art, they learned from an early age to ride horses, hunt and
fight.
The Comanches transformed their entire social structure into one where the most important
thing was their exploits on the battlefield.
Mounted on their new companions, they were seen as fearsome, almost invincible warriors,
who were dedicated to looting other tribes and Spanish settlements alike, killing anyone
who crossed their path and nearly exterminating several Indian tribes in their wake.
With this, its territory grew greatly in just 150 years, to such a degree that the Spanish
called all its domains "La Comancheria", even considering it an empire which encompassed
what today are the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico, more than
400,000 square kilometers.
Why were Comanche war raids so feared?
Their great military power was unquestionable, hence their expansion and prosperity since
they became a warrior people, but what really instilled fear in the hearts of their enemies
was their cruelty.
The Comanches knew no compassion whatsoever.
A raid by these North American natives not only meant the loss of goods and the destruction
of some dwellings, but anyone who did not manage to flee and hide would end up dead.
Men and boys alike, it did not matter if they surrendered because the Comanches did not
want prisoners.
The women would be punished and then killed or in the worst cases taken to their territory
with the sole intention of cutting off their body parts and throwing them into the fire.
Because of this, everyone knew what their arrival meant, so it was not surprising that
those who dared to confront them fought to the death.
Although they knew that from the beginning it was a lost battle, because the Comanches
not only had horses, bows, arrows and spears, but thanks to the trade they had with the
French, they had the best firearms that could be found in the region.
The success of their battles was due to strategies of ambush and sudden dizzying escapes, avoiding
direct confrontations and seeking numerical superiority over their enemy.
In response, the Spaniards used to take refuge until the Comanches retreated and then followed
their trail, but in most of these battles they did not achieve their goal, due to ambushes
prepared by the Indians themselves or they would get lost in unknown territory.
Among the largest and most famous raids was that of the spring of 1840, when more than
500 Comanche warriors led by the chief "Buffalo Hunchback" swept through southern Texas, completely
destroying the cities of Victoria and Linville, annihilating several of their inhabitants
while looting and burning everything in their path in retaliation for the death of 35 Comanches
of which 12 were chiefs of different factions and the imprisonment of another 30 Indians,
mostly women and children, while making peace agreements.
It was not until the end of the 19th century that they were finally defeated by U.S. troops
under the command of recent Civil War veteran Colonel Ronald Slidell Mackenzie, who began
by drastically reducing the buffalo population, which was their main source of food and supplies,
greatly weakening them.
He then began a military campaign in 1874 called "The Red River War" to locate and capture
the Native American tribes that dominated the great southern plains and forcibly relocate
them to reservations in the Indian territory that is now the state of Oklahoma.
This war lasted only a few months and there were minimal casualties on both sides, since
the main intention of the U.S. Army was to have them retreat.
Using surprise attacks and destroying their settlements and resources, the last Comanche
group finally surrendered in 1875.
Scalping.
The worst method of punishment in the Wild West.
Throughout the history of mankind, warrior tribes have been known to take trophies from
their opponents after their legendary battles to show the world how powerful and dangerous
they are, often gaining status within the social pyramid of each civilization as they
possessed more of them.
Specifically in North America, Indian tribes resorted to scalping, a method from ancient
times, which consisted of the premeditated flaying of the scalps of fallen enemies.
Its use increased in these lands after the arrival of the Europeans, who offered juicy
payments for these scalps with the intention of stirring up conflicts between the tribes
themselves.
Native American cultures, especially the Sioux, used it in conflict situations, and it could
be applied to warriors, women and children of the enemy tribes.
Once the opponent fell dead in the middle of the battle, the opposing party took out
a special, small knife and grabbed the long hair that men of these cultures used to wear.
They then made two small incisions and began to separate the skin with the tip of the knife
while pulling it strongly.
These trophies took on greater value if they were extracted while the person was still
alive, which did not last long due to the shock caused by the pain.
In the case that the person didn’t die, they would be subject to subsequent infections,
although it has been documented that few people managed to overcome this torment.
Once they returned to their settlements with the respective trophies, they were given to
the women of the tribes who treated them and made macabre banners with them to carry out
their ceremonies where they performed ritual dances until dawn.
After their celebrations were over, the scalps were returned to the warriors who took them
and attached them to their horses, garments and gaiters as symbols of their prowess in
battle.
But beyond this, they could take on a spiritual significance to such a degree that sometimes
they said that their fallen relatives returned to them through these trophies or even conversed
with these scalps.
The Native tribes of America have cultures worthy of admiration, both the beauty of their
beliefs about nature and their way of seeing life, as well as some of their terrifying
customs, which we will continue to unveil here, at Copernicus’s Galaxy.