The Comanche Empire

The Comanche Empire (Lamar Series) by Pekka Hämäläinen

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1VUWRGNKNSEYS?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp

Native American history/the history of early America is a topic I've mostly skipped. I was induced to read this book because the recent fad for “land acknowledgments” left me with a few questions. For example, what is the likelihood that the Native Americans we are acknowledging were conquerors of the land we acknowledge them as owning? That may be an unpopular and heterodox question, but I assume that Native Americans were humans like everyone else.

This book pays dividends on that question and more. The author explains that the Comanche started as a small band associated with the Shoshone who moved through the mountains of southern Utah onto the plains of north-eastern Texas/northern Mexico. They arrived at a fortuitous moment when the Indian/settler culture of New Mexico had temporarily lifted the control of Spain from its shoulders. As a result - or coincidentally - New Mexicans allowed the exfiltration/trade/looting of horses to the Indians north of New Mexico.

Within the space of 50 years, formerly pedestrian Indian tribes became full-fledged horse nomads. That topic is worth anthropological exploration by itself. I've read some books on Steppe nomads. The parallels between the Mongol/Turk steppe nomads and the Indian horse cultures are remarkable. Both cultures inhabited a central position against surrounding civilizations, which could be exploited through raiding and trade. For the Mongols, it was China, Central Asia, and Russia; for the Comanche, it was the Spanish colonies of New Mexico and Texas, and the French territories of Louisiana.

The author claims that the Comanche constituted an “empire.” While this is debatable in the classic sense of “empire,” it is definitely the case that the Comanche served as a cork in the bottle of European expansion. It is also remarkable how few Comanche were able to control so much territory. At their height, the Comanche population probably numbered around 20,000 individuals, yet they were able to throttle and threaten the Spanish colonies with extinction. Admittedly, those colonies never numbered more than a few thousand.

Eventually, of course, the Europeans - specifically, the English/Americans - would build up their population to the point where the Comanches could be pushed to the side with little problem.

The Comanche were the reason that Americans became situated in Texas. The Mexican government was concerned with the lack of population in its Texas territories. In order to correct that issue, the Mexicans opened the borders to Anglo immigration. Moreover, because the Mexican government could not control the Comanche problem, the Anglos and Hispanics in Texas decided that they would be better served with liberty.

The Comanche strategy of raiding did to Spain and Mexico what that strategy did to the neighbors of the steppe nomads (and their descendants, such as the Turks.) Northern Mexican territory was repeatedly raided and smashed. Slaves were taken. Property was looted. Confidence in the ability of the central government plummeted. It can be argued that the American victory over Mexico in 1848 was due to Comanche plundering.

Author Hämäläinen shows the appropriate empathy for understanding his subject. However, he certainly does not white-wash the darker aspects of the Comanche legacy, which are often forgotten in virtue signaling about “land acknowledgments,” such as slave-raiding and genocidal wars on other Native Americans. Because this will be the controversial bit, here are some excerpts from the book:

“Comanches had raided other Native societies for captives long before European contact, and they became in the early eighteenth century the dominant slave traffickers of the lower midcontinent. It was not until after 1800, however, that human bondage became a large-scale institution in Comanchería itself. Comanches conducted frequent slave raids into Texas and northern Mexico during the second and third decades of the new century and soon emerged as the paramount slaveholders in the Southwest.

Hämäläinen, Pekka. The Comanche Empire (The Lamar Series in Western History) (p. 250). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

“It was here, at the advancing edge of the world's largest empire, that the Comanches launched an explosive expansion. They purchased and plundered horses from New Mexico, reinvented themselves as mounted fighters, and reenvisioned their place in the world. They forced their way onto the southern plains, shoved aside the Apaches and other residing nations, and over the course of three generations carved out a vast territory that was larger than the entire European-controlled area north of the Río Grande at the time.

Hämäläinen, Pekka. The Comanche Empire (The Lamar Series in Western History) (p. 1). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

“But the Apaches' main weakness was their mixed hunting and farming economy, which now, when they were at war with the Comanches and Utes, turned from an economic asset into a military liability. Tied to the soil at exact times of the year, Apache farmers were defenseless against their mounted rivals who turned the once-protective farming villages into deathtraps. Capitalizing on their long-range mobility, Comanches and Utes concentrated overwhelming force against isolated Apache villages, raiding them for crops and captives or obliterating them with devastating guerrilla attacks.

Hämäläinen, Pekka. The Comanche Empire (The Lamar Series in Western History) (p. 32). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

“Beaten by the Comanches and Utes and abandoned by Spain, the Apaches vacated all the lands north of the Canadian River, which became the southern border of the Comanche-Ute domain.

Hämäläinen, Pekka. The Comanche Empire (The Lamar Series in Western History) (p. 36). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

Please understand that this book is not a diatribe about the Comanches or Native Americans. Far from it. It is an honest and fascinating history. I am providing these excerpts for future reference in dealing with the anti-historical, anachronistic philosophy that underlies modern romantics who want to guilt Americans with “land acknowledgment” and similar nonsense.