Comanche Nation



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Ancestral Homeland: Mexico to Wyoming

Various Spellings: Comanche, Camanche

Comanche Bands:
Kewatsana, Kotsai, Kotsoteka (Buffalo Eaters), Kwahadi, Motsai, Nokoni (Wanderers), Patgusa, Penateka (Honey Eaters), Pohoi, Quahadis (Antelopes), Tanima, Wasaih, and Yamparika (Yap Eaters)

Tribal Headquarters
Comanche Nation of Oklahoma 584 N. W. Bingo Rd. P. O. Box 908 Lawton, Oklahoma 73505 Toll Free Phone Number: 1.877.492.4988 Fax: 1.580.492.3796


 * Comanche Nation Official Website

Population: 1984 Total enrollment 8,131.

Brief Timeline

 * 1600's: Left Wyoming, neighboring tribe, Shoshone and removed to south to Rocky Mountains.
 * 1790: allied with Kiowa
 * 1791: Living in present day Kansas
 * 1700-1800: raided and roamed Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and northern Mexico
 * 1816-1839: Smallpox epidemics
 * 1835: Texas Revolution
 * 1838: Council House Affair
 * 1840: United with southern Cheyenne and Arapaho
 * 1845: Annexation of Texas, Texas Rangers protect settlers from hostile Indians, particular the Comanche
 * 1849-50: Cholera epidemic
 * 1853: Fort Atkinson Treaty - protect the Santa Fe Trail
 * 1854: Comanche and Kiowa placed on reservation on the Brazos River.
 * 1859: Barzos River Reservations abandoned - moved to new reservation on the Washita River near present-day Fort Cobb, Oklahoma
 * 1864: fought against Kit Carson's men; Battle of Adobe Walls on the Staked Plain for the Texas Panhandle
 * 1866/7: Treaty of Medicine Lodge 4,000 Indians in attendance; Comanche, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa and Kiowa Apache tribes. William Tecumseh Sherman, Commissioner of Indian Affairs
 * 1868: December 25: General Philip Henry Sheridan fought Comanche and Kiowa- Battle of Soldier Springs
 * 1871-1874: Comanche and Kiowa wars
 * 1874-75: Red River War or Buffalo War
 * Peyote Road- Native American Church- sacramental use of peyote - by 1930 half of the Indian population in the United States belonged to the church.
 * 1899: Oklahoma Territory ban the use of peyote.

Additional References to the History of the Tribe
Frederick Webb Hodge, in his Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, gave a more complete history of the Comanche tribe, with estimations of the population of the tribe at various time periods. Additional details are given in John Swanton's The Indian Tribes of North America.

Records
Agencies and subagencies were created as administrative offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its predecessors. Their purpose was (and is) to manage Indian affairs with the tribes, to enforce policies, and to assist in maintaining the peace. The names and location of these agencies may have changed, but their purpose remained basically the same. Many of the records of genealogical value (for the tribe and tribal members) were created by and maintained by these offices.

Land Records
Tribally owned land 7,045.80 acres. Allotted land: 201,350.17 acres.

Treaties
The year link (year of the treaty) will connect to an online copy of the treaty.


 * 1835 August 24, at Camp Holmes
 * 1846 May 15, at Council Springs
 * 1853 July 27, at Fort Atkinson
 * 1865 October 17, referred to in an Apache treaty
 * 1865 October 18, at Little Arkansas River

Vital Records

 * Kiowa Agency, M595, births and deaths 1924-1932, FHL Film: 576909 and births and deaths 1930-1936, FHL Film: 576911

Important Web Sites

 * Constitution and By-laws of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, approved: February 23, 2002
 * Comanche Nation Official Website
 * Comanche Nation Wikipedia

Comanche

 * Carlson, Paul H. The Plains Indians. College Station, Texas: Texas A&amp;M University Press, c1998. FHL Book 970.1 C197p

General

 * Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives; Record Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
 * Hodge, Frederick Webb. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1906 Available online.
 * Klein, Barry T., ed. Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian. Nyack, New York: Todd Publications, 2009. 10th ed. WorldCat 317923332;.
 * Malinowski, Sharon and Sheets, Anna, eds. The Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. Detroit: Gale Publishing, 1998. 4 volumes. Includes: Lists of Federally Recognized Tribes for U.S., Alaska, and Canada – pp. 513-529 Alphabetical Listing of Tribes, with reference to volume and page in this series Map of “Historic Locations of U.S. Native Groups” Map of “Historic Locations of Canadian Native Groups” Map of “Historic Locations of Mexican, Hawaiian and Caribbean Native Groups” Maps of “State and Federally Recognized U.S. Indian Reservations. WorldCat 37475188;.


 * Vol. 1 -- Northeast, Southeast, Caribbean
 * Vol. 2 -- Great Basin, Southwest, Middle America
 * Vol. 3 -- Arctic, Subarctic, Great Plains, Plateau
 * Vol. 4 -- California, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Islands


 * Sturtevant, William C. Handbook of North American Indians. 20 Vols., some not yet published. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978–.


 * Volume 1 -- Not yet published
 * Volume 2 -- Indians in Contemporary Society (pub. 2008) -- WorldCat 234303751
 * Volume 3 -- Environment, Origins, and Population (pub. 2006) -- WorldCat 255572371
 * Volume 4 -- History of Indian-White Relations (pub. 1988) -- WorldCat 19331914;.
 * Volume 5 -- Arctic (pub. 1984) -- WorldCat 299653808;.
 * Volume 6 -- Subarctic (pub. 1981) -- WorldCat 247493742;.
 * Volume 7 -- Northwest Coast (pub. 1990) -- WorldCat 247493311
 * Volume 8 -- California (pub. 1978) -- WorldCat 13240086;.
 * Volume 9 -- Southwest (pub. 1979) -- WorldCat 26140053;.
 * Volume 10 -- Southwest (pub. 1983) -- WorldCat 301504096;.
 * Volume 11 -- Great Basin (pub. 1986) -- WorldCat 256516416;.
 * Volume 12 -- Plateau (pub. 1998) -- WorldCat 39401371;.
 * Volume 13 -- Plains, 2 vols. (pub. 2001) -- WorldCat 48209643
 * Volume 14 -- Southeast (pub. 2004) -- WorldCat 254277176
 * Volume 15 -- Northwest (pub. 1978) -- WorldCat 356517503;.
 * Volume 16 -- Not yet published
 * Volume 17 -- Languages (pub. 1996) -- WorldCat 43957746
 * Volume 18 -- Not yet published
 * Volume 19 -- Not yet published
 * Volume 20 -- Not yet published


 * Swanton John R. The Indian Tribes of North America. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin #145 Available online.
 * Waldman, Carl. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. New York, New York: Facts on File, 2006. 3rd ed. WorldCat 14718193;.