Comanchero
The Comancheros were primarily Mexican-Hispanic traders in northern and central New Mexico who made their living by trading with the nomadic tribes of northeastern New Mexico and western Texas. Comancheros were so named because the Comanches , in whose territory they acted, were considered their best customers. They exchanged manufactured goods (tools and cloth), flour, tobacco and bread for cattle and slaves from the Comanches.
history
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, Indian tribes, especially the Comanches, plundered the eastern villages of the Pueblo Indians. They captured grain and slaves. This continued until Juan Bautista de Anza undertook several punitive expeditions against them; it began in 1779 and ended in a treaty in 1786. This treaty opened the way for the Comanchero trade; previously trading had been restricted to the Taos or Pecos markets .
When the US government started a war against the Comanches in the 1850s, their allies Comancheros helped them and supported the Comanche resistance, mainly with firearms and ammunition, but occasionally also joined the armed resistance. For a long time, the supply of firearms enabled the Comanches to wage a successful war against the invading white colonists. Attempts by the US Army to ban the trade have been relatively unsuccessful. It was not until the 1880s that the last independent Comanches were defeated and interned on reservations in Oklahoma .
Ethnicity
Anglo-American historians sometimes inappropriately refer to Comancheros as "Mexican" traders. Mexican traders were occasionally involved in the Comanchero trade. The vast majority of the traders, however, were the Spanish-speaking residents of those areas that had been conquered by the United States in the Mexican-American War in 1848 and which later, in 1912, became the state of New Mexico. They were the descendants of the Spanish colonizers and soldiers as well as the Indian peoples of New Mexico.
Movies
Director Michael Curtiz created a hateful memorial to the mixed Hispanic-Mexican people with his western The Comancheros (USA 1961). John Wayne as Texas ranger Jake Cutter and Stuart Whitman as cardsharp Paul Regret fight the Comanchero bandits in Texas in 1843.
music
1984: Comanchero by Raggio di Luna
literature
- Charles L. Kenner: The Comanchero Frontier: A History of New Mexican-Plains Indian Relations . University of Oklahoma Press 1994, ISBN 978-0-806-12670-8
- Enrique R. Lamadrid: Hermanitos comanchitos. Indo-Hispano rituals of captivity and redemption . University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque 2003, ISBN 0-8263-2877-6
- Herman H. Moncus: The Comanchero's neighbors . Western Heritage Press, Fort Worth, Texas 1970
Web links
- Comanche History (Engl.)
- Indians and alcohol abuse (German-American Almanac)