Comanchero facts for kids

The Comancheros were traders from New Mexico in the 1700s and 1800s. They traded with Native American tribes, especially the Comanche, on the southern plains. The name "Comancheros" comes from the Comanche tribe, whose land they traded in. They exchanged things like tools, cloth, flour, tobacco, and bread for animal hides and livestock.

History of the Comancheros

The Comanche People

Before the Spanish arrived with horses in the 1540s, the Comanche people did not live in the Southern High Plains. The Comanches were a Shoshonean group. They became a separate tribe in the early 1700s after getting horses from the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

They moved south through the Rocky Mountains. Around 1700, they started appearing at trade fairs in Taos. By the mid-1700s, the Comanche had spread across the Southern High Plains and much of Texas. They mostly replaced the Apache people who lived there before.

Trading and Peace

In 1719, the Comanches made their first recorded raid for horses on Spanish settlements. For the next 60 years, the Comanches and Spanish had a mix of trading and raiding. Different Comanche groups were sometimes at peace and sometimes at war.

From 1750 to 1780, plains tribes like the Comanche often raided Spanish towns. They took horses, corn, and other goods. This continued until 1779. That year, Governor Juan Bautista de Anza led an army of 500 men. They surprised the Comanche leader known as Green Horn (Cuerno Verde) and defeated his group. Green Horn was killed.

This big defeat led to peace talks. By 1785, most Comanche groups agreed to peace. On February 28, 1786, a peace treaty was signed. It happened at the Pecos Pueblo. Governor de Anza and Ecueracapa, a Comanche chief, signed the agreement.

This treaty was very important. It allowed the Comanchero trade to grow much larger. Before this, trade was mostly limited to fairs at Taos and Pecos. After 1780, the Comanchero trade truly began to flourish.

The End of the Comancheros

The Comanchero trade thrived from the 1780s until the mid-1800s. They traded in places like northeastern New Mexico and the Palo Duro Canyon area of Texas.

After the American Civil War, the US Government began fighting the Comanches. The Comancheros helped the Comanche by providing firearms and ammunition. The US Army tried to stop this trade but had little success at first.

This changed in the winter of 1874–1875. US Army troops led by General Ranald S. Mackenzie attacked Comanche camps in Palo Duro Canyon. They burned the camps and captured or destroyed 1400 horses.

This defeat was a huge blow to the Comanches. They lost their horses, camps, and food. The last group of free-roaming Comanches, led by Quanah Parker, surrendered. They moved to a reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. This event ended the long-standing trade relationship between the Comanche and the Comancheros, which had lasted for almost 100 years.

Who Were the Comancheros?

Josiah Gregg, a writer from that time, described the Comancheros. He said they were usually "poor and rough people" from frontier villages. They would gather several times a year. They would go onto the plains with small items, trinkets, and food like bread.

Some people have called the Comancheros "Mexican traders." While some traders from Mexico were involved, most Comancheros were from New Mexico. They were Hispanic people and people of mixed heritage. These New Mexicans were descendants of Spanish settlers and soldiers, and Native American peoples. This included the Pueblo, Comanche, Apache, Kiowa, and Navajo tribes.

The Comancheros were different from the Ciboleros. Ciboleros were buffalo hunters from New Mexico. However, both Comancheros and Ciboleros were mainly Hispanic people from New Mexico.

See also

In Spanish: Comanchero para niños