Comanchero

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The Comancheros were primarily New Mexican hispanic traders in northern and central New Mexico who made their living by trading with the nomadic plains tribes, in northeastern New Mexico and west Texas. Comancheros were so named because the Comanches, in whose territory they traded, were considered their best customers. They traded manufactured goods (tools and cloth), flour, tobacco, and bread for hides, livestock and slaves from the Comanche.

1 History
2 Ethnicity
3 Notes
4 References

[edit] History

Prior to the coming of the Spanish the plain tribes, notably the Comanche, raided the eastern pueblos for corn and slaves. This continued until Juan Bautista de Anza undertook a number of punitive expeditions against them starting in 1779 and resulting in a treaty in 1786. This treaty opened the way for the development of the Comanchero trade. Prior to this New Mexico trade with the Comanche had been essentially limited to Comanche attendance at the Pueblo trade fairs at the Taos or Pecos Pueblos.

When the US Government commenced its war against the Comanches in the 1850's, their Comanchero allies and relatives assisted the Comanche resistance primarily by supplying firearms and ammunition to the tribes, but also occasionally by joining in the armed resistance. Having adequate supplies of firearms enabled the Comanche to wage successful war against the invading population of white settlers. The US Army's attempts to interdict the trade were relatively unsuccessful. It was only in the 1880s when the last independent Comanches were captured and forced onto reservations in Oklahoma that the Comanche and Comanchero trade relationship ended.

[edit] Ethnicity

Josiah Gregg described these traders as, "These parties of Comancheros are usually composed of the indigent and rude classes of the frontier villages, who collect together several times a year, and launch upon the plains with a few trinkets and trumperies of all kinds, and perhaps a bag of bread or pinole."^[1] Some Anglo historians and writers have referred relatively incorrectly to the Comancheros as "Mexican" traders. While traders from Mexico were occasionally involved with the Comanchero trade, by far the majority were from New Mexico, hispanics and mixed bloods. New Mexicans of the time were the descendants of the Spanish colonial settlers and soldiers and the Native American peoples of New Mexico. The Native American people in New Mexico included the Pueblo, the Comanche, the Apache, and the Navajo.

[edit] Notes

^ Gregg, Josiah (1847) Diary and letters of Josiah Gregg: southwestern enterprises, 1840-1847, published 1941 Univ. of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK;

[edit] References

Kenner, Charles L. (1994) The Comanchero Frontier: A History of New Mexican-Plains Indian Relations University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK, ISBN 0-8061-2670-1 ;
Lamadrid, Enrique R. (2003) Hermanitos comanchitos : Indo-Hispano rituals of captivity and redemption University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, ISBN 0-8263-2877-6 ;
Moncus, Herman H. (1970) The Comanchero’s neighbors Western Heritage Press, Fort Worth, TX;