![]() ![]() ![]() Anza followed the Arkansas River into the San Juan Valley, then crossed Poncha Pass into the area of Salida. In 1779 New Mexico Governor Juan Bautista de Anza led a large expedition against the raiding Comanches led by a chief named Cuerno Verde (Green Horn), named because he had two buffalo horns in his head dress dyed green. While raiding the Pueblos of New Mexico the Comanche either returned to the Staked Plains of Texas or north to the southeastern plains of Colorado, which led to one of the more dramatic fights between the Spanish and Comanche. One important wintering ground for the Comanche was in Colorado, a place called Big Timbers, located close to the Purgatory River Confluence with the Arkansas River. The Comanche were great horse tradesmen and filled an important middleman position of the horse trade on the plains. The horse represented the wealth of the owner - the more that were owned the more wealth the owner had. Horses were a central part of the Comanche identity. This was the time when they were first mentioned by Spanish chronicles in 1705. The Kiowa, armed with guns from Spanish traders, clashed with them frequently, until the two tribes formed an alliance around 1790, leading to a long lasting compact. Once they got horses from the Spanish the Comanche expanded onto the plains, pushing the Arapahoes to the south and the Utes to the mountains. When storms passed over them they would stay quiet so as not to offend Thunderbird, creator of the storms. The Comanche believed they were created from the earth by the Great Spirit. The Comanche name for themselves is Numunuu, meaning ‘the people’. It was the Ute that named them ‘Komanticia’, meaning ‘anyone who wants to fight me all the time.’ Eventually the word got changed to Comanche. The Comanche are linguistically related to the Shoshoni dialect and came into the plains from the Great Basin where they separated from the Shoshone. There is a Ute band also named Yamparika, not to be confused with the Comanche group. Yamp, or Yampah, is a wild plant native to the West and an important part of Native diets. The northernmost was the Yamparikas, a name meaning Yamp Eaters. Like many large tribes the Comanche were divided into groups. However the Comanche roamed a large swath of the southern plains, and the far southeast of Colorado was home to some of the Comanche. When it comes to the setting most people would imagine Comancheria, the land of the Comanches, as Texas. The Comanche were in fact important traders of the plains. Like many popular images, these are highly exaggerated and inaccurate. The Comanche have not had a positive depiction in popular imagination. The name brings up lots of images, many negative - Indians attacking wagon trains, savagely killing people. ![]()
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