According to historian Pekka Hämäläinen, a few Native American tribes plus weather conditions partly contributed to the collapse of the bison population in America's southern Plains. By the 1830s, the Comanche & their allies on the southern plains were killing about 280,000 bison a year, which was near the limit of sustainability for that region. Firearms & horses, along with a growing export market for buffalo robes & bison meat had resulted in larger & larger numbers of bison killed each year. A long & intense drought hit the southern plains in 1845, lasting into the 1860s, which caused a widespread collapse of the bison herds. In the 1860s, the rains returned & the bison herds recovered to a degree.
The horse was a key element in the emergence of a distinctive Comanche culture. It was of such strategic importance that some scholars suggested that the Comanche broke away from the Shoshone & moved southward to search for additional sources of horses among the settlers of New Spain to the south (rather than search for new herds of buffalo.) The Comanche may have been the 1st group of Plains natives to fully incorporate the horse into their culture & to have introduced the animal to the other Plains peoples. From Natchitoches in Spanish Louisiana, Athanase de Mézières reported in 1770 that the Comanches were
Their original migration took them to the southern Great Plains, into a sweep of territory extending from the Arkansas River to central Texas. They reached present-day New Mexico & the Texas Panhandle by 1700, forcing the Lipan Apache people ever southward, defeating them in a nine-day battle along the Rio del Fierro (Wichita River) in 1723. The river may be the location mentioned by Athanase de Mézières in 1772, containing "a mass of metal which the Indians say is hard, thick, heavy, & composed of iron," which they "venerate...as an extraordinary manifestation of nature," the Comanche's calling it Ta-pic-ta-carre [standing rock], Po-i-wisht-carre [standing metal], or Po-a-cat-le-pi-le-carre [medicine rock], the general area containing a "large number of meteoric masses." By 1777, the Lipan Apache had retreated to the Rio Grande & the Mescalero Apache to Coahuila.
During that time, their population increased dramatically because of the abundance of buffalo, an influx of Shoshone migrants, & their adoption of significant numbers of women & children taken captive from rival groups. The Comanche never formed a single cohesive tribal unit, but were divided into almost a dozen autonomous groups, called bands. These groups shared the same language & culture, & rarely fought each other. They were estimated to have taken captive thousands of people from the Spanish, Mexican & American settlers in their lands.
By the mid-19C, the Comanche were supplying horses to French & American traders & settlers, & later to migrants passing through their territory on the way to the California Gold Rush, along the California Road. The Comanche had stolen many of the horses from other tribes & settlers; they earned their reputation as formidable horse thieves, later extending their rustling to cattle. Their stealing of livestock from Spanish & American settlers, as well as the other Plains tribes, often led to battles.
The Comanche also had access to vast numbers of feral horses, which numbered approximately 2,000,000 in & around Comancheria, & which the tribe was particularly skilled at breaking to saddle. In the late 18C & early 19C, the Comanche lifestyle required about one horse per person (though warriors each possessed many more). With a population of about 30,000 to 40,000 & in possession of herds many times that number, the Comanche had a surplus of about 90,000 to 120,000 horses.
They were formidable opponents who developed strategies for using traditional weapons for fighting on horseback. Warfare was a major part of Comanche life. Comanche raids into Mexico traditionally took place during the full moon, when the Comanche could see to ride at night. This led to the term "Comanche Moon," during which the Comanche raided for horses, captives, & weapons. The majority of Comanche raids into Mexico were in the state of Chihuahua & neighboring northern states.
