[ApplegateRanch]

Never mind that the Indians were the same way; when we do it it’s baaaaaaad.

Here's a map of where the tribes were in 1650. A hundred years later, the Cheyenne were in Arikara & Apache territory; the Sioux had moved into the Cheyenne territory. Plenty of other stirring around had taken place.

In another 50 years, the Sioux were finally successful in driving the Cheyenne out of the Sioux's "sacred Black Hills".

I had another map, with migration arrows & dates, showing the routes & timeline, but it disappeared; but this one will do to illustrate the point.

The Commanche had one hell of a deserved reputation for nastiness in the Texas-Mexico border region. Considering they had been forced out of the Powder River/Wind River area and systematically driven to that area over a 200 year period, one might understand why they decided to not be pushed any more. There mistake was trying to push back against Texans.

[Dysart]

The Commanche had one hell of a deserved reputation for nastiness in the Texas-Mexico border region.

I had a Commanche girlfriend and can confirm their disposition when their ire is spurred. I've never seen anything like it before or since.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks AGR. A tribesman here in Michigan told me a tribal story about the “rice wars” — his ancestors had lived in (I think it was) upstate NY, before it was NY. Some shaman had a vision or dream about what we know as “wild rice”, and got the whole tribe to move toward where he thought it would be found. Naturally there were already people living there, so there was a protracted, multi-generational war over the area, which was somewhere n of The Bridge.

[dsc]

“Their mistake was trying to push back against Texans.”

The Comanche were the reason that there were Texans to begin with. The Mexicans imported Americans as a buffer between the Comanches and themselves. Gave them land for free if they married a Mexican gal and converted to Catholicism (Nota bene, these were secular rules, not Church rules.)

Even so, the Texans were no match for the Comanche until after the Civil War, when they had repeating rifles and a big enough population. Quanah Parker was never defeated; they got him to surrender by rounding up the women and children and holding them prisoner in what is now Lawton, Oklahoma.

When I was a boy, I lived two doors down from one of Quanah’s grandsons.

[dsc]

Interesting map. Thank you.