Kavanagh Thomas W. Comanche political history: an ethnohistorical perspective, 1706-1875

University of Nebraska Press, 1995. — 588 p.The Comanche Indians are one of the most widely known yet least understood groups on the Plains. Although much has been published on Comanche history and culture, this is the first in-depth historical study of Comanche social and political groups. Using the ethnohistorical method, Thomas W. Kavanagh traces the changes and continuities in Comanche politics from their earliest interactions with Europeans to their settlement on a reservation in present-day Oklahoma.Based on documentary material from historical and anthropological archives in Spain, Mexico, and the United States, the book examines the different ways the Comanche tribes - the Yamparikas, Jupes, Kotsotekhs, Quahadas, Penatekas, Tenewasr and Nokonis - organized and reorganized themselves around the changing resource domains of hunting, warfare, trade, and diplomacy.The book presents detailed histories of each of the Comanche tribes and raises larger questions about political processes. What are the origins and fates of political organizations? Why do peoples come together? Why do they disperse? In classical political philosophy, tribes, nations, and ethnic groups have clear, unchanging bound- aries; their origins are mythical and unknowable, and their collapse is pathological. In contrast, using the record of the Comanches, Kavanagh argues that political formation and re-formation not only is normal but frequently ignores existing political and ethnic boundaries.Thomas W. Kavanagh is curator of collections at the William Hammond Mathers Museum, Indiana University. He has published articles in such journals as Visual Anthropology and Plains Anthropologist.