Comanches

The History of a People

De: T. R. Fehrenbach

Narrado por: Jonathan Yen

Authoritative and immediate, this is the classic account of the most powerful of the American Indian tribes. T. R. Fehrenbach traces the Comanches' rise to power, from their prehistoric origins to their domination of the high plains for more than a century until their demise in the face of Anglo-American expansion.

Master horseback riders who lived in teepees and hunted bison, the Comanches were stunning orators, disciplined warriors, and the finest makers of arrows. They lived by a strict legal code and worshipped within a cosmology of magic. As he portrays the Comanche lifestyle, Fehrenbach recreates their doomed battle against European encroachment. While they destroyed the Spanish dream of colonizing North America and blocked the French advance into the Southwest, the Comanches ultimately fell before the Texas Rangers and the U.S. Army in the great raids and battles of the mid-nineteenth century. This is a classic American story, vividly and poignantly told.

©1974 T.R. Fehrenbach (P)2024 Tantor

Interesting and disturbing slice of American history

While popular history highlights the racial prejudices and shortcomings of the white settlers, Comanches provides a history revealing that not all the savages were noble. Conflict was inevitable and coexistence without compromise by the Amerindians was not possible. It is a world of many injustices, but I enjoyed learning about the settlement of the southwest and accompanying conflict it created.

What You SHOULD Know About the Native American Genocide.

I like the fact the information was very accurate. I especially was enthralled with the Native American culture prior to the white settlers and soldiers trying to kill them all.
There were so many interesting facts about their culture and how they determined a social structure dependent upon bravery and contributions made to the trial. It’s a book every high school student should read and also every adult as well.

A sad story of a clash of cultures

A valuable read to learn about the proud Comanche people whose way of life was transformed by a clash of cultures. The author captures the impact tribal warfare and the entry of the Spanish, the French, Texans and Americans had on a major people who ruled a territory for centuries.

A Profound History

This is a well written, balanced look at the history of the Comanches by T.J. Fehrenbach. He focuses upon the interactions of the Comanches with European-Americans. It starts out slow; in particular, the prehistory of the Comanche before their interactions with the Spaniards feels a bit nebulous (the first 150 pages). However, once Fehrenbach begins to discuss concrete historical events, the book becomes a rapid read.

When I say the book is balanced, I refer to viewing the events of European colonization from an objective perspective. He neither delights in the European actions nor attempts to apologize in hindsight. He simply explains what took place without editorializing. Fehrenbach soberly recounts the destruction of the native peoples by European settlement and conquest, disease, and the decimation of the buffalo through hunting in the 1870s. Yet he is also clear about the warlike attitudes of the Comanche, the savagery of their conduct (to fellow Native Americans as well as Europeans), and the inability of both peoples to reconcile very different cultural perspectives. He does not absolve nor excuse the Europeans, but also explores the reasons the conquest was inevitable, and helps one to understand both the perspective of settlers who were taken as captives, killed or mutilated, and how they responded with their own violence, as well as the perspective of the Native Americans who saw their way of life being ripped away.

The book has violent moments. It discusses the history as it actually happened. It reflects a different era and tells history in a very non-biased manner.

This is an excellent work, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys history, in particular, North American history.

excellent

To many know to little of America's true history. Great book. Sad on many levels.

local history

👍. i would read this again. history we need to know. bless the indian nations and God's spirit in them.

Eye opening read for American

Highly recommend for Americans looking to get better rooted with their position in this country. After a dozen books on the progression of Spain into America, this is my first tribe specific book moving into amerindian history. Though perhaps slightly dated to contemporary audiences sensitive to “savage” and “barbarian”, this book felt both authoritative and sensitive to the various peoples involved in this history. I was unaware of how long and grotesquely brutal the fight was between the Num (Comanche) and western peoples or how such an ancient people (mountain Shoshone) could be so inherently transformed by new world animals (horses) into this new “Comanche” plains culture. This book went a long way into showing how what we now understand as static and inevitable history was at their contemporary time fluid and contestable. Contrary to the image of perpetually victimized and marginalized American tribes we have today, this book shows how formidable, terrifying and unbeatable these amerindians were to Spanish, Mexicans and Americans for centuries. The story becomes much more a clash of cultures than of an inevitable domination of a weaker people by some superior culture. It resurrects Agency (both redeeming and damning) for a group of unique people that has subsequently been catalogued as vanquished people with little choice in how history proceeded. These were ferocious fighters and proud people who could not exist inside the vision European settlers had for the future of this land, and so eventually demanded the complete extermination of buffalo and removal of all Indians to reservations.

It also provides essential context for understanding how América continued to progress into the present. An exemplary quote that I felt offered a very useful puzzle piece for understanding race relations of the last century can be found in part 4, chapter 1: “Unlike the Spanish, the British-Americans were not accustomed to accepted hierarchies and legal caste or class distinctions, and this democracy actually worked ferociously against inferior peoples and cultures. Under Spanish law an Indio or negro could be enslaved while still retaining his essential humanity and certain rights before society. A people who insisted on equal, inalienable rights for all citizens, however could only subordinate non-citizens by making them into animals. Negro slaves were chattels, like livestock, under Anglo-American law. The Indians became, in effect, trespassing vermin on American soil. By the early nineteenth century, such policies had hardened into accepted law.” This type of insight can be found throughout this book for a range of topics.

Highly recommend. There is much more to say, but you will find it yourself in the book. Solid voice work also 👍

So intense

Very well narrated. A vey different and descriptive account of all the brutality and the quest for survival by the American Indian.

Story of more than just Comanches

The book started out slow but did get more interesting later. The here was a lot about all Native tribes not just Comanches. For those wanting a good story about how the Native Americans lived it is a good reference.

The timeline

I like the way it was put into perspective. And the different parts of America made more sense. you hear the stories but doesn't mean much when you can't put him in perspective that the timeline