For almost two centuries the Comanche helped shape the history of the American Southwest. They were a powerful group of people who fought fiercely and successfully to defend their land and way of life, so powerful that they were able to deal with many outsiders as superiors and with all others as equals.
For most of the 18th and 19th cenuries the Comanche would dominate a vast region of the southern Plains. Indeed, the only Indians to threaten Comanche control seriously were the Apache, and they occupied the region for only a short time. The Comanche drove the Apache from the Plains and kept invaders, non-Indians and Indians alike, out of their land for almost 200 years. Their domination of most of what is now central and west Texas, eastern New Mexico, southeasten Colorado, southwestern Kansas, and all of western Oklahoma was so complete that until 1875 all of this land was known simply as the Comancheria, the land of the Comanche.
Foreign powers that entered the region had to contend with the Comanche as equals. In the 18th century both the French and Spanish sought their friendship. These Europeans were never able to occupy the region and penetrated it only with the grudging permission of the Comanche. The Mexicans and Texans who came afterward would also be unable to conquer the Comanche and settle on the southern Plains. In the 19th century both the Mexicans and Americans sought to establish and maintain good relations with them. The Comancheria would remain a barrier to settlement by outsiders until late in the 19th century, and the Americans would gain control of it only after a long and bloody struggle..
In the years before the Spanish came to North America the Comanche were mountain people, living in what are now the states of Wyoming and Montana. Little is known of their history before 1705, when they were first mentioned by the Spanish. The Comanche have no written language and preserved their history only in the memories of their people.. The Comanche still remember that long ago their ancestors were part of a larger group know as the Shoshone or the Snake People. They lived in the mountains of Wyoming and Montana north of the Arkansas River. They all spoke the same language, and archaeological evidence suggests that they lived in much the same way and hunted and camped in the same general area. Additional confirmation comes from the sign language of the Plains Indians. There were many different peoples on the Great Plains, and they spoke a number of different languages. In order to communicate with one another, the Plains Indians developed a nonspoken language made up of hand gestures. The people who became the Comanche were referred to in the sign language of the Plains with a wiggling hand gesture that represented the movement of a snake. The Comanche never completely shed their mountain name and were sometimes called the Snake People in word and in sign..
A story about the separation also begins with two Shoshone bands camping and hunting together. During one of their combined hunts a bear was killed. Two hunters, one from each of the different bands, claimed to have shot the animal. Both bands claimed the bear carcass, and neither group was willing to share the meat. Both sides became angry. The dispute over the bear became so heated that the people decided that they could not stay together any longer. One group went north the other group went south. Perhaps there is some truth in all of these stories. The movement south did not take place all at once..