Penateka Comanches

The Penateka, or “honey eaters,” were the southernmost band of Comanches, ranging from the Edwards Plateau to the beginnings of central Texas rivers. As nomads, they followed migrating buffalo and depended on them for food, clothing, and shelter, while also relying on horses and becoming unmatched in horsemanship. A major Comanche trail passed through the Camp Verde area, and settlement west of here was avoided because of fear of the Penatekas. By the 1840s, Texas Rangers had some success against the Comanches, and in 1855 the U.S. Army’s Second Cavalry reduced raiding in the area with outposts at Camp Verde and Camp Ives in Kerr County. Some Penateka Comanches had been moved a year earlier to a reservation in what is now Throckmorton County, and the group was later moved to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. Other Penatekas continued to raid the county sporadically through the 1870s. After the Red River War of 1874-75, the Comanches were forced onto a reservation established by the 1867 Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek. Reservation life changed the entire societal structure of the formerly nomadic Comanches. In 1901, the reservation was broken up into allotments, and as many moved away in the following years, the group dispersed. In the 1960s, the Comanches worked to rebuild their society, and today they are united by common culture across geographic divides.

Texas · United States