Editing Comanche (section)

{{short description|Plains Native North American tribe}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Comanche<br />{{lang|com|Nʉmʉnʉʉ}}
| image            = 
| caption          = Flag of the Comanche Nation<ref name=oia>{{cite web|url= http://www.ok.gov/oiac/documents/2011.FINAL.WEB.pdf |title= 2011 Oklahoma Indian Nations Pocket Pictorial Directory |website= Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission |date= November 2011 |access-date= January 2, 2012 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120424052416/http://www.ok.gov/oiac/documents/2011.FINAL.WEB.pdf |archive-date= April 24, 2012 }}</ref>
| population       = 17,000 enrolled Comanche Nation (2021),<ref name=about>{{cite web |title=About Us |url=https://comanchenation.com/our-nation/about-us |website=Comanche Nation |access-date=23 December 2021}}</ref><br/>28,193 self-identified, US census (2020)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Distribution of American Indian tribes: Comanche People in the US |url=https://www.statimetric.com/us-ethnicity/American_Indian_tribes_Comanche}}</ref>
| popplace         = [[United States]] ([[Oklahoma]], [[Texas]], [[New Mexico]])
| rels             = [[Native American Church]], [[Christianity]], traditional tribal religion
| langs            = [[English language|English]], [[Comanche language|Comanche]]
| related          = [[Shoshone]], [[Timbisha]], and other [[Numic languages|Numic]] peoples
}}
The '''Comanche''' {{IPAc-en|k|ə|ˈ|m|æ|n|tʃ|i}} or '''Nʉmʉnʉʉ''' ({{langx|com|Nʉmʉnʉʉ}}, "the people"<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|title=Home &#124; Comanche Nation|url=https://comanchenation.com/|access-date=2022-08-20|website=comanchenation.com}}</ref>) is a [[Tribe (Native American)|Native American tribe]] from the [[Great Plains|Southern Plains]] of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the [[List of federally recognized tribes in the United States|federally recognized]] '''Comanche Nation''', headquartered in [[Lawton, Oklahoma]].<ref name="oia"/>

The [[Comanche language]] is a [[Numic languages|Numic]] language of the [[Uto-Aztecan languages|Uto-Aztecan]] family. Originally, it was a [[Shoshoni language|Shoshoni]] dialect, but diverged and became a separate language.<ref>Jean Ormsbee Charney. ''A Grammar of Comanche''. (Nebraska, 1993). Pages 1–2.</ref> The Comanche were once part of the [[Shoshone]] people of the [[Great Basin]].<ref name="ohs">{{cite web |last1=Kavanagh |first1=Thomas W. |title=Comanche (tribe) |url=https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=CO033 |website=The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture |publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society |access-date=23 December 2021}}</ref>

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Comanche lived in most of present-day northwestern [[Texas]] and adjacent areas in eastern [[New Mexico]], southeastern [[Colorado]], southwestern [[Kansas]], and western [[Oklahoma]]. Spanish colonists and later Mexicans called their historical territory ''[[Comancheria|Comanchería]]''.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Comanche practiced a [[nomad]]ic [[horse culture]] and hunted, particularly bison. They traded with neighboring Native American peoples, and [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish]], [[French colonization of the Americas|French]], and American colonists and settlers.

As European Americans encroached on their territory, the Comanche waged war on the settlers and raided their settlements, as well as those of neighboring Native American tribes.<ref>Fowles, Severin, Arterberry, Lindsay Montgomery, Atherton, Heather (2017), "Comanche New Mexico: The Eighteenth Century", in ''New Mexico and the Pimeria Alta'', Boulder: University Press of Colorado, pp. 158–160. Downloaded from [[JSTOR]].</ref> They took with them captives from other tribes during warfare, using them as [[Slavery among Native Americans in the United States|slaves]], selling them to the Spanish and (later) to [[Mexico|Mexican]] settlers, or adopting them into their tribe.<ref name=ohs/> Thousands of captives from raids on Spanish, Mexican, and American settlers were assimilated into Comanche society.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Marez, Curtis |title= Signifying Spain, Becoming Comanche, Making Mexicans: Indian Captivity and the History of Chicana/o Popular Performance |journal= American Quarterly |date= June 2001 |volume= 53 |issue = 2 |pages= 267–307 |doi= 10.1353/aq.2001.0018 |s2cid= 144608670}}</ref> At their peak, the Comanche language was the [[lingua franca]] of the Great Plains region.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hämäläinen |first1=Pekka |title=The Comanche Empire |date=January 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=NewHaven and London |isbn=978-0-300-15117-6 |page=171}}</ref>

Diseases, destruction of the buffalo herds, and territory loss forced most Comanches onto [[Indian reservation|reservations]] in [[Indian Territory]] by the late 1870s.<ref name=ohs/>

In the 21st century, the Comanche Nation has 17,000 enrolled citizens, around 7,000 of whom reside in tribal jurisdictional areas around Lawton, [[Fort Sill]], and the surrounding areas of southwestern Oklahoma.<ref name=about/> The Comanche Homecoming Annual Dance takes place in mid-July in [[Walters, Oklahoma]].<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://www.comanchenation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=983%3Acomanche-homecoming-dance&catid=34%3Afront-page-scroller&Itemid=1 |title= The Homecoming Dance |website= Comanche Nation official website |access-date= 2017-07-11}}</ref>