The changes in
the environment of the Comanches came about with the expansion of civilisations,
both internally and externally.
The first social
change that affected the Comanche people was the growth of the group itself The
Comanches were originally nomads who wandered the plains in search of their
food but the group got so large that they eventually had to stay in one
place. This meant they became herders
and farmers.
It was not until
much later that the next big change came about. As the Comanches reached the
height of their power they began to clash with the Americans whom were trying
to move westward. However, the Americans did not meet the full might of the
Comanches famed military. This was because the Comanches were considerably
weakened by Smallpox and other U.S. diseases.
The economic
change that affected the Comanche people is one that affects every great
civilisation on earth: numbers. By the end of the 1840’s there were too many
Indians, herding too many horses, hunting too many buffalo on too small a land
area. As the numbers of buffalo declined so did the life blood of the Comanche
people.
The nail in the
coffin came in the late 1800’s as white buffalo hunters poured onto the plains because
of a new railway system making it easier to access the plains. In the space of
a few months 3.3 million buffalo were killed.
The downhill
spiral of the Comanche people had come to a stop as the once great Comanche
Empire was forced to live on small Indian reserves
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