Comanche Women | More BRUTAL than the Men

in 1840 Booker Webster watched as members of the commanche began wailing in despair he was a young Texan boy who had been kidnapped by the commanche a few seasons before he already understood a fair amount of their language several tribal leaders and many other commi were killed by the Texans while they met in Council an unspeakable betrayal the scream of the tribe became louder he watches the Warriors began to cut their hair it was sacred to them the women took knives and sliced themselves on their arms and legs legs as they cried they were mourning

but their sadness quickly turned to anger Bookers saw the commanche begin building fires and preparing their stakes and knives he was terrified other white captives over a dozen of them have been gathered for this purpose Booker was safe his kamanche mother had adopted him into her family she loved him and wouldn't let anyone hurt him but the others mostly women and children had a different fate they were tortured to death the Warriors the men had a reputation for the brutality by which they treated their victims pl's Warfare was always a fight to the death and

the rage triggered in a blood Feud made violence worse but this wasn't done by the Warriors these tortures were done by the women commanche women were even more cruel than the men welcome to dates and dead guys the life of kamanche women was vastly different than that of the men in many ways it was harder at least dayto day they lacked act the status of the Warriors but were essential to the survival of the tribal group nearly everything done outside of hunting war and weapon making in a kamanche camp was the responsibility of the women

they made all of the clothes and blankets as well as all the tools and housing it was said that a commanche woman could set up a TP in 15 minutes and when the time called for it they could take it down and pack it on Horseback in 5 as Nomads on the great ples they were constantly on the move and ready at a moment's notice when the men would hunt it was the job of the women to process the animal they took on the hard work of tanning the hides and drying the meat work that

was far more intensive when the Buffalo hides became more valuable in trade during the 1800s more work done meant more wealth for successful kamane men who often became polygamous keeping more wives was a luxury kamanche women were intensely practical the long hair so valued by the men held no special meaning to women so they cut it short it was more convenient and comfortable and as both Comanche men and women didn't bathe outside of purification rituals the short hair was helpful in limiting tick and lice they would paint themselves differently from the men too the men

commonly painted their faces black for war the color of death but the women made dyes of brighter colors like Reds and yellows the kamanche were small by the standards of the time it is often noted by European observers women were commonly under 5T tall and Men frequently under 56 but the commanche didn't make their name by being the largest and most powerful they made their name as Warrior warriors on Horseback although this Warfare was conducted by the men the women were also expert Riders and archers they had to be their role in tribal structure wasn't

to hunt or fight but the nature of plain's warfare meant theyd better be able to when kamansi camps were attacked by Europeans it was constantly written about that the women would fight just as fiercely as the men often times Texas Rangers or US military wouldn't even try to distinguish between them when they would attack a camp they fought to the death to defend def themselves and their families from attackers all members of pl's culture knew what it meant to be defeated or captured by an enemy so being captured wasn't an option at best a person

would be subjected to slavery abuse and humiliation but there are worse things commi women knew this when they would encourage the men to go on raids they would often return with their own prisoners and as in the opening of this video the women were the ones who dealt out the tortures in Camp not all captives would be killed women and children like Booker Webster would sometimes be adopted but that had its own risks boys were often treated well but the commanche women would often see girls especially older ones as Rivals establishing the pecking order was

cruel female captives if kept alive were often horribly abused two notable examples are Matilda lockart and Rachel plumber Matilda was captured when she was 14 in late 183 at that age for the kamanche she would be treated as an adult they would use her as a slave in 1840 the ptica kamanche Met Texan officials in a meeting in San Antonio the commanche were to bring with them as a sign of good faith all of their white captives they brought back Matilda lockart after a year in captivity she had been mutilated she was covered in scars

and her nose had been burnt off the heels of her feet had been burned to keep her from running all of this had been done by the women the commanche thought very little of this this was normal it was part of establishing their place in the tribal hierarchy but the system of hierarchy within the tribe was more open than one might expect a better example is Rachel plumber Rachel was captured in 1836 in the famous raid of Parker fort in Texas I detailed her capture in another video if you want to hear that story I'll

link it in the video description at the time of her capture Rachel was pregnant in addition to the tortur of the men the women beat her regularly she mentioned later in her memoirs that during her entire duration with commanches she could not remember a time where she wasn't bruised and her skin wasn't raw not long after giving birth the kamanche killed her baby it was interfering with her work she was left depressed and hopeless she was ready to die one day she was being harassed by one of the women and was ordered to fetch a

tool for digging Roots Rachel refused in her memoirs she states quote having lived as long and indeed longer than life was desirable I determined to aggravate them to kill me end quote she was hoping to start a conflict serious enough that the kamanche would kill her at the refusal the Comanche woman ran at Rachel screaming and pushed her to the ground the two fought on the ground biting and scratching she saw a crowd of men Gather in a circle around them they began whooping and Howling as she battled The Other Woman at one point in

the fight Rachel was able to get hold of a buffalo bone she wrote quote I beat her over the head with it although expecting at every moment to feel a spear reach my heart of one of the Indians I was determined if they killed me to make a of her such yells as the Indians made around us being nearly all collected a Christian mind cannot conceive no one touched me I had her past hurting me and indeed nearly past breathing when she cried out for Mercy end quote as Rachel stood with a bloody Buffalo bone

over the kamane woman she couldn't believe that she wasn't dead why didn't the kamanche men kill her they didn't even take her away from the woman when the fight was over the men just dispersed they didn't even seem to care but the fighting wasn't over an older woman in the tribe then tried to establish herself over Rachel insulted by her fight with the other woman she ordered Rachel to gather straw so that she could be burned to death now having decided that she wanted to live Rachel again refused the old commanche woman started to Fire

and then the two fought viciously at one point both of them were badly burned as the woman tried to force Rachel into it again the men watched amused but they did nothing to stop them as they continued to fight they broke a lodge pole of one of the TPS Rachel again won and was summoned to the council House of the men the next morning she expected some sort of punishment but the Chiefs asked only that Rachel repair the lodge pole of the tee that she had broken in the fight she agreed so long as the

old woman was to help her she was baffled by the whole Affair what Rachel didn't understand was the custom of hierarchy among women in the tribe the men mostly ignored this aspect of the culture as the women were concerned allowing it to play out as it would naturally sometimes the fights even changed things for the better it let people know where they stood for Rachel after her first fight she actually washed the face of the woman who she had beaten she said that from that time forward the woman was remarkably friendly there is a part

of that I think a lot of people understand this custom set boundaries and determined how women of the tribe would treat each other but let me know in the comments have you ever had a fight that changed your relationship with someone for the better but Rachel's situation with the tribe was different than some others she was a slave kept for labor who would eventually be ransomed she had value to the tribe not every captive did and the women treated them far worse in 1840 Texans soldiers attacked and killed dozens of ptica kamanche at a meeting

between the two parties violence broke out because the Texans took the commanche chief's prisoner after they failed to bring with them to the meeting the white captives demanded by the Texans the surviving kamanche viewed this event the councel house fight as a betrayal Beyond Comprehension upon learning of the deaths of the Chiefs the distraught Warriors would cut off sections of their long sacred hair but the women would Express their despair more disturbingly commanche women would enter into their custom of mour Rights they would wail and cut themselves and their arms legs and breasts Booker Webster

the young boy captive who witnessed the event claimed that some would chop off their fingers and others were injured so severely that they died after they were done doing damage to themselves they looked to the prisoners that the Texans wanted returned and they decided it was time for Revenge as the commanche men gathered to form a war party against the Texans the women were left with the job of dispatching the white captives the women tortured them to death adult and child one by one they would mutilate them cutting and skinning them before burning them to

death in the fire for some it took hours for others days to them this was normal mutilation of the enemy was common practice on the planes it meant that you would be damaged going into the Afterlife to the kamanche their true tribal name was the Numa it meant the people anyone else didn't qualify they would have expected the same to happen to them under similar circumstances the kamanche men were brutal on the war path but in their attack and retreat they acted quickly in the camp the women had the time to enact their will upon

their enemies they enjoyed it and took trophies just as the kamanche men did for decades settlers on the frontier knew that if they were captured and survived to the camp things were not going to get better hard to imagine something more terrifying [Music]