The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. Gwynne's Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. This is cutting-edge history, drawing not only on original research in extensive primary documents but also on theoretical perspeĮmpire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American Historyįinalist for the Pulitzer Prize In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all. In clear language and detail, Betty considers a number of aspects of Comanche life - pastoralism, migration and nomadism, economics and trade, and warfare - and how these developed along kinship lines. This account analyzes the formation of clans, the hierarchy in family and generational relationships, and ancestor worship and related religious ceremonies. He details the kinship patterns that underlay all social organization and behavior among the Comanches and uses these insights to explain the way Comanches lived and interacted with Europeans. In Comanche Society, Gerald Betty develops an exciting perspective on the driving force of Comanche life: kinship. More recent studies of the Comanches have focused on adaptation and persistence in Comanche lifestyles and on their political organization and language-based alliances. Once called the Lords of the Plains, the Comanches were long portrayed as marauding raiders who capitalized on the Spanish introduction of horses to raise their people out of primitive poverty through bison hunting and fierce warfare.
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