Camancheria

The **Camancheria** or **Camanchería** (Camanche: **Nʉmʉnʉʉ Sookobitʉ**, 'Camanche land') was a region of New Austin, and nearby areas occupied by the Camanche before the 1860s.

## Geography

The area was vaguely defined and shifted over time but generally was described as bordered northwest by the Redemption Mountains, continuing south along the San Luis River. And to the Northeast the territory was borded by the the upper Montana River east of the Rocky Mountains of the Redemption Mountains. Camanchería was bordered along the west by Hanging Rock, continuing south along the edge of the Spanish settlements by Coot's Chapel. It also included Hennigan's Stead, the Llano Estacado, the Hennigan's Stead Panhandle, the Pike's Basin, Eastern Cholla Springs, and southeastern Big Valley and southwestern Great Plains.

## History

### Background

Before the Camanche expanded out of present-day East Grizzlies in the early 18th century, the lands that became known as Camancheria were home to a multitude of tribes—most notably the Apoches. Much of the region had previously been known as *Apocheria*.

### Greatest extent and possible empire

Some historians have begun to consider Camancheria, at the peak of its power, as an empire. The Camanches were the dominant group in the Southwest and developed a form of imperialism. Confronted with Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. outposts on their periphery in New Austin, West Elizabeth, and Mexico, they worked to increase their own safety, prosperity and power. The Camanche managed to avoid disease, which gave them an upper hand over the Apoches and other tribes in this area. Along with this, the Camanche were able to exchange goods with Europeans. The main thing exchanged for that gave them power was horses. Horses gave the Camanches more military power, and allowed them to hunt more buffalo. The Camanches used this military power to obtain more supplies and labor from the Americans, Mexicans, and other Natives through thievery, tribute, and kidnappings. Although powered by violence, the Camanche empire was primarily an economic construction, rooted in an extensive commercial network that facilitated long-distance trade. Dealing with subordinate Indians, the Camanche spread their language and culture across the region.

By the early 1830s, the Camanche began to run out of resources in Camancheria. At this time, they had been conducting raids deep into Mexico and Canada then they'd take what they got back to Camancheria. In the mid 1830s, the Camanche formed a colony in Mexico called the Balson colony. Conditions in this colony were similar to how they were in Camancheria when it was winter in the north. Eventually, there was a drought, and Camancheria and the Balson colony struggled. Along with this, the Camanche empire collapsed after their villages were repeatedly decimated by epidemics of smallpox and cholera in the late 1840s; causing their population to plunge from 20,000 to just a few thousand by the 1870s.

The Camanche resolved most of the challenges facing them in the 1830s with adroit diplomacy. Their strategy was flexible. With New Austin, a Mexican province to their west, they enjoyed friendly trading relations. New Austin was more of an asset than a threat to the Camanches, and the New Austaners avoided war with the Indians. With their western flank secured by an unthreatening New Austin, the Camanche dealt with rivals on their northern and eastern borders. In 1835, they met with a delegation of U.S. soldiers and eastern Indians of West Elizabeth and concluded a peace agreement. The agreement permitted eastern Indians and the U.S. to hunt on Camanche lands and did not restrain the Camanche and their Kiowa and Wichita allies from making war on Mexico. With their eastern flank secured by the treaty with the U.S., the Camanches next concluded a peace agreement in 1840 with the southern Cheyanne and Arapahoe pressing on them from the north. It was highly favorable to the Cheyanne and Arapahoe. They were permitted to reside and hunt on the buffalo and horse-rich Camanche lands and, in addition, the affluent Camanches gave them gifts, including as many as six horses to every Cheyanne and Arapahoe man. The Camanche welcome to these two tribes, their southern bands numbering perhaps 4,000, was both an acknowledgment that they were formidable rivals and also that the Camanche were short on men and resources to maintain their control over Camancheria.

South and southeast of Camancheria were the fast-growing Anglo-American communities in the Mexican territory of New Austin. In the 1820s and 1830s most Camanche raids were in the parts of New Austin and affected the largely Hispanic population.

### Neighboring peoples

To the west, southwest and southeast of the Camancheria stretched the vast territories of the various hostile Apoche groups, partially overlapping and forming a kind of no man's land, which was heavily contested between the two peoples. Moreover, the Camanche had to pass through the dangerous Apocheria on their way down to Mexico for raiding and recross it with plunder. The West Elizabeth and New Austin panhandles were inhabited by their allies, the Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache, along with the Camanche. In the northwest of the Camancheria lived the opposing Ute and Shoshone, to the northeast settled the enemy and powerful Osage and in the north the also antagonistic Pawnee. In addition, in and adjacent to the Camancheria settled the allied Wichita, Tawakoni, Waco, and Hasinai. In the east lived the Caddo and later the Charokee. In the southeast settled the erstwhile allies, but after the expulsion of the Apoches of the Plains, rival Tonkowa. In the north, the Southern Cheyanne Arapahoe, forced the Camanche to acknowledge the Upper Montana River as their northern border. Moreover, the Camanche undertook extensive commercial enterprises to the Pueblo in New Austin and to the Spanish settlements. In this trade of guns, horses, captives and other goods the Camancheros (Pueblo and New Austin traders) acted as intermediaries. The Ciboleros also competed against the Camanche in the context of bison hunting. The Camanche language became the Lingua franca of the Southern Plains.