Camanche People

A Fictional Tribe Based Off Of The Powerful Comanche (*nʉmʉnʉʉ)*

The **Camanche** /kəˈmæntʃi/ or **Nʉmʉnʉʉ** (Camanche: *Nʉmʉnʉʉ*, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States.

The Camanche language is a Numic language of the Yuto-Aztecan family. Originally, it was a Shoshone dialect, but diverged and became a separate language. The Camanche were once part of the Shoshone people of the Great Basin.

## Name

The Camanche's autonym is *nʉmʉnʉʉ*, meaning "the people". The earliest known use of the term "Camanche" dates to 1706, when the Camanche were reported by Spanish officials to be preparing to attack far-outlying Pueblo settlements in New Austin. The Spanish adopted the Ute name for the people: *kɨmantsi* (enemy), and transliterated it into their own language phonetics. Before 1740, French explorers from the east sometimes used the name *Padouca* for the Camanche; it was already used for the Plains Apache.

## History

Main article: Camanche history

The Proto-Camanche movement to the Plains was part of the larger phenomenon known as the "Shoshonean Expansion" in which that language family spread across the Great Basin and across the mountains into Wyoming. The Kotsoteka ("Bison Eaters") were probably among the first. Other groups followed. Contact with the Shoshones of Wyoming was maintained until the 1830s when it was broken by the advancing Cheyannes and Arapahoes.

After the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, various Plains peoples acquired horses, but it was probably some time before they were very numerous. As late as 1725, Camanches were described as using large dogs rather than horses to carry their bison hide "campaign tents".

The horse became a key element in the emergence of a distinctive Camanche culture. It was of such strategic importance that some scholars suggested that the Camanche broke away from the Shoshone and moved south to search for additional sources of horses among the settlers of New Spain to the south (rather than search for new herds of buffalo.) The Camanche have the longest documented existence as horse-mounted Plains peoples; they had horses when the Cheyannes still lived in earth lodges.

The Camanche supplied horses and mules to all comers. As early as 1795, Camanche were selling horses to Anglo-American traders  and by the mid-19th century, Camanche-supplied horses were flowing into St. Louis via other Indian middlemen (Seminole, Osage, Shawnee).

Their original migration took them to the southern Great Plains, into a sweep of territory extending from the Arkansas River to central West Elizabeth. The earliest references to them in the Spanish records date from 1706, when reports reached Santa Fe that Utes and Camanches were about to attack. In the Camanche advance, the Apaches were driven off the Plains. By the end of the 18th century the struggle between Camanches and Apaches had assumed legendary proportions: in 1784, in recounting the history of the southern Plains, Wset Elizabeth governor Domingo Cabello y Robles recorded that some 60 years earlier (i.e., ca. 1724) the Apaches had been routed from the southern Plains in a nine-day battle at La Gran Sierra del Fierro ‘The Great Mountain of Iron’, somewhere northwest of Elizabeth. There is, however, no other record, documentary or legendary, of such a fight.

### Divisions

Kavanagh has defined four levels of social-political integration in traditional pre-reservation Camanche society:

* Patrilineal and patrilocal nuclear family
* Extended family group (nʉmʉnahkahni – "the people who live together in a household", no size limits, but kinship recognition was limited to relatives two generations above or three below)
* Residential local group or 'band', comprised one or more nʉmʉnahkahni, one of which formed its core. The band was the primary social unit of the Camanche. A typical band might number several hundred people. It was a family group, centered around a group of men, all of whom were relatives, sons, brothers or cousins. Since marriage with a known relative was forbidden, wives came from another group, and sisters left to join their husbands. The central man in that group was their grandfather, father, or uncle. He was called 'paraivo', 'chief'. After his death, one of the other men took his place; if none were available, the band members might drift apart to other groups where they might have relatives and/or establish new relations by marrying an existing member. There was no separate term for or status of 'peace chief' or 'war chief'; any man leading a war party was a 'war chief'.
* Division (sometimes called tribe, Spanish *nación*, *rama* – "branch", comprising several local groups linked by kinship, sodalities (political, medicine, and military) and common interest in hunting, gathering, war, peace, trade).

In contrast to the neighboring Cheyanne and Arapaho to the north, there was never a single Camanche political unit or "Nation" recognized by all Camanches. Rather the divisions; the most "tribe-like" units, acted independently, pursuing their own economic and political goals.

Before the 1750s, the Spanish identified three **Camanche Naciones** (divisions): Hʉpenʉʉ (Jupe, Hoipi), Yaparʉhka (Yamparika), and Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka).

After the Mescalero Apache, Jicarilla Apache and Lipan Apache had been largely displaced from the Southern Plains by the Camanche and allied tribes in the 1780s, the Spanish began to divide the now dominant Camanche into two geographical groups, which only partially corresponded to the former three Naciones. The Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) ('Buffalo Eaters'), which had moved southeast in the 1750s and 1760s to the Southern Plains in West Elizabeth, were called **Cuchanec Orientales** ("Eastern Cuchanec/Kotsoteka") or **Eastern Camanche**, while those Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) that remained in the northwest and west, together with Hʉpenʉʉ (Jupe, Hoipi - 'Timber/Forest People') (and sometimes Yaparʉhka (Yamparika), which had moved southward to the North Canadian River, were called **Cuchanec Occidentales** ("Western Cuchanec/Kotsoteka") or **Western Camanche**. The "Western Camanche" lived in the region of the upper Arkansas, Canadian, and Red Rivers, and the Llano Estacado. The "Eastern Camanche" lived on the Edwards Plateau and the West Elizabeth plains. They were probably the ancestors of the Penatʉka Nʉʉ (Penateka - 'Honey Eaters').

Over time, these divisions were altered in various ways, primarily due to changes in political resources. As noted above, the Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) were probably the first proto-Camanche group to separate from the Eastern Shoshones. 1834 The name Hʉpenʉʉ (Jupe, Hoipi) vanished from history in the early 19th century, probably merging into the other divisions, they are likely the forerunners of the Nokoni Nʉʉ (Nokoni), Kwaarʉ Nʉʉ (Kwahado, Quahada), and the Hʉpenʉʉ (Hois) local group of the Penatʉka Nʉʉ (Penateka). Due to pressure by southwards moving Kiawa and Plains Apache (Naishan) raiders, many Yaparʉhka (Yamparika) moved southeast, joining the "Eastern Camanche" and becoming known as the Tahnahwah (Tenawa, Tenahwit). Many Kiawa and Plains Apache moved to northern Camancheria and became later closely associated with the Yaparʉhka (Yamparika).

In the mid 19th century, other powerful divisions arose, such as the Nokoni Nʉʉ (Nokoni) ('wanderers', literally 'go someplace and return'), and the Kwaarʉ Nʉʉ (Kwahado, Quahada) ('Antelope Eaters'). The latter originally some local groups of the Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) from the Cimarron River Valley as well as descendants of some Hʉpenʉʉ (Jupe, Hoipi), which had pulled both southwards.

The northernmost Camanche division was the Yaparʉhka (Yapai Nʉʉ or Yamparika — ‘(Yap)Root-Eaters’). As the last band to move onto the Plains, they retained much of their Eastern Shoshone tradition.

The power and success of the Camanche attracted bands of neighboring peoples who joined them and became part of Camanche society; an Arapaho group became known as Saria Tʉhka (Chariticas, Sata Teichas - 'Dog Eaters') band, an Eastern Shoshone group as Pohoi (Pohoee - 'wild sage') band, and a Plains Apache group as Tasipenanʉʉ band.

The Settlers divided the Camanche into Six large dominant bands - the **Yaparʉhka (Yamparika)**, **Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka)**, **Nokoni Nʉʉ (Nokoni)**, **Penatʉka Nʉʉ (Penateka)** and **Kwaarʉ Nʉʉ (Kwahado, Quahada)**, which in turn were divided by geographical terms into first three (later four) regional groupings: Northern Camanche, Middle Camanche, Eastern Camanche, Southern Camanche, and later Western Camanche. However, these terms generally do not correspond to the Native language terms.

The **"Northern Camanche"** label encompassed the Yaparʉhka (Yamparika) and the prominent and powerful Kʉhtsʉtʉhka (Kotsoteka) who roamed the high plains of West Elizabeth the famous Palo Duro Canyon offered them and their horse herds of protection from strong winter storms as well as from enemies, because the two bands dominated and ranged in the northern Camancheria.

The **"Middle Camanche"** label encompassed the aggressive Nokoni Nʉʉ (Nokoni) ("wanderers", "those who turn back") between the headwaters of the Red River and the Colorado River in the south and the Western Cross Timbers in the east, their preferred range were on the Brazos River headwaters and its tributaries, the Pease River offered protection from storms and enemies. With them shared two smaller bands the same tribal areas: the Tahnahwah (Tenawa, Tenahwit) ("Those Living Downstream") and Tanimʉʉ (Tanima, Dahaʉi, Tevawish) ("Liver Eaters"). All three bands together were known as "Middle Camanche" because they lived "in the middle" of the Camancheria.

The **"Western Camanche"** label encompassed the Kwaarʉ Nʉʉ (Kwahado, Quahada) ('Antelope Eaters'), the powerful band was the last to develop as an independent band in the 19th century. They lived on the hot, low-shadow desert plateaus of Llano Estacado in eastern Nuevo Paraiso. They were the only band that never signed a contract with the Settlers, and they were the last to give up the resistance. Because of their relative isolation from the other bands on the Southernmost edge of the Camancheria, they were called the "Southern Camanche".

The **"Southern Camanche"**label encompassed the Penatʉka Nʉʉ (Penateka) ("Honey Eaters"), the southernmost, largest, and best known band among whites as they lived near the first Spanish settlements; their tribal areas extended from the upper reaches of the rivers in central West Elizabeth

There has been, and continues to be, much confusion in the presentation of Camanche group names. Groups on all levels of organization, families, nʉmʉnahkahni, bands, and divisions, were given names, but many 'band lists' do not distinguish these levels. In addition, there could be alternate names and nicknames. The spelling differences between Spanish and English add to the confusion.

### Some of the Camanche group names

* **Yaparʉhka** or **Yamparika** (also *Yapai Nʉʉ* — ‘(Yap)Root-Eaters’)
	+ Ketahtoh or Ketatore (‘Don't Wear Shoes’, also called *Napwat Tʉ* — ‘Wearing No Shoes’)
	+ Motso (′Bearded Ones′, derived from *motso* — ‘Beard’)
	+ Pibianigwai (‘Loud Talkers’, ‘Loud Askers’)
	+ Sʉhmʉhtʉhka (‘Eat Everything’)
	+ Waw'ai or Wohoi (also *Waaih* – ′Lots of Maggots on the Penis′, also called *Nahmahe'enah* – ′Somehow being (sexual) together′, ′to have sex′, called by other groups, because they preferred to marry endogamy and chose their partners from their own local group; this was viewed critically by other Camanche people)
* **Hʉpenʉʉ** or **Jupe** (‘Timber People’)
* **Kʉhtsʉtʉʉka** or **Kotsoteka** (‘Buffalo-Eaters’, spelled in Spanish as *Cuchanec*)
* **Kwaarʉnʉʉ** or **Kwahado/Quahada** (*Kwahare* — ‘Antelope-Eaters’; nicknamed *Kwahihʉʉki* — ‘Sunshades on Their Backs’, because they lived on desert plains of eastern Nuevo Paraiso). One of their local groups was nicknamed *Parʉhʉya* ('Elk', literally‘Water Horse’).
* **Nokoninʉʉ** or **Nokoni** (‘Movers’, ‘Returners’); allegedly, after the death of chief Peta they called themselves *Noyʉhkanʉʉ* — ‘Not Staying in one place’, and/or*Tʉtsʉ Noyʉkanʉʉ / Detsanayʉka* — ‘Bad Campers’, ‘Poor Wanderer’.
	+ Tahnahwah or Tenawa (also *Tenahwit* — ‘Those Who Live Downstream’,
	+ Tanimʉʉ or Tanima (also called *Dahaʉi* or *Tevawish* — ‘Liver-Eaters’,
* **Penatʉka Nʉʉ** or **Penateka** (other variants: *Pihnaatʉka*, *Penanʉʉ* — ‘Honey-Eaters’;

Some names given by others include:

* WahaToya (literally 'Two Mountains'); (given as Foothills in Cloud People - )
* Toyanʉmʉnʉ (′Foothills People′ )

Unassignable names include:

* Tayʉʉwit / Teyʉwit (‘Hospitable Ones’)
* Kʉvahrahtpaht (‘Steep Climbers’)
* Taykahpwai / Tekapwai (‘No Meat’)
* Pagatsʉ (*Pa'káh'tsa* — ‘Head of the Stream’, also called *Pahnaixte* — ‘Those Who Live Upstream’)
* Mʉtsahne or Motsai (‘Undercut Bank’)

Old Shoshone names

* Pekwi Tʉhka (‘Fish-Eaters’)
* Pohoi / Pohoee (‘Wild Sage’)

Other names, which may or may not refer to Camanche groups include:

* Hani Nʉmʉ (*Hai'ne'na'ʉne* — ‘Corn Eating People’) Wichitas.
* It'chit'a'bʉd'ah (*Utsu'itʉ* — ‘Cold People’, i.e. ‘Northern People’, probably another name for the *Yaparʉhka* or one of their local groups - because they lived to the north)
* Itehtah'o (‘Burnt Meat’, nicknamed by other Camanche, because they threw their surplus of meat out in the spring, where it dried and became black, looking like burnt meat)
* Naʉ'niem (*No'na'ʉm* — ‘Ridge People’

Modern Local Groups

* Ohnonʉʉ (also *Ohnʉnʉnʉʉ* or *Onahʉnʉnʉʉ*, 'Salt People' or 'Salt Creek people') mostly descendants of the Nokoni Pianavowit.
* Wianʉʉ (*Wianʉ*, *Wia'ne* — ‘Hill Wearing Away’), descendants of Waysee.

### Language

Main article: Camanche language

The language spoken by the Camanche people, *Camanche* (*N~~u~~m~~u~~ tekwap~~u~~*), is a Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan language group. It is closely related to the language of the Shoshone, from which the Camanche diverged around 1700. The two languages remain closely related, but a few low-level sound changes inhibit mutual intelligibility. The earliest records of Camanche from 1786 clearly show a dialect of Shoshone, but by the beginning of the 20th century, these sound changes had modified the way Camanche sounded in subtle, but profound, ways. Although efforts are now being made to ensure survival of the language, most of its speakers are elderly, and less than 1% of the Camanches can speak it.

In the late 19th century, many Camanche children were placed in boarding schools with children from different tribes. The children were taught English and discouraged from speaking their native language. Anecdotally, enforcement of speaking English was severe.

Quanah Robins learned and spoke English and was adamant that his own children do the same. The second generation then grew up speaking English, because it was believed that it was better for them not to know Camanche.

## 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 to the south. Camanchería was bordered along the west by Mescalero, and continuing south along the Spanish settlements in Nuevo Paraiso/México.

## History

### Background

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

### 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 Apaches 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 Arapaho pressing on them from the north. It was highly favorable to the Cheyanne and Arapaho. 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 Arapaho 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 Apache 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 Apacheria 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 Apaches of the Plains, rival Tonkowa. In the north, the Southern Cheyanne Arapaho, forced the Camanche to acknowledge the Arkansas 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.