The Comanches Poem by bobby beddoe

The Comanches
Fifteen thousand years ago, men stepped
Out of Europe, Asia, Africa, and traversed,
By land bridge, the Bearing Straight,
To the New World for primitives to migrate!
That drove their ancestors to better climate,
As if less human and more primate.
That was the last climate change
Of glacial ice covering the 52 mile range,
When men from Asia trekked north and did
The Siberian frozen land bridge.
Once the bridge sank into the Straight,
Amerindians were cut off from the Eurasia 'Gate'!
These predatory primitives crisscrossed
The continent by myriad routes - totally lost!
And sometimes slew each other in battle,
As Cain did Abel.
Carrying their infants and flint-tipped spears.
They lunched on woolly mammoth monsters for years;
Later, shivering in caves or igloo,
They gorged on half-cooked Caribou.
The most ancient human skull descriptions
Unearthed from limestone formations,
Are distinctly Homo-sapiens,
Not any different from present-day Amerindians.
Remains of Neanderthals or other Half-men
Have never been found - since Eden!
From ice age to wondering Coahuiltecan,
To the Shoshones of the Northern Basin;
Coahuiltecans survived and were absorbed
Into the Mexican-mestizos - tho rumored.
Proto-Comanches extended from
Wyoming to Texas. Hunting in freedom.
The Comanches called themselves - Nermurnuh.
Ever since they left the tundra,
Nermurnuh means 'People'.
'Twas that since cradle.
Tho the name may vary,
'Tis still Coahuiltecan hereditary!
Cultural inbreeding among
Separate bands and tribes sprung
Over millennia into hundreds
Of distinct and separate thoroughbreds!
Group languages developed independently,
Thus over th' centuries, evolved segmentally.
The dialect for Sioux and Comanches
Languages were complements of Shoshone's!
This treatise, in poem, is a dissertation
'Bout their collision with civilization,
Ever since their prehistoric beginning
To rein the Texas plains - their last dwelling.
The following verses re-creates
Their rise-and-fall, amid loves-and-hates!
Comanches believed in life after death;
And to prepare for a new beginning
Kin painted and dressed the corpse from toe-to-head,
Then sit kin up-right - in a place for the dead,
So long as the deceased faced the rising sun.
That is, if was a warrior injun.
For hunter-warriors struck down early
'Twas a common occurance - oft yearly;
But, quick loss of too many young men
Was doom for camp's old men, kids, and women.
B'cause without foe protection,
From band's meat hunters - meant destruction.
Exposure to the elements, hunger and hard labor,
Women at thirty-five were done for,
Men at forty - their lifespan was 'bout o'er,
They'd soon be pushing-up clover!
Like most Asian stock their hair, by the way, 7
Was long, straight and black, never gray.
Women oft'n died easily from child-birth,
And Twins, thought unnatural, were killed at birth,
Also, destroyed were the deformed,
But [most girl babies] were not harmed.
Whether gorging or starving,
Stocking food coffers were ongoing.
In the struggle for existence,
They developed healing techniques - for instance:
Could set simple fractures with good recovery,
Did rough surgery, though results did vary,
Suck out snake-bite venom,
And treat toothaches with tree fungus gum,
Made poultices, from cactus pear
And salves from animal fat-smear.
They had no government - 'cause needed none;
Therefore, no laws: Tyranny was their custom.
The Nerm warriors began to cherish
The horses they cared for - not punish;
But, doesn't mean they were not brutal
When necessary - well, maybe verbal.
But in war their stallions suffered mutilation,
Wounds, and sometimes - elimination!
Comanche children handled their
Paint or pinto ponies with great care.
Ever since they could leap astride,
Bareback, they explored the countryside.
By ten was taught to kill a bison calf,
While riding with spear, as dad had a good laugh!
Now, with the horse, the eighteenth century
Pioneers were in serious jeopardy,
The Comanche bands exploited their
New military advantage - both far and near
On enemy Amerindians
And Anglo-Americans:
A white migrant family from Virginia,
Came upon the bottoms of the Navasota.
Was beautiful oak-studded soil for corn;
Land to till, seed, farm, and make adorn;
Territory thick with wild game of all sort,
The ideal place to erect their stockade fort,
So the Parker clan, alone in the forestry
Region, except for Caddo and Comanche
Amerindians, of which they were unaware
That farmers presence disturbed Indians near there!
In the Spring of 1836 Santa Anna's best,
Heading to San Jacinto, few lager's bade to rest.
So the Parker Hardshell Baptists let them in,
In spite they might b' slyly scheming.
Back to planting, following that scary event,
Just b'yond th' sight o' th' Parker settlement,
Pioneers returned to their fields immediately
Upon receiving news ofthe Texan's victory!
Leaving a few men back at the fort:
Including John Parker, the patriarchal sort,
His sons Silas and Benjamin,
Samuel Frost and son were also in,
When a large party of mounted Indians,
Comanches, Kiowas, Wichitas, and Caddoans,
'Bout one hundred
According t' one female survivor stripped naked,
Tho' not killed - but confounded...,
Yes that, in addition to being further tortured
Pulled up to the front gate wanting
Fort's cow - amid Chief's war ranting;
Benjamin stepped outside the opened gate
Conferring briefly, said, 'No' to th' beef debate!
Silas, unarmed, stood by the gate just inside,
Suddenly, with loud whoops from outside,
Both were lanced and fell dead side-by-side
Was bloody melee, a rout. All dashed to hide.
Housemen and horsewomen poured in,
Killing both Frosts and John Parker Sr's. kin.
Cynthia Ann and John Parker Jr. - captured!
All the others out through the back and scattered;
Some rounded up others hid out to survive;
Meanwhile, th' warriors rode away with Silas' five,
Also Liz Kellogg, Rachel and James Plummer.
Running from th' fields, 'bout nine in number,
Farmers dropped hoes, each grabbed a gun,
But, too late, the enemy had vanished - none!
Lucky farmers; because were so few,
The savage horde would have killed them, too!
But the Amerindian saga still looked quite blight.
Of worst raids, many made on a moonlit night.
Charred rock chimneys symbolized rapt staves9
Of th' pioneers an' often marked their graves,
From Fredericksburg to Gatesville.7
Few moved into stockades to reside - still.
Raids continued on into the '60's
Around Lampasas, San Saba, Llano,
And Mason, also including Waco.
Amid previous peace talk failures last April,
'Twas uphill effort t' draw chiefs into council.
San Antonio -1840, March nineteen,
Texas leaders and soldiers - about umpteen,
Met with Comanche peace representatives.
Thirty-three of whom were special selective
From the Penateks band of chiefs, warriors,
And a few other tribal type characters.
Texas officials told th' Indians t' relinquish
Central Texas, return all captives - or perish;
And stop interfering with Texan incursions,
Also, avoid all white settlement expansions.
Thence, forc'd to move against their will,
From there the meeting spiraled down-hill!
At the Texan commissioners' demand
For captive Matilda Lockhart from the band.
Though she had assumed Camanche identity.
The Chiefs there needed the band's authority
T' have Lockhart immediately released.
Texans, failing t' savvy - tensions increased!
Texas soldiers entered the Council House,
Whereupon peace talks were sure to douse
If captives were not released.
All the while hostilities increased,
Therefore, Texans informed the Indian chiefs
That they were to be held as captive thiefs!
In response to that threat,
Clan became piqued to the edge - whet.
As Comanche chiefs attempted to bolt
Soldiers rushed in to stop the vile revolt
Texans and tribesmen in courtyard joined the melee
Not one Indian managed to flee;
Those not killed were later set free;
But, would they return? No guarantee!
In exchange for th r'lease of all white captives.
But revenge was certain by surviving relatives:
Thirty Comanche leaders, and warriors,
Were killed by Texas troopers,
As well as five women and children
Of the tribe, were eye-witness - written.
Council House Fight was never to be forgott'n!
And since, Comanches fore'er plott'n.
So the Comanches went on the warpath.
The Battle of Plum Creek was an aftermath:
Led by Buffalo Hump, the Penatekas
Retaliated by raiding deep into Texas.
The Penateka Comanches, August,1840,
Swept down th' Guadalupe valley,
And at Plum Creek, a San Marcos tributary,
Scouts spotted a long wagon train - no Calvary.
Encamped (near present Lockhart)on Plum Creek,
To take a breather for a week,
Under Chief Buffalo Hump,
Following a year-long raiding slump,
Killing settlers, stealing horses, plundering,
Burning settlements and scalping.
An army composed of Rangers,
Militias, and volunteers,
From Gonzales, Cuero, Victoria,
Goliad, Bastrop, Lavaca,
Seguin, and smaller villages
And others eager t' tangle with th' savages!
Under captains: Caldwell, Tumlinson,
Big Foot Wallace, and Burlinson.
All under General Felix Huston.
Huston arrived from Austin with his men
And pitched camp. While other forces came in
T' help mess up the enemies day - yeah, ruin.
For a total force of two hundred - all together.
At daylight, pickets reported a large number,
About 1,000 Indians were within a mile
Of an unprotected Conestoga column file;
Driving their 200 stolen horses and
Mules home, to add to their band's thousand.
But, by chance, savages had full view,
Of General Huston's few;
Buffalo Hump and warriors began encircling
With shields, lances, and arrows, some percing
The now mounted men, when Huston's yelling
"Charge! "was ordered with gallant fighting!
After the first assault,138 Indians - killed
The rest broke and ran, some badly wounded.
Following this defeat th' Texas frontier
Settlers, throughout 1841, lived without fear!
In 1859, as the Texas Plains
To the western mountains
Was being mapped by Commander Robert E. Lee
Of the 2nd Cavalry,
It caused the Comanches to raid.
B'cause they didn't like being betrayed.
So the Texas began raising an army
For Govern'r Sam Houston's frontier policy.
Starting In the fall of 1860,
Comanche Chief, Peta Nacona,
Took his wife, Cynthia Ann Parker,
T' a Comanche camp on th' Pease River:
Ranger Captain Sol Ross,
And Ranger Charles Goodnight, charged across
The river with the 2nd Cavalry
And creamed Nacona's band in battle rivalry,
Ross, while opposing the charge of foes,
How Nacona escaped, no one knows.
But, just as Ross took aim on a dirty,
Blanket, Goodnight screamed quite curtly,
"Don't shoot! There's a blue-eyed, blond hair
Girl hiding under there! "
Turned out to be Cynthia Ann Parker.
She was a white skin - not darker,
Also spoke in Comanche gibberish,
And could not understand English.
Captain Ross carried her to the Parker clan,
Said, "Caught this girl before she ran."
Parkers had to put her under guard
Due to her escape attempts regard
To go back to her Nacona.
She had two sons, her oldest, Quanah,
born in 1847, became the greatest
Comanche chief ever than any of the rest.
The Texans would eventually hear of him,
Fear him, and later - honor him!
The Last two wars with the Comanche
Took place at the Walls of Adobe.
Between 1000 Indians and 'Kit' Carson's
335 Cavalry, soldiers and volunteer persons.
And the last battle, tho not major,
Was Palo Duro Canyon - Sept.28,1874!
Lines above here depict a human story,
And ever since, all through history
Life, too often, is dire and tragic;
Current generations are all in a panic,
An' ill-equipped to fathom today's atrocities,
Other than pass judgment on its brutalities,
Generally by the use of a "Glock"
For daily routine news' terrifying shock!