"Indians in American-Mexican Relations Before ..." Topic

…the War of 1846

"Indian raids multiplied Mexico's problems, in the generation before her war with the United States, to a degree not generally realized today. They upset her agricultural, commercial, mineral, and ranch life over hundreds of thousands of square miles. Consequently, the country's capacity for defense declined at a time when centralism, clericalism, militarism, and American imperialism were debilitating the nation. The chief offending mountain tribes were Apache, Navajo, and Ute; and the most troublesome plains Indians were Comanche and Kiowa.

Developments on both sides of the Rio Grande in the middle 1830's encouraged these natives to make their incursions. Notable were the trade and amity treaties which United States and Texas commissioners celebrated with Comanches and Kiowas. These agreements raised the market for Mexican livestock, plunder, and captives,—a market already strong in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, and at Bent's Fort, Santa Fe, and Taos. Americans who entered Arizona and New Mexico joined Mexicans in buying similar staples from Apache raiders and in moving them into the same broad channels of western commerce. Mexico's swing to dictatorship in 1835 produced another encouragement for Indian raids,—namely, the government's policy of disarming the people except for bows, arrows, knives, lances, lariats,1 and a few old guns. Persistent squabbling between civil and military authorities also added to the domestic weakness. A third stimulant, particularly to revenge raids, was the resolve of border states to hire professional scalp hunters to scalp hostile natives.

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Armand

I did an articles back in the 1990-2000 called Our Place in the Sun. It covered warfare Amazon NG First Nations prior to the Europeans.one article covered the South-west North America.

Thanks… any chance to read them in the Net?…

Armand

If you have access to the Magweb content, they are in th Time Portal Passages. They and others are in it

Yes. It was the Comanche threat that prevented the development of Texas and New Mexico under the Spanish and led Mexico to invite the Austins into Texas. It took Colt's revolvers to do it, but the Anglo Texans finally were able to defeat the Comanche. Plus the population growth of Anglo Texans and their stubborn refusal to be driven off any land once they occupied it.

Thanks

Armand

Best book. "Empire of the Summer Moon".
There are those who object that the Comanches are portrayed as too savage. 🙄
Well, Whitey doesn't come across very well either.

There are several good books on the Comanche, and I agree that is one of the best.

As to savagery, I think the Comanche were an irresistible force and the Anglo Texans an immovable object. Colt gave the Texans the edge, but I think even without the revolvers they would have turned back the warriors in any case, though at far greater cost. The flood of families from the US into all of that land was decisive, and the Great Raid, spectacular as it was, showed that the Comanche had no staying power, at least not outside of the Great Plains.

The Texans would pursue any incursion, even if heavily outnumbered, and attack no matter the odds. The two cultures were very dissimilar in most ways, but each was as deadly as the other.

Empire of the Summer Moon". Fair to all sides. 👍

Thanks also…

Armand