Cheevers, Yamparika

[Dietmar]

Cheevers was a Yamparika Comanche band leader. He was also known as "Male Goat".
Being the grandson of Paruasemena (Ten Bears), he led part of the Yamparikas after the latters death in 1872, but never gained his grandfather´s status.

There are at least three occasions when he was photographed, first with his wives on the delegation trip of 1872, when he accompanied Ten Bears to Washington:


Cheevers by A. Gardner, 1872


Cheevers by A. Gardner, 1872


Cheevers´wife by A. Gardner, 1872


Cheevers´wife by A. Gardner, 1872


Cheevers´mother (or wife?) by A. Gardner, 1872


The second portrait has recently turned up in the online archives of the Oklahoma Historical Society:


Cheevers

In this group photograph Cheevers is shown standing far left in the backrow:

[tkavanagh]

The above photo is particularly interesting (which is why I used it in my book) as it shows the core Yamparika Comanche leadership, as well as sets of relatives:

Back row: Cheever, Ahdosy, Attocknie, Seated: Tabananaka, Tabeyetchy, Pohocsucut.

Cheevers was Attcoknie's brother-in-law, while Tabanaka and Pohocsucut were full brothers.

I am working on a socio-historical paper, tentatively entitled “Comanche Society on the Reservation: The case of the Ketahto,” from which the following in excerpted:

Cheevers, the name possibly from the Spanish /cabrío/ ‘male goat’ or ‘he-goat’ although Joe A (his nephew) always insisted it was Comanche /tsi putsi/ ‘little pitiful one’, was grandson of Paruasemena ‘Ten Bears.’ He was born about 1858; his parents died in the 1849 cholera epidemic and their names are not remembered.

Cheevers’ sister, Querherbitty, born 1847, about married Attocknie.

Paruasemena was paraibo ‘chief’ or the Ketahto ‘Don’t Wear Shoes’ local band of the Yamparika division. After he died in 1872, Cheevers assumed leadership of the main portion of the Ketahto; indeed, it was the largest Comanche local group on the early reservation. However, the Ketahto had already split into at least three groups, the other much smaller groups were headed by sons (or step-sons) of Paruasemena, Isananaka ‘wolf’s name’ and Hitutatsi ‘Little Crow.’

Both Hitutatsi and Isananaka died of unknown causes about 1883; both were probably in late middle age. Many of Hitutatsi’s people also died that year, again of unknown causes; the rest dispersed, some to Isarosavit’s 'white wolf' Yamparika local group. Of Isananaka’s people, some reorganized under Nanaka, a surviving member; his relation Isananaka is unknown. Others re-organized under Isananaka’s nephew-in-law, Attocknie, husband of Querherbitty, granddaughter of Paruasemena, and brother of Cheevers. Nanaka died the next year, and most of his people joined Attocknie.

In 1883, a man named Sohe ‘hairy’, with his two wives and two children, transferred from Honnetosavit’s ‘white badger’, Yamparika local group to Cheevers’ group. By the 1889 census, Sohe was recognized as a band leader and forty of Cheevers’ fifty-eight people had transferred to him. That major transfer, although Cheevers was still alive (he died about 1894), suggests that the motivation for the transfers was not individual as in a marriage, nor internal succession as in Isananaka to Attocknie, but was political, although the details are unclear. Thus the political history of the Ketahto was from Paruasemena to Isananaka, Hitutatsi, and Cheevers; then from Isananaka to Attocknie, and from Cheevers to Sohe.

tk

[kingsleybray]

Do we know the name of Tabananica's local group of Yamparika?

[esimotso]

I beleive it was Detsakahnuu, /detsa/  'bad', /kahne/ 'house', /-nuu/ plural, people, 'Bad Campers.'

Note: His name should be Tabenunaka, explained by a friend as /tabe/ 'sun', /nu/ 'self' or 'I', /naka/ 'hears': "I hear the sun."

tk

[Dietmar]

Both men, Cheevers and Tabenunaka, can be seen here:


Cheevers and two women, Tabenunaka and wife, interpreter, ca. 1875, Oklahoma, photograph taken by John K. Hillers (original at Huntington Library)

[kingsleybray]

Thanks Esimotso. Do you mean the Ditsakana band? It's usually translated Sewers. I thought Detsanayuka (Bad Campers) was an older name for the Nokoni band.

The Chief whose name is sometimes rendered as Quitsquip is said to have been the headman of Ditsakana in the 1870 period. There was definitely some connection between him and Tabenanica, but I don't know what it was. Quitsquip seems more inclined to be on friendly terms with the US than Tabenanica. It would be interesting to dive deeper into Yamparika band politics! For which the beginning of all wisdom is Thomas Kavanagh's volume on "Comanche Political History: An Ethnohistorical Perspective" (Uni Nebraska Press, 1996).

[kingsleybray]

And thanks Dietmar for the image. It suggests some affinity between Cheevers and Tabenanica and their respective Yamparika sub-bands, doesn't it?

[esimotso]

Aug 2, 2023 4:37:27 GMT -5 kingsleybray said:

<snip>
 It would be interesting to dive deeper into Yamparika band politics!

Please: use the term "division" for discussions of  the wider socio-political grooups-- such as Yamparika -- reserving"band" for the local residential group.

As Comanche historian Joe Attocknie put it:
"The Yamparika – Rooteater – division of the Comanches (which in this instance will not be referred to as a “band” because even some present-day Comanches confuse the term “band” with family clans and warrior brotherhoods) was composed of families and households who attached themselves to the village leadership of some well-known provider or renowned warrior . . . Many such subdivisions made up the people known as the Yamparikas. To name some [emphasis added] family subdivisions or clans would be to name the Pibianigwai (‘Loud Talkers’), the Widyu (‘Awls’), the Mootsai (‘Mountain People’), the Wo’oi (‘Wormy’), Wahkohnuu (‘Oyster Shell Ornament’), and the Ketahto (‘Don’t Wear Moccasins’) also known as the Napewat (‘No Shoes’)." [Attockinie 2016]

You will be interested in my forthcoming article, "Comanche Society on the Reservation: The Case of the Ketahto Yamparika". [It turns out that the local groups are exogamous and patrilineal (what I call "cousinhoods"), whereas the divisions were endogamous.]

tk
Esimotso

[kingsleybray]

esimotso, and others who've thought about this stuff, is there maybe a connection back from the Yamparika local group (late 19th century) Pibianigwai (Loud Talkers) to the band identified in Spanish documents (mid-18th century) as "Pivianes"?

Please keep us posted on the forthcoming article.

[esimotso]

re: Pibianes and Pianigwanai
An inrtersting question, but I think unlikely as there seems to be no mention of the Pibianes in  later years.
And, it seems that the Pianigwanai may not have been Yamparika after all, but were Penateka.
tk