Post by ouroboros on Feb 9, 2023 9:54:13 GMT -5
The subject of the thread should be: "Why did the Comanches, faced with numerical superiorior force, decide to fight a battle?"
It is a subject which interest me much. There are some examples in Comanche history that warriors of this people facing numerical superior force of an enemy decide to fight a battle instead of retreat. It seems quite irrational since such a decision mostly will end up with certain defeat.
One example is Bajo-el-Sol's defeat against the Espejo Apaches as described by Julius Froebel, Seven Years' Travel In Central America, Northern Mexico, And The Far West Of The United States, pp. 352-353:
Upon an expedition which accompanied by some few young warriors of his tribe - he undertook to discover the position of the enemy, he came unawares, in the first dawn of the morning, upon a rancheria of the Apaches, of the tribe of the Espejos. They were not remarked, and the companions of the young hero urged him to retreat. But this was not his intention. “ I have given my word to destroy the Apaches,” he said, “ and Bajo-el-Sol will never break his word .” Hereupon he raised the war-cry of his tribe ; six of his companions followed him, and like wild beasts they broke into the Apache village, cutting down everything before them, and spreading death and terror around, till they had all fallen themselves.
Another example is the defeat of the of war-party in 1763, when a war-party of twenty-three Comanches, twenty-one men and two women, attacked a Lipan rancheria containing three hundred warriors in present southeastern New Mexico. The Comanches were armed with six guns, eight swords, four lances, and bows and arrows. The Lipan-Apaches killed all the Comanches except one woman, whom they roasted and ate. The Lipans suffered one killed and several wounded (1).
One explanation that I found about this seemingly irrational decision to fight against a superior force is given by Charles Stogner, "Relations between Comanches and Lipans from white contact to early nineteenth century", p. 50:
The incident is important because it shows not only the hatred between Comanches and Lipans but also the aggressiveness and militant nature of the Comanches, who attacked a much larger force of Lipans. Comanches considered "saving face" very important, and perhaps the war party feared "losing face" if they returned home with no war trophies. The warriors may also have belonged to the "War Bonnet" society, a fraternity whose members were required to go on all war parties, and, if faced with overwhelming odds, to stay and fight to the death. Otherwise, a War Bonnet member was ostracized and lost his right to wear the war bonnet.
I hope @esimotso , the best living expert on the ethnohistory of the Comanches, will present his view on this interesting issue.
1) I have given the numbers presented by Stogner, "Relations between Comanches and Lipans...", p. 50.