Comanchero Frontier

This is a history of the Comancheros, or Mexicans who traded with the Comanche Indians in the early Southwest. When Don Juan Bautista de Anza and Ecueracapa, a Comanche leader, concluded a peace treaty in 1786, mutual trade benefits resulted, and the treaty was never afterward broken by either side. New Mexican Comancheros were free to roam the plains to trade goods, and when Americans introduced, the Comanches and New Mexicans even joined in a loose, informal alliance that made the American occupation of the plains very costly. Similarly, in the 1860s the Comancheros would trade guns and ammunition to the Comanches and Kiowas, allowing them to wreck a gruesome toll on the advancing Texans. "Kenner has performed a real service in defining the scope of the Comanchero trade. Perhaps even more important, as an antidote to the history of the southern Plains Indians written from the perspective of Oklahoma and Texas, is his picture of the close relationship to these people with New Mexico." William T. Hagan, Journal of American History. "Well written and makes exciting reading....[A] good addition for the history buffs who are tired of the same old hash." Library Journal. "An impressive variety of printed and manuscript sources had to be consulted in weaving together the complicated tale of intercultural relations. Kenner has succeeded fully, and what has resulted is a superb first book, one which should be included on the shelves of every southwestern historian." Western Historical Quarterly.