In 1840, a young Texian boy named Booker Webster, who had been living with the Comanche for several seasons, watched as the tribe erupted in anguish. The grief followed the Council House fight in San Antonio, where numerous Comanche leaders and tribespeople were killed by Texians during a peace negotiation that turned deadly. The Texians had demanded the release of all white captives as proof of goodwill, but the Comanche brought only one captive, Matilda Lockhart. Violence broke out, and the Comanche viewed the killings as a grave betrayal.
Webster observed warriors shearing their sacred hair in mourning, while women used knives to cut their arms, legs, and chests. Their sorrow soon turned to fury. Webster watched as the Comanche prepared fires, stakes, and blades. He feared for over a dozen other white captives who had been assembled.
He was safe because his Comanche mother had embraced him into her family, but the others, mostly women and children, were tortured to death. Historical records confirm that both Comanche men and women took part in torturing captives, with women often carrying out retribution in camp settings. The lives of Comanche women were starkly different from those of the men and were in many ways more taxing. They held no warrior status but were vital to the tribe’s survival.
Nearly all tasks beyond hunting, warfare, and weapon crafting fell to them. They crafted clothing, blankets, tools, and shelters. It was said a Comanche woman could erect a teepee in 15 minutes and take it down in five. As nomads on the Great Plains, the tribe was always on the move.
When men hunted, women processed the game, tanning hides and preserving meat. This work became more demanding as buffalo hides grew valuable in trade during the 1800s, and the labor brought wealth to prosperous Comanche men, who often took multiple wives as a mark of affluence. Comanche women were highly practical. Unlike men, who prized long hair, women often cropped their hair short for comfort and to reduce ticks and lice.
Women favored vibrant colors like reds and yellows, while men often used black paint for war, symbolizing death. The Comanche were relatively small, with women typically under five feet tall and men often under five foot six, but they relied on their prowess as horseback warriors. While men primarily waged war, women were also skilled riders and archers, essential in Plains warfare. When Texians or the U.
S. military attacked Comanche camps, women fought fiercely beside the men to protect themselves and their kin. Attackers rarely distinguished between men and women in raids, as all resisted fiercely to avoid capture, which could mean enslavement, abuse, or worse. Comanche women understood the consequences of defeat and often urged the men to undertake raids, which sometimes brought back prisoners.
Not all captives were killed. Some, like Booker Webster, were adopted into the tribe, but adoption posed risks, especially for female captives. Older girls were sometimes viewed as rivals by Comanche women, and establishing tribal hierarchy could be harsh. Two prominent cases illustrate the treatment of female captives: Matilda Lockhart and Rachel Plummer.
Matilda was seized in 1838 at age 14, considered an adult by Comanche standards, and enslaved. In 1840, the Penateka Comanche met Texian officials in San Antonio to discuss peace. The Texians demanded the return of all white captives. The Comanche brought only Matilda, who after a year in captivity was horribly disfigured, bearing numerous scars.
Her nose had been burned off, and her feet had been scorched to prevent escape. The Council House fight erupted when the Texians took Comanche leaders hostage, demanding the remaining captives, resulting in the deaths of several Comanche leaders. Rachel Plummer was captured in 1836 during the raid on Parker’s Fort in Texas while pregnant. Beyond mistreatment by the men, the women regularly beat her.
In her memoir, she noted she could scarcely recall a time without bruises or raw skin. Soon after giving birth, the Comanche killed her infant, deeming it a hindrance to her labor. Heartbroken and despairing, Rachel resolved to provoke her captors into killing her. One day, when a Comanche woman ordered her to fetch a tool for digging roots, Rachel refused, hoping to spark a fatal clash.
The woman charged, knocking Rachel down. They fought fiercely, biting and scratching, while a crowd of men gathered, cheering and shouting. Rachel grabbed a buffalo bone and struck the woman, expecting the onlookers to kill her. She wrote that she struck the woman over the head with it, expecting to feel a spear pierce her heart at any moment.
She was resolved to make an end of her if they killed her. She noted that the yells the Indians made around them a Christian mind cannot imagine, but no one touched her. She had the woman past harming her when she begged for mercy. To Rachel’s astonishment, the men neither intervened nor punished her.
When the fight ended, they dispersed, seemingly unconcerned. However, an older woman in the tribe, offended by Rachel’s defiance, ordered her to gather straw to be burned alive. Rachel, now determined to survive, refused again. The two fought fiercely, both sustaining burns as the older woman tried to force Rachel into the flames.
They broke a lodge pole in the struggle. Again, the men watched, amused, but did not halt the fight. The next morning, Rachel was called to the council house, expecting retribution. Instead, the chiefs merely asked her to repair the broken lodge pole, stipulating that the older woman assist.
Rachel was perplexed by the ordeal, not grasping the Comanche practice of establishing hierarchy among women. Men largely disregarded this aspect of tribal culture, allowing women to settle their disputes. Such fights could define social standings and sometimes fostered better relations. After her first fight, Rachel washed the face of the woman she had beaten, and the woman became notably amicable thereafter.
Rachel, however, remained enslaved, valued for labor and potential ransom, unlike some captives who faced graver fates. The Council House fight of 1840 was a critical event. Texians attacked and killed dozens of Penateka Comanche during the meeting, triggered by the Comanche’s failure to deliver all white captives as demanded. The surviving Comanche viewed this as unforgivable treachery.
Upon learning of their leaders’ deaths, the warriors cut their sacred hair in mourning, while the women performed mourning rituals, wailing and slashing their arms, legs, and chests. Booker Webster, who witnessed these events, reported that some women severed their fingers, and others injured themselves so severely that they died. After mourning, the women turned to the white captives whom the Texans had demanded. Seeking vengeance, they tortured the captives, adults and children alike, to death, mutilating, cutting, and burning them.
Historical records indicate that such acts were part of Comanche practices, where mutilation ensured the enemy was harmed in the afterlife. The Comanche, whose true tribal name was Nʉmʉnʉʉ, meaning “the people,” viewed outsiders as less than human and anticipated similar treatment if captured. Comanche men were ruthless on the warpath, striking swiftly during attacks and retreats. In the camp, women had more time to enact retribution, often taking trophies, as did the men.
For decades, settlers on the frontier knew that surviving to reach a Comanche camp often meant prolonged suffering. The brutality described reflects the stark realities of Plains warfare, where both sides engaged in extreme violence.