the-trade-gathering-at-big-trees-pf

My objective in this excerpt is to emphasize the arduous lives of the Comanche women and girls. That is not the same as saying the females were unhappy or dissatisfied with their lives. In the heyday of the Comancheria (1820-1850), the Comanche were looked upon as extremely wealthy among the hunting and gathering peoples of the southern plains. The various bands owned thousands and thousands of horses and mules; they controlled a lucrative trade in stolen cattle, horses, and slaves. The people traded for firearms, ammunition, cloth, vermillion dye, hatchets, tobacco, beads, trinkets, flints, needles, and pots. The women had choices to improve the quality of life of their families, but their nomadic lifestyle put severe constraints on what they could own and transport.