Process Paper
The topic I chose was the Comanches, and how the most powerful Native American
Nation fell to the Americans. When I was little, my next door neighbors and I played “Indians” all the time. We made stews, wove baskets, and built tipis in the woods. My favorite American Girl doll was from the Nez Perce tribe. But it's only recently that I realized I know next to nothing about Native Americans and their complicated relationship with settlers.
In March my research dropped me pretty brutally into the reality of the West. Pioneers were forcing their way to the Pacific with the American Army behind them, when they were met by the Plains Indians. The most powerful of which, the Comanches, had successfully stopped French and Spanish expansion into the West. My research has encompassed all of Comanche history, from when they broke away from the Shoshone tribe in the 16th century, until they surrendered in 1874. I have learned about how they built their culture around horses and bison, and rose as a power in the West. I learned how they opposed American expansion with with guns and war paint, and also how they opposed by going to Washington. And I finally learned about their years in the 1870s as the last Native Americans to freely roam the plains as their ancestors before them. But the most amazing thing I have learned by far is that, despite the atrocities done to them, the Comanche Nation is still around today and recognized by the United States government.
Now, all my research has culminated into a research paper that explores why the fall of the Comanche Nation was a turning point in the story of the West. Before 1492 there were hundreds of thousands of Native Americans living in North America, diverse as they were far apart. They migrated and traded and warred, just like Europe. Despite rising to unprecedented power in the West, the Comanches ultimately fell because of the extinction of the buffalo, inferior weapons, and relentless American expansion.
The topic I chose was the Comanches, and how the most powerful Native American
Nation fell to the Americans. When I was little, my next door neighbors and I played “Indians” all the time. We made stews, wove baskets, and built tipis in the woods. My favorite American Girl doll was from the Nez Perce tribe. But it's only recently that I realized I know next to nothing about Native Americans and their complicated relationship with settlers.
In March my research dropped me pretty brutally into the reality of the West. Pioneers were forcing their way to the Pacific with the American Army behind them, when they were met by the Plains Indians. The most powerful of which, the Comanches, had successfully stopped French and Spanish expansion into the West. My research has encompassed all of Comanche history, from when they broke away from the Shoshone tribe in the 16th century, until they surrendered in 1874. I have learned about how they built their culture around horses and bison, and rose as a power in the West. I learned how they opposed American expansion with with guns and war paint, and also how they opposed by going to Washington. And I finally learned about their years in the 1870s as the last Native Americans to freely roam the plains as their ancestors before them. But the most amazing thing I have learned by far is that, despite the atrocities done to them, the Comanche Nation is still around today and recognized by the United States government.
Now, all my research has culminated into a research paper that explores why the fall of the Comanche Nation was a turning point in the story of the West. Before 1492 there were hundreds of thousands of Native Americans living in North America, diverse as they were far apart. They migrated and traded and warred, just like Europe. Despite rising to unprecedented power in the West, the Comanches ultimately fell because of the extinction of the buffalo, inferior weapons, and relentless American expansion.