Great Warriors II

Anyone looking over the vast plains of western North America, particularly the canyon lands of the Southwest, might think them a trackless wilderness.  To a practiced Native eye, however, there were trails all over these lands, used by tribes for a variety of purposes.  While Whites insisted on calling this trails war paths, much as they did on the eastern frontier, the paths served other purposes including allowing war parties easy access to and from enemies.  Tribes traded, allied and communicated with one another.  Some tribes were nomadic, following buffalo or other game to seasonal hunting grounds.  Access to water was always a critical problem.  Trails were a vital means of access in the wilderness. The Comanche Trail, Comanche Trace or Comanche War Trail was, in fact, a network of trails used by the Comanche during raids, seasonal hunting and trading.  The primary trail picked up at two crossings of the Rio Grande River, Boquillas and Presidio...

This terminology appears often in western movies, novels and popular histories dealing with Plains tribes and their frequent conflicts with Whites.  Staked plain is a literal translation of the Spanish term, llano estacado.  The staked plain covers eastern New Mexico and Northeastern Texas, 33 counties in Texas and 4 in New Mexico.  A huge escarpment raises this area of the Great Plains up to 3,000 to 5,000 feet in a giant mesa formation.  Estacado in Spanish refers to a palisade, such as one would see around a fort.  The escarpment around this portion of the Great Plains gave the early Spanish explorers the idea of a palisade, hence the name. The stake plains have long hot summers and freezing cold winters.  The land is dry due to low rainfall and difficult to farm.  For soldiers sent here in the 19th century to track down Comanche, Kiowa, Apache and other tribes, a tour of duty could be a death sentence.  Hunger, thirst, and disease from dusty...