46. Group of eight of the leading chiefs and braves; photographed at the Snake River agency in 1872, among whom are Paquits, or Bannock Jim, a prominent chief; Totse-cabe-natsy, The White-faced Boy, and Major Jim.
47. Group of a miscellaneous crowd at the agency.
48. Family Group.
In 1871, while returning from the exploration of the Yellowstone region, and while encamped near the head of the Medicine Lodge Creek, the camp of a family of the Sheep-eater band of Bannacks was accidentally discovered near by, almost completely hidden in a grove of willows. Their tent or tepee is made of a few boughs of willow, about which are thrown an old canvas picked up in some of the settlements. The present of a handful of sugar and some coffee reconciled them to having their photographs taken. In the group are the father and mother and five children. The Sheep-eaters are a band of the Bannacks, running in the mountains north of the Kamas prairies, and are so shy and timid that they are but rarely seen.
51-61. Groups and scenes about the agency.
Eleven views, showing the various operations of the agency, some of the idlers, and a few groups of squaws and pappooses.
2. COMANCHES.
A roving, warlike, and predatory tribe of Shoshone descent, roaming over much of the great prairie country from the Platte to Mexico. Their traditions and early history are vague, but they claim to have come from the west. They call themselves Naüni (live people), but the Spanish called them Comanches or Camanches (Les Serpents), the name adopted by the Americans. Procuring horses from the Spaniards at an early day they became expert riders, which, united with their daring and aggressiveness, made them noted and feared throughout the Southwest. Engaged in long and bloody wars with the Spaniards, but were subdued by them in 1783. Were estimated about that time at 5,000 warriors. In 1816 lost heavily by small-pox. Up to 1847 were variously estimated at from 9,000 to 12,000 in all. Were at one time on a reservation in Texas, but were driven out of the State, and since then have been unrelenting enemies of the people of that State. The General Government has set apart a new reservation for them in the western part of the Indian Territory and are gradually drawing them all on to it, though not without much trouble. They now number 1,570 in all, and are divided into eight bands. Have made a commencement in farming, and have been induced to send a few of their children to an industrial school.
W. Blackmore, esq., in an article on the North American Indians, thus describes the Comanche:
"These fierce, untamed savages roam over an immense region, eating the raw flesh of the buffalo, drinking its warm blood, and plundering Mexicans, Indians, and whites with judicial impartiality. Arabs and Tartars of the desert, they remove their villages (pitching their lodges in regular streets and squares) hundreds of miles at the shortest notice. The men are short and stout, with bright copper faces and long hair, which they ornament with glass beads and silver gewgaws."