The Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee

The paper will discuss the main aspect of a Comanche and what their culture is like. The paper encapsulates an interview from such a Native American and this interview will be analyzed with the help of other sources from the Internet. The paper will be followed by first introducing the Comanche tribe with their features and then go about analyzing the interview. The culture of the Comanche will be discussed in the light of how they treat their elders, children and their relatives.

The culture also includes some of their important aspects of religion along with the language that they use.

The paper will attempt to cover the overall aspect of the Comanche and their effect in the society. Introduction to a Comanche “The Comanche are a Native American group whose historical range (the Comancheria) consisted of present-day Eastern New Mexico, Southern Colorado, Southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of Northern and Southern Texas. There might once have been as many as 20,000 Comanches.

Today, the Comanche Nation consists of approximately 10,000 members, about half of whom live in Oklahoma (centered at Lawton), with the remainder concentrated in Texas, California, and New Mexico.

” (Wikipedia, 2006 ) From the above definition it can be understood that the Comanches are very old inhabitants of the United States of America and have long lived there. There are a number of reasons why the Comanches had left their older origin which is near Wyoming. The tribe had shifted to Arkansas where they are now inhabited. The reason why the Comanche is given a name like that is because it is believed that they like to fight and act as strangers to the other people.

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The origin of Comanche comes from a Spanish word and this is why it is used.

They have always been a separate group and have not mingled much with the other tribes and other citizens of the country. Interview of a Comanche The name of the interviewee was Andrea Pahdocony who belongs to a tribe called Comanche of Oklahoma” Lord of the Plain’s”). The following questions and answers provide a summary of what their culture is like and how they live their lives. The questions and answers will then be analyzed along with other material to understand what their culture and beliefs are along with their values. Question # 1

Does your culture have several meanings for one word when spoken? For example, the English language uses the word tow to represent something pulling something else or it can be used to refer to a person’s toe. Can you think of some examples? Changes in the language began in the late 1800’s when children were taken from their homes and placed in boarding schools. They were discouraged from speaking their native tongue, and disciplined harshly for doing so. This treatment was not unique to Comanche people, but with native people throughout the newly “discovered” America.

Government policy dictated the civilization of the First Americans, in part, by denying them their language. The children were taught the language of their parents and grandparents was bad. With this indoctrination, the language was not spoken in the home. English became the language of preference. By the mid 1900’s, elders who could speak the language fluently were dying at an alarming rate and children were not being taught the language in order to maintain speakers within the tribe. In 2006, there are 13,000 enrolled Comanches, yet there are fewer than 1% who speak the language fluently. Analysis of the Interview

The interview explains that the Native American has a clear set of values and beliefs that he follows that have come down from his ancestors. There are a number of times when the values are not followed but the traditions are kept intact. The tribe believes in teaching the children the traditions of the ancestors to keep the tribe alive. The tribe has been unsocial fro several years and even decades with the other Native Americans and citizens because they would have a different dialect and would be unable to communicate with anyone. The tribal members would just continue to use the same to communicate with one another.

The children have now learned to sue the English language but there is a need to also learn their language because of the communication gap that may appear between two generations if this not done. The tribe emphasizes on respect to elders but it is not necessary that the children talk without meeting with the eye. Eye contact is considered as a tradition. The Comanche tribe is a famous and a very social group within itself that keeps up the traditions and the values of the ancestors very strongly.

Bibliography

Wikipedia. 2006. Comanche. Retrieved on December 18, 2006 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comanche.