Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation provides a history of Spanish-Comanche relations during the era of Spanish Texas. The study is based on research in archival documents, some newly discovered. Chapter 1 presents an overview of events that brought both people to the land that Spaniards named Texas. The remaining chapters provide a detailed account of Spanish-Comanche interaction from first contact until the end of Spanish rule in 1821. Although it is generally written that Spaniards first met Comanches at San Antonio de Béxar in 1743, a careful examination of Spanish documents indicates that Spaniards heard rumors of Comanches in Texas in the 1740s, but their first meeting did not occur until the early 1750s. From that first encounter until the close of the Spanish era, Spanish authorities instituted a number of different policies in their efforts to coexist peacefully with the Comanche nation. The author explores each of those policies, how the Comanches reacted to those policies, and the impact of that diplomacy on both cultures. Spaniards and Comanches negotiated a peace treaty in 1785, and that treaty remained in effect, with varying degrees of success, for the duration of Spanish rule. Leaders on both sides were committed to maintaining that peace, although Spaniards were hampered by meager resources and Comanches by the decentralized organization of their society. The dissertation includes a detailed account of the Spanish expedition to the Red River in 1759, led by Colonel Diego Ortiz Parrilla. That account, based on the recently discovered diary of Juan Angel de Oyarzún, provides new information on the campaign as well as a reevaluation of its outcome. The primary intention of this study is to provide a balanced account of Spanish-Comanche relations, relying on the historical record as well as anthropological evidence to uncover, wherever possible, the Comanche side of the story. The research reveals much about the political organization of the Comanche people.

The Comanche Indians presented a major challenge to the Republic of Texas throughout its nine-year history. The presence of the Comanches greatly slowed the westward advancement of the Texas frontier, just as it had hindered the advancing frontiers of the Spaniards and Mexicans who colonized Texas before the creation of the Republic. The Indian policy of the Republic of Texas was inconsistent. Changes in leadership brought drastic alterations in the policy pursued toward the Comanche nation. The author examines the Indian policy of the Republic, how the Comanches responded to that policy, and the impact of Texan-Comanche relations on both parties.

No description available.

This is the first of three parts in the first of three planned novels, collectively called The Great Plains Trilogy, which takes place between 1841 and 1845. Set against such historical events as the Battle of Plum Creek and the Texas Council House Fight, Part One follows Lock (a.k.a. Aidan Plainfield) in 1841, whose wife and daughter were killed by Comanches during the Victoria raid of 1840. Since the raid, Lock has left his life behind, surviving alone in the Great Plains. One morning he discovers that Comanches have stolen his horse, and he sets off to recover it. Along the way, he meets Mr. Pendleton, an Englishman who has been injured by Comanches, and Raymond Wales, a thief who has been mysteriously left to hang in the middle of the woods. Mr. Pendleton and Raymond Wales, each of whom have their own mysterious motivations, join Lock on his journey. / Department of English

Friedrich Armand Strubberg’s semi-autobiographical novel Friedrichsburg, published in Germany in 1867, is a fountain of information about the German settlements in the Hill Country of Texas established in the years 1844-1848 by a corporation of German noblemen. The noblemen safely ensconced in their comfortable estates in Germany attempted to live up to their responsibilities and supply the settlers with basic needs, but their efforts fell woefully short. In consequence, the immigrants often were thrown upon their own devices and compelled to live from what they could learn to grow or hunt in a new land with unfamiliar climate, plants, and animals. Many hundreds perished from disease, exposure, and malnutrition. But after a painful period, the German settlements took root and began to prosper; lending a Germanic stamp to the Hill Country area of Texas that persists to the present day. In Friedrichsburg, the reader encounters many dramatic stories attendant to the foundation years of Fredericksburg, Texas, 1846/1847 when Friedrich Armand Strubberg, under the assumed name Dr. Schubbert, served as the first colonial director of the town. The situations are presented vividly and entertainingly, and although the book offers a romanticized and, in this sense, a sanitized version of the immigrants’ travails, I maintain that it contains historically accurate depictions of people and events that have been largely overlooked in other accounts of the period. The dissertation offers the first complete translation of the novel. An introduction provides an overview of German immigration in Texas, a short biography of Friedrich Armand Strubberg, and a discussion of his place in literature about Texas published in Germany in the nineteenth century. Extensive endnotes document names and episodes as they appear in the text and distinguish between what is fact and what is fiction in the novel. A bibliography of works published about Texas in the nineteenth century is supplied as an appendix. / text