Amorous Man
| Amorous Man Pahayoko | |
|---|---|
| Born | late 1780s |
| Died | after 1852 |
| Occupation | War Chief |
| Known for | A famous Comanche Chief |
Amorous Man (Comanche, Pahayoko "aunt copulate") (c. late 1780s – p. 1852) was a Civil Chief of the Penateka band of the Comanche Indians.
Early life
Nothing is known of his youth or early years. Older than the two war chiefs, Amorous Man was a member of the same band of the Comanche as the more famous, but younger and lesser ranking, Buffalo Hump (Potsʉnakwahipʉ) and Santa Anna. Although known as a civil, or peace, Chief, he was known to lead war parties during the 1820s. He was an important chief, though probably less influential than Buffalo Hump during the 1830s and 1840s. He was a friendly chief to Anglo settlement in Texas, also during the period following the Council House Fight.
Councils and treaties
He represented the Penateka band at the Camp Holmes Council in 1835, signing (his name was recorded as Taqquanno, with the same meaning) the treaty with gen. M. Arbuckle and sen. Monfort Stokes, along with chiefs such Tawaquenah (“Sun Eagle”) of the Kotsoteka and Iron Jacket (Puhihwikwasu'u) of the Quahadi Comanche (named as Pohowetowshah “Brass Man”). In 1838 he went to Houston, were he, Spirit Talker (Mukwooru), Old Owl (Mupitsukupʉ), and Buffalo Hump met President Sam Houston and signed with him a treaty. Like most Comanche Chiefs, he came to white attention following the Council House Fight in 1840. But, if Old Owl was the first among the Comanche Chiefs to recognize that defeating the whites was unlikely, Amorous Man was, probably, the second in the Penateka: in 1843 he accepted to meet the Indian agent Daniel Watson and, in 1844, he attended the Tehuacana Creek Council, along with Old Owl, Buffalo Hump and other chiefs (not including Isa-viah [Yellow Wolf] and Santa Anna), but refused to sign the treaty. Nor was he part in the Meusebach-Comanche Treaty, signed by Old Owl, Buffalo Hump and Santa Anna. Amorous Man, Old Owl, Buffalo Hump, Isa-viah (Yellow Wolf), Santa Anna, Ketumse, Tosahwi, Asa-havey ("Wolf's Road" or "Starry Road") signed the Tehuacana Treaty in April 1846.
Last Years
After the epidemics of 1848-49 which reduced the Comanche population from approximately 20,000 to less than 12,000 within two years, Amorous Man went to settle as permanent guest among the Kotsoteka, later, in 1852, going to settle near the springs of the Big Wichita River with Buffalo Hump, Ketumse and Shanaco; his death's date is unknown.
References
Bibliography
- Bial, Raymond. Lifeways: The Comanche. New York: Benchmark Books, 2000.
- Brice, Donaly E. The Great Comanche Raid: Boldest Indian Attack on the Texas Republic McGowan Book Co. 1987
- "Comanche" Skyhawks Native American Dedication (August 15, 2005)
- "Comanche" on the History Channel (August 26, 2005)
- Fehrenbach, Theodore Reed The Comanches: The Destruction of a People. New York: Knopf, 1974, ISBN 0-394-48856-3. Later (2003) republished under the title The Comanches: The History of a People
- John, Elizabeth and A.H. Storms Brewed in Other Men's Worlds: The Confrontation of the Indian, Spanish, and French in the Southwest, 1540–1795. College Station, TX: Texas A&M Press, 1975.
- Lodge, Sally. Native American People: The Comanche. Vero Beach, Florida 32964: Rourke Publications, Inc., 1992.
- Lund, Bill. Native Peoples: The Comanche Indians. Mankato, Minnesota: Bridgestone Books, 1997.
- Mooney, Martin. The Junior Library of American Indians: The Comanche Indians. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1993.
- Native Americans: Comanche (August 13, 2005).
- Richardson, Rupert N. The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement: A Century and a Half of Savage Resistance to the Advancing White Frontier. Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1933.
- Rollings, Willard. Indians of North America: The Comanche. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989.
- Secoy, Frank. Changing Military Patterns on the Great Plains. Monograph of the American Ethnological Society, No. 21. Locust Valley, NY: J. J. Augustin, 1953.
- Streissguth, Thomas. Indigenous Peoples of North America: The Comanche. San Diego: Lucent Books Incorporation, 2000.
- "The Texas Comanches" on Texas Indians (August 14, 2005).
- Wallace, Ernest, and E. Adamson Hoebel. The Comanches: Lords of the Southern Plains. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1952.