Yes it's a tad more complex...than the US Army being credited for driving them onto reservations. The Army was able to do so due to the lack of hunting. The Plains Indians subsisted on Buffalo and the Buffalo on the Staked Plains were literally there in 1874 and not there by 1878. Not there as in having vanished from the face of the earth.
...and yet the Comanches themselves, up until the Eastern Tribes showed up in such well-armed and capable numbers, were able to drive out and exclude competitors from those same buffalo plains at a time when buffalo were still present in the millions across six hundred miles of country.
By 1873 the gig was up for the Comanches and time was closing in. Heck, ALL the tribes eventually gave up, even Geronimo, whatever their way of life. Turns out constant pursuit and insecurity, even if you can escape death, is an untenable way to live. The Lipan Apaches in Texas for one discovered that very same thing when the Comanches arrived, and at that time there were still buffalo everywhere.
JMHO,
Birdwatcher
p.s. thirty thousand cows delivered to New Mexico in just three months by Comanches is quite a statement about lifestyle and economy.
