Ten Bears
| Ten Bears Pawʉʉrasʉmʉnurʉ |
|
|---|---|
Chief Ten Bears
|
|
| Comanche leader | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | ca. 1790 |
| Died | November 23, 1872 Fort Sill, Oklahoma |
| Resting place | Fort Sill Post Cemetery 34°40′9.7674″N 98°23′44.77″W / 34.669379833°N 98.3957694°W |
| Known for | Attempting to negotiate peace between the United States and the Comanche |
Ten Bears (Comanche Pawʉʉrasʉmʉnurʉ) (ca. 1790-November 23, 1872) was the principal chief of the Yamparika or "Root Eater" division of the Comanche from ca. 1860-72. He was the leader of the Ketahto ("The Barefeet") local group of the Yamparika, probably from the late 1840s.
The ethnonym (group name), Yamparika or "Root Eater" Comanche was known to the Spaniards of New Mexico as early as the 1750s, but until about 1790, they were generally north of the Arkansas River and so were seldom specifically mentioned in Spanish documents. After that time, with the advance of Cheyennes (Comanche: paka naboo 'striped arrows'), and Cuampes, likely Arapahos, some Yamparika local groups, including the Ketahto, relocated to the valley of the North Canadian River in New Mexico and Texas.
Ten Bears was orphaned as a baby when his family group was murdered by Lakotas. Later Comanche oral history states that in his young adult years, he was noted for leading horse-mounted spear attacks on Lakota villages.
Ten Bears was a key-figure in making peace between the Comanches and the Utes in 1820, and, after that, he lived for some years with the Utes, relatives to his mother. In the 1830s, Ten Bears was often in rivalry with a man named either Isakwahip 'Wolf's Back', or Isakiip 'Wolf's Elbow', leader of another local group in the North Canadian valley. In 1840 the Yamparika chief, Ten Bears, was one among the principal promoters (together with the Kiowa chiefs Dohasan and Satank and the Arapaho Hosa Little Raven) of the peace and large alliance between the Comanche and Kiowa alliance and the Cheyenne and Arapaho alliance after the Cheyenne and Arapaho's victory at Wolf Creek during the spring 1838.
Ten Bears first came to the attention of Anglo-Americans in 1853 when he, among others, signed the Treaty of Fort Atkinson. His name was translated as 'Ten Sticks', a confusion of /pawʉʉra/ 'bear' with /paria/ 'dogwood stick'. The error was corrected in the 1854 revision of the treaty.
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