New Mexico Historical Review Volume 59 Number 4 Article 2 10-1-1984 Nurturing the Peace: Spanish and Comanche Cooperation in the Early Nineteenth Century Elizabeth A.H. John Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr Recommended Citation John, Elizabeth A.H.. "Nurturing the Peace: Spanish and Comanche Cooperation in the Early Nineteenth Century." New Mexico Historical Review 59, 4 (1984). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr/vol59/iss4/ 2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Mexico Historical Review by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. NURTURING THE PEACE: SPANISH AND COMANCHE COOPERATION IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY ELIZABETH A. H. JOHN" IF EVER AN ALLIANCE tested the mettle of all parties, it was that of Spaniards and Comanches. It was a monument to Spanish state craft on the northern frontier of New Spain: boldly recommended in the 1760s by the Marques de Rubi to Carlos III, who had the vision to adopt it; adroitly realized in New Mexico and Texas in the 1780s by governors Juan Bautista de Anza and Domingo Cabello; tenaciously pursued by their successors through the final decades of the viceroyalty. 1 But the delicate, often dangerous tasks of making the arrange ment work fell largely to the people of the frontier, particularly those of New Mexico: paisanos, Pueblos, and, increasingly over time, genizaros. The complexity of the challenge that they faced, the enormity of the odds, and the extent of their nearly forgotten success, are dimensions of regional history worth pondering.