Empire of the Summer Moon

Six days into Rachel’s kidnapping, Rachel’s aunt, Elizabeth, was given to a band of Kichai Indians who were on friendly terms with the Comanches. Cynthia Ann and her brother John went with one band of Comanches while Rachel and her son James went with another; however, as soon as the Comanches learned that Rachel had breastfed James, they removed him from her. She never saw him again. This act was simple: the Comanches always divided the spoils of their raids among themselves as equitably as possible, and captives were just part of the bounty to be divvied up, just like furs and horses.

The Comanche economy was solely interested in three things: horses, buffalo hides, and captives. The Comanches were a polygamous people, mainly because it was the women who performed all the labor in producing hides, and thus, a Comanche male with many wives could obtain more hides. If they didn’t have many wives, a Comanche male could have slaves. Therefore, Rachel became exactly that.

Rachel quickly became proficient in the Comanche tongue. She was pregnant at the time of her kidnapping, and when she gave birth, the Comanches, in spite of Rachel’s pleading to spare her child, killed her son by dragging him behind a horse.