"They came to the plains from the west, slipping through the canyon passes of the Sangre de Cristo Range in small, roving bands...They were few in number, possessed little wealth...New Mexico's Spanish officials noted their arrival to the southern grasslands in 1706 and wrote it off as a minor event. Yet by midcentury, the Numunu, then bearing the name Comanches, had unhinged the world they had almost unnoticeably entered"

So begins historian Pekka Hamalainen's epic history, The Comanche Empire. They were the continent's greatest horsemen and possibly the most ferocious warriors in history. In the first of several episodes on the Comanches, Chris and Jason trace their origins as hunter gatherers in vast North American wilderness, their migration south, and the fearsome but adaptable culture they forged on their path to dominance of the southern Great Plains. 

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Further reading:
Comanches: History of a People T.R. Fehrenbach
The Comanche Empire Pekka Hamalainen
Empire of the Summer Moon S.C. Gwynne
The Comanches: A History 1706-1875 Thomas Kavanagh

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