The U.S./Mexico War of 1846 to 1848 cost thousands of lives and even though the U.S. won the war, it could not take sole credit for the victory. Americans have long overlooked the importance of the Indigenous peoples’ role prior to the onset of the war. The Comanche tribe contributed greatly to the weakening of the Mexican’s in the northern region. The U.S. did not directly recruit the native peoples into the war but instead indirectly involved them by pushing them off of their lands in their expansion efforts. The Navajo and Comanche then began raiding ranches in an attempt to find resources vital to their survival. Of course it would be foolish to blame survival as the main purpose of the raids, in all reality the Comanche traded the goods they secured from their raids to the Americans, especially horses and weapons.
Mexico was simply too spread out and spread too thin to defend all of their northern territory. The Comanche had weakened the forces in northern Mexico before the war had even started and it was down hill from there, so to speak. Interestingly enough the Americans viewed the Comanche was weak and inferior and could not believe that the Mexicans were so easily defeated by them. The Americans then furthered their view of American superiority by postulating that if the Comanche could so easily defeat the Mexicans then the Americans should definitely rule over both of the races.
Whether it is studied or not nothing will change the fact that the native indigenous people of North American played an important and vital role in the outcome of the U.S./Mexico War. It is a shame that more literature isn’t encouraged and records, if available, aren’t released by the Mexican government concerning the period just prior to and during the war.
AmyHist516 