COMANCHES, a tribe of North American Indians, so called by the Spaniards, but known to the French as Padouques, and among themselves as Naiini. They belong to the Shohone family, and when first met by Europeans occupied the regions between the upper waters of the Brazos and Colorado on the one hand and the Arkansas and Missouri on the other. They were brought to nominal submission in 1783 by the Spanish general Anza, who killed thirty of their chiefs; but they again became troublesome, and continued to harass the district of Texas till they were settled in a reservation iu the Indian Territory. In 1872 a portion of the tribe, called the Quanhada or Staked Plain Comanches, had to be reduced by military measures. Their total numbers, estimated by President Burnet in 1847 as 10,000 or 12,000, are now reduced to little more than 3000 or 4000.