Padouca.

[Rory M Larson]

John wrote:
> I checked the HBNAI synonymy for Comanche (by Doug Parks) and he's pretty
> definite (with references) about Padouca referring to Apache, even after
> the Commanche first appear, though usage is complex.  The time frame
> for the shift is later than I recalled, after c. 1750, so after fairly
> good Miami-Illinois materials were available, though, as I understand it

So "Padouca" originally referred to the Plains Apache, but shifted to
mean 'Commanche' after about 1750, when the latter ousted the former.
But Alan writes:

> Thomas Kavanaugh ("Comanche", HNAI 13) doesn't seem to say. He does say
> (p. 886) that "Shoshonean-speaking peoples, including the ancestors of
> the Comanche, have lived on the Northern Plains since the 1500s", and
> (ibid.) "By the 1730s, the Comanche had displaced the Plains Apacheans
> and gained control of the trade between New Mexico and the Plains...
> Meanwhile, other Comanches had established relations with French traders
> from Illinois and Louisiana."

which implies that displacement of the Plains Apache by the Commanche
took place a generation earlier, by the 1730s.  The beginning of
direct trade relations between the Padouka and the French can be
dated to the Bourgmont expedition to the Padoukas in 1724.  The
last sentence in Alan's paragraph suggests that Kavanaugh is
regarding the Padoucas with whom Bourgmont opened friendly
relations as Commanches, not Apaches.

If he is right, we might consider the following scenario.
In the early 1720s, just before Bourgmont leads his
expedition west to meet the troublesome Padouca (Plains
Apache), the original bearers of that name are locally
defeated by the Commanches, who at that time are known
as Hayaton/Layaton/Ayatan, or whatever.  Bourgmont's
mission for France is to meet and make peace with the
Padouca, who are cordially hated by all the eastern Plains
tribes who are France's allies.  Previous attempts to
contact them have failed, owing to the opposition of the
latter groups.  But when Bourgmont sets out, avenues open
for him, and some of these eastern Plains tribes even
sent representatives to accompany him.  He meets, not
the original Padouca, but a group of Commanches flush
with victory over their enemies and more than eager to
establish an alliance and trade with the French and their
Indian allies.  The expedition is a resounding success,
and it is entirely to Bourgmont's interest to represent
his new allies as Padouca to his French patrons, in
fulfillment of the mission he had been assigned.  From
this time forward, the Commanches are the Padouca from
the French point of view.  Moreover, with the material
advantages they gain through trade with the French, the
Commanches are able to consolidate their original victory
and drive out the Plains Apache altogether.  Linguistically,
this would explain the ambiguity in the meaning of the name
as used by the French, but the Indians might be slower to
adopt the confusion.  Hence, a term for the Commanche that
came directly through Iowa-Oto would still be Ayaton, the
name by which that group was originally known to the
Iowas and Otos.

This hypothesis is admittedly a large cloth woven with
scanty material, and Alan's earlier mention of a
distinction between Apaches and Padoucas from a few
years before Bourgmont's expedition provides a snag
upon which it could tear.  Still, I think a model
somewhat like this would explain a lot.

Rory