Historians have referred to this territory as Comancheria, and its control by Comanche bands was not theoretical or ceremonial.

It was enforced through a military capability built on the finest light cavalry in North America.

The Kiowa people, neighbors and frequent allies of the Comanche, occupied overlapping territory along the southern and central Plains.

They were also horse people of the first order, with strong warrior traditions and deep knowledge of the landscape between the Arkansas and Red rivers.

The Southern Cheyenne and Southern Arapaho, pushed south from the northern Plains by the pressure of American expansion, had settled into the country south of the Arkansas River, where they negotiated a complicated set of relationships with the Comanche and Kiowa — sometimes allied, sometimes in conflict, generally occupying overlapping but distinct territories.