Editing Comanche (section)

===Food===
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2022}}
[[File:Comanche Indians Chasing Buffalo with Lances and Bows.jpg|thumb|Comanches chasing bison, painted by [[George Catlin]]. Bison were the primary food source for the Comanche.]]
The Comanche were initially [[hunter-gatherers]]. When they lived in the [[Rocky Mountains]], during their migration to the Great Plains, both men and women shared responsibility for gathering and providing food. When the Comanche reached the plains, hunting predominated. Hunting was considered a male activity and was a principal source of prestige. For meat, the Comanche hunted [[Plains bison|bison]], [[elk]], [[American black bear|black bear]], [[pronghorn]], and [[deer]]. When game was scarce, the men hunted wild mustangs, and sometimes ate their own ponies. In later years the Comanche raided Texas ranches and stole longhorn cattle. They did not eat fish or fowl, unless starving. 

Women prepared and cooked bison meat and other game. Women also gathered wild fruits, seeds, nuts, berries, roots and tubers, including [[plum]]s, [[grape]]s, [[juniper]] berries, [[persimmon]]s, [[mulberry|mulberries]], [[acorn]]s, [[pecan]]s, wild [[onion]]s, [[radish]]es, and tuna, the fruit of the [[prickly pear cactus]]. The Comanche also acquired [[maize]], dried [[pumpkin]], and [[tobacco]] through trade and raids. They roasted meat over a fire or boiled it. To boil fresh or dried meat and vegetables, women dug a pit in the ground, which they lined with animal skins or bison stomach and filled with water to make a kind of cooking pot. They placed heated stones in the water until it boiled and had cooked their stew. After Spanish contact, Comanche traded for copper pots and iron kettles, which made cooking easier.

Women used berries and nuts, as well as honey and [[tallow]], to flavor bison meat. They stored the tallow in intestine casings or rawhide pouches called ''oyóotû¿''. They especially liked to make a sweet mush of bison marrow mixed with crushed mesquite beans.

The Comanches sometimes ate raw meat, especially raw liver flavored with [[bile|gall]]. They also drank the milk from the slashed udders of bison, deer, and elk.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Indians of Texas: from prehistoric to modern times|last=Newcomb|first=W.W. Jr.|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0-292-78425-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/indiansoftexasfr00newc/page/164 164]|url=https://archive.org/details/indiansoftexasfr00newc/page/164}}</ref> Among their delicacies was the curdled milk from the stomachs of suckling bison calves. They also enjoyed bison tripe, or stomachs.

Comanche generally ate a light meal breakfast and a large dinner. They ate during the day when they were hungry or when it was convenient. Like other [[Plains Indians|Plains tribes]], the Comanche were very hospitable. They prepared meals whenever a visitor arrived in camp, which led to outsiders' belief that the Comanches ate at all hours of the day or night. Many families offered thanks as they sat down to eat their meals.

Comanche children ate [[pemmican]], but this was primarily a tasty, high-energy food reserved for war parties. Carried in a [[parfleche]] pouch, pemmican was eaten only when the men did not have time to hunt. Similarly, in camp, people ate pemmican only when other food was scarce. Traders ate pemmican sliced and dipped in honey, which they called Indian bread.