Kwahada

The Kwahada, or Quahadi, were a Comanche group of the Llano Estacado, the great high plain of western Texas and eastern New Mexico. Their name is associated with antelope, an animal of the open grasslands. Bison herds and horses supported a mobile way of life on the plains, where groups travelled widely to hunt, trade and maintain connections with neighbouring peoples.

During the eighteenth century Comanche groups expanded across the southern plains. Around 1790 the Comanche and Kiowa made an alliance that brought together former rivals. Their peoples shared hunting grounds and travelled together, while trade and conflict linked the plains with Spanish settlements in New Mexico and Texas. The Kwahada’s high-plains homeland lay within this larger Comanche world. Horses made long journeys across these grasslands possible.