Amorous Man


Amorous Man was a Civil Chief of the Penateka band of the Comanche Indians.

Early life

Nothing is known of his youth or early years. Older than the two war chiefs, Amorous Man was a member of the same band of the Comanche as the more famous, but younger and lesser ranking, Buffalo Hump and Santa Anna. Although known as a civil, or peace, Chief, he was known to lead war parties during the 1820s. He was an important chief, though probably less influential than Buffalo Hump during the 1830s and 1840s. He was a friendly chief to Anglo settlement in Texas, also during the period following the Council House Fight.

Councils and treaties

He represented the Penateka band at the Camp Holmes Council in 1835, signing the treaty with gen. M. Arbuckle and sen. Monfort Stokes, along with chiefs such Tawaquenah of the Kotsoteka and Iron Jacket of the Quahadi Comanche.
In 1838 he went to Houston, where he, Spirit Talker, Old Owl, and Buffalo Hump met President Sam Houston and signed with him a treaty. Like most Comanche Chiefs, he came to white attention following the Council House Fight in 1840. But, if Old Owl was the first among the Comanche Chiefs to recognize that defeating the whites was unlikely, Amorous Man was, probably, the second in the Penateka: in 1843 he accepted to meet the Indian agent Daniel Watson and, in 1844, he attended the Tehuacana Creek Council, along with Old Owl, Buffalo Hump and other chiefs, but refused to sign the treaty. Nor was he part in the Meusebach-Comanche Treaty, signed by Old Owl, Buffalo Hump and Santa Anna. Amorous Man, Old Owl, Buffalo Hump, Isa-viah, Santa Anna, Ketumse, Tosahwi, and Asa-havey signed the Tehuacana Treaty in April 1846.

Last Years

After the epidemics of 1848-49 which reduced the Comanche population from approximately 20,000 to less than 12,000 within two years, Amorous Man went to settle as permanent guest among the Kotsoteka, later, in 1852, going to settle near the springs of the Big Wichita River with Buffalo Hump, Ketumse and Shanaco; his death's date is unknown.