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Comanche history

Comanche history  – in the 18th and 19th centuries the Comanche became the dominant tribe on the southern Great Plains. The Comanche are often characterized as "Lords of the Plains." They presided over a large area called Comancheria which they shared with allied tribes, the Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache (Plains Apache), Wichita, and after 1840 the southern Cheyenne and Arapaho. Comanche power and their substantial wealth depended on horses, trading, and raiding. Adroit diplomacy was also a factor in maintaining their dominance and fending off enemies for more than a century. They subsisted on the bison herds of the Plains which they hunted for food and skins.

Their extensive area of suzerainty has been called an empire, but the Comanche were never united under a single government or leader. They consisted of several bands with a common language which operated independently of each other. Estimates of the Comanche's total population in 1780, when they were most numerous, are usually around 20,000, although one estimate numbers them at 40,000.

The Comanche bands regularly waged war on neighboring tribes and European settlers encroaching on Comancheria. Although infamous for their unrelenting warfare and raiding into Mexico, they also took thousands of captives from raids on other Native tribes as well as Anglo settlers on the American frontier. Many of these captives were kept as slaves or traded to the Spanish in New Mexico, but captives taken by the Comanche at a young age were usually assimilated into Comanche society as members of the tribe. By 1875, decimated by European diseases, warfare, a tide of Anglo settlement, and the near-extinction of the bison, the Comanche had been defeated by the U.S. army and were forced to live on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma.

In 1920 the United States census listed fewer than 1,500 Comanche. Tribal enrollment in the 21st century numbered 15,191, with 7,763 members residing in the Lawton-Fort Sill and surrounding areas of southwest Oklahoma. Of the three million acres (12,000 km²) promised the Comanche, Kiowa and Kiowa Apache by treaty in 1867, only 235,000 acres (951 km²) have remained in native hands. Of this, 4,400 acres (18 km²) are owned by the tribe itself.

Prehistory
The Comanche were closely related in language and tradition to the Eastern Shoshone of Wyoming. The Comanche probably split from the Shoshone in the 16th century with the Comanche moving south to Colorado and becoming, as did the Eastern Shoshone, bison-hunting Great Plains nomads. The movement onto the Great Plains may have been stimulated by wetter climatic conditions which permitted an increase in the bison population on the Great Plains.

In southern Colorado, the Comanche formed an alliance with the Ute and in the late 17th century, it appears the subsistence pattern of the two tribes were similar. From fall to early spring, the Comanche separated into small groups and were hunter-gatherers in western Colorado, especially the San Luis Valley. In late spring the Comanche and Ute crossed the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and moved eastward onto the Great Plains where they hunted bison during the summer months. They probably first acquired horses during the 1680s after the Pueblo peoples expelled the Spanish for 12 years from New Mexico and Spanish horses became available to the native peoples. The acquisition of horses enabled the Comanche to have the mobility to become wide-ranging nomads.

In 1706, Spanish soldier Juan de Ulibarri in the Pueblo settlement of Taos made the first European mention of the Comanche. He was told by the leaders of the settlement that "The infidel enemies of the Ute and Comanche tribe were about to make an attack upon this pueblo." The attack did not occur but the reputation of the Comanche as an aggressive tribe which raided sedentary peoples was established. The Ute word kɨmantsi, probably meaning 'enemy', was the name by which the Comanche became known. Their name for themselves was nɨmɨnɨɨ, meaning 'people'. The French, encountering the Comanche before 1740 called the Comanche Padouca, a name they also gave to the Apache, thus causing confusion in the early history of French contact with the two peoples.

Comanche expansion: 18th century
Comanche history for the eighteenth century falls into three broad and distinct categories: (1) the Comanche and their relationship with the Spanish, Puebloans, Ute, and Apache peoples of New Mexico; (2) The Comanche and their relationship with the Spanish, Apache, Wichita, and other peoples of Texas; and, (3) The Comanche and their relationship with the French and the Indian tribes of Oklahoma and Kansas.

By the late 18th century, there were two distinct groups of Comanche. The western bands, resident in New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, and the Texas panhandle were oriented toward the Spanish settlements of New Mexico; the eastern bands in south-western Oklahoma and central Texas were oriented toward the Spanish settlements of Texas. A third challenge to the Comanche were the French and their Indian allies on the eastern border of the Great Plains. In the 19th century the emigrant Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma and the Anglo residents of Texas presented new challenges to the Comanche.

Comanche and New Mexico

In the early 18th century the Ute and Comanche (who were probably the junior partners of the alliance at this time) established their primacy on the northern frontier of Spanish New Mexico, although their depredations consisted mostly of stealing livestock. In 1716, the governor of New Mexico launched an attack against a peaceful Ute/Comanche camp near San Antonio Mountain, 140 km north of the capital of Santa Fe, killing and capturing many and enslaving the captives. After that incident the conflict between the Spanish and Ute/Comanche became more violent. In 1719, the Ute and Comanche carried out a large raid in the Taos area and killed several people. The Spanish governor organized an expedition to punish the Indians and an army of more than 700, mostly Pueblos and Apache, marched north to the Arkansas River valley and searched for two months without finding a single Ute or Comanche. However, the expedition learned that the Apache peoples in southern Colorado were suffering heavy attacks from the Ute and Comanche. Several of the Apache bands would shortly seek safety nearer to the Spanish settlements in New Mexico; other bands would remain hostile to both the Spanish and the Comanche.

In the 1720s, the Comanche completed the conquest of the Arkansas River valley of Colorado, and in the 1730s they became the first fully-mounted, bison-hunting nomads of the Great Plains—the first American Indians to make the cultural shift to an equestrian economy. The Comanche pushed the Apache south and west off the Great Plains and continued to expand southward. The Comanche grew apart from their Ute allies, both culturally and politically in the 1730s, and in 1749, the Ute asked the Spanish in New Mexico for military assistance against the Comanche. The war between the Ute and Comanche would continue for the remainder of the 18th century, although the Comanche had greater priorities than the Ute.

The Puebloan and Spanish population in New Mexico in 1749 was only 15,000 and the Comanche, despite several military reverses, began to dominate the colony, alternately trading and raiding. In 1747, a Spanish and Puebloan force of more than 500 men attacked a Comanche and Ute camp near the Chama River, killing 107 of the Indians and capturing 206. In 1751, Spanish and Puebloan troops trapped 300 Comanche in a box canyon and killed 112 and captured 33. These defeats caused the Comanche to sue for peace. The peace agreement of 1752 was favorable to the Comanche, granting them trade privileges and treatment as a sovereign nation, and freeing them to make war on the Ute. In 1761, after a minor dispute, the Spanish joined the Ute, attacked a Comanche encampment and killed more than 400 and captured 300 people. The resultant peace agreement in 1762 was again mostly favorable to the Comanche granting them status as allies rather than enemies of the Spanish in New Mexico.

The 1762 peace agreement broke down after 1767 and the Comanche embarked on an intense campaign which over several years killed hundreds of Spanish and Puebloans and left the Rio Grande valley of New Mexico in ruins. In 1774, the Spanish responded. Six hundred soldiers surrounded a band of Comanches and killed 300 men, women, and children and took more than 100 prisoners. Being taken prisoner by the Spanish usually meant transport to the mines of Mexico or the sugar plantations of the Caribbean for men and slavery in Spanish households for women and children. Undeterred by their occasional defeats, the Comanche continued to strengthen their economic and political hold on New Mexico.

The last major battle between the New Mexican settlers and the Comanche took place in 1779. The governor of New Mexico, Juan Bautista de Anza, an experienced Indian fighter, took the war to the Comanche in their own country. With 800 men, including 200 Ute and Apache auxiliaries, he marched north and killed Cuerno Verde ("Green Horn") the most important Comanche war leader and many of his followers in the Greenhorn Valley south of Pueblo, Colorado. Raids dropped off noticeably but did not halt entirely. In the summer of 1785, De Anza let it be known that he was interested in making peace with the Comanches if they could agree on a single leader to represent them. The idea took root and received a major push when the eastern Comanche in Texas signed a peace treaty, negotiated by Pedro Vial and Francisco Xavier Chaves, that autumn with Texas Governor Domingo Cabello y Robles.

Among the western Comanche, the main opposition to peace was a leader named White Bull (Toro Blanco). The peace faction of the Comanche assassinated him and the Kotsoteka, Jupe, and Yamparika sub-tribes gave the power to make peace to a leader named Ecueracapa. After two meetings at Pecos and another in a Comanche camp early in 1786, De Anza sent a signed treaty to Mexico City in July. De Anza also arranged a truce between the Ute and Comanche, while gaining a Comanche alliance with the Spanish against the Apache, many groups of which were hostile to the Spanish. The 1786 agreement ended major hostilities between the Comanche and the Spanish and Puebloans of New Mexico.

The peace of 1786 endured. The Comanche and Spanish undertook joint operations against their common Apache enemy. The Spanish extended their settlements eastward onto the Great Plains and the population of New Mexico increased. The Spanish showered the Comanche with gifts and removed trade restrictions on guns and ammunition. A few Comanche sent their children to Spanish schools. Travelers crossed the Plains from east to west without danger. A class of traders, called Comancheros, transported Spanish goods into the Comanche heartland in the Texas panhandle and traded for buffalo robes, meat, and horses.

With a safe-haven in New Mexico, the Comanche began to raid deep into Mexico. In 1841 New Mexico Governor Manuel Armijo was ordered by the Mexican central government to join a military campaign against the Comanche, but Armijo declined. "To declare war on the Comanches would bring complete ruin to the Department of New Mexico."

Comanche and Texas

Similar to the Spanish colonies in New Mexico, the struggling Spanish colonies in Texas barely survived Apache and Comanche hostility during the 18th century. In the 1770s the Spanish population of Texas was only about 3,000 although the Spanish were reinforced by being allied at one time or another with many of the Indian tribes of the colony.

The first record of the Comanche in Spanish Texas is 1743 when a scouting party visited San Antonio. By that time, the Comanche had already pushed the Apache off the Great Plains into southern Texas where they became the Lipan Apache, to the deserts of the southwest, or into close proximity and alliance with the Spanish in New Mexico. The Spanish and Lipan had initially been at war with each other but in 1749 they made peace in common accord to resist the Comanche threat. The peace endured only a few years.

In Texas in the 1750s, the Comanche allied themselves with the group of tribes the Spanish called Norteños or northerners as they resided north of the Spanish settlements. The Norteños consisted of the Wichita, especially their sub-tribe of the Taovayas who had moved southward to the Red River valley of Oklahoma and Texas about 1750, the Tonkawa of the Texas plains and the Hasinais, the westernmost of the Caddo people. In 1758 a large band of Norteños, including Comanches, sacked the San Saba Mission, established by the Spanish to advance northward from San Antonio and to make Christians of the Lipan. In 1759, a Spanish and Indian army of more than 500 men attempted revenge for San Saba by attacking two large fortified Taovaya villages in the Red River Valley near Spanish Fort, Texas. They were defeated in the Battle of the Twin Villages by the Taovaya and the Comanche.

Initially, the Comanche in Texas traded meat and buffalo pelts to the Taovayas and other Wichita sub-tribes, who were farmers, for agricultural products, especially maize. The Wichita also served as middlemen for the trade of Comanche horses to Spanish colonies in Louisiana. In the 1770s that alliance broke down. The Wichitas were severely weakened by outbreaks of European diseases. The Comanche moved eastward to the Brazos River and began to trade directly with the Spanish and French population of Louisiana. Meanwhile, the Spanish in Texas were also menaced by the powerful Osage tribe on its northeastern frontier and Apache raids south of the Rio Grande River in Mexico and began seeking peace with the Comanche. However, in 1778 the massacre of a Comanche peace delegation in eastern Texas ignited the most serious Comanche attacks on Spanish settlements and other Indian tribes yet seen in Texas. The Spanish dream of a powerful colony in Texas to counter the advance of British and French colonists was dashed as Spanish Texas came under heavy assault by the Comanche.

In 1780-1781, a smallpox epidemic reduced the Indian population, including the Comanche. The epidemic, plus a realization by both Spanish and Comanche that they had other interests and enemies, led to moves toward peace by both parties. In 1785, brokered by the Wichita, Pedro Vial and Comanche-speaking Francisco Xavier Chaves negotiated an agreement with the eastern Comanche which included large gifts to the Comanche and the return by the Comanche of all Spanish prisoners they held captive. As mentioned above that agreement led to a similar agreement between the Spanish of New Mexico and the western Comanche in 1786.

Comanche and the French, Osage, and Pawnee
The French had few face-to-face contacts with the Comanche. Their contacts were indirect through the Indian tribes that they traded with on the eastern border of the Great Plains. French traders were living along the lower Missouri River and in Louisiana early in the 18th century. The French interest was economic as opposed to the Spanish interests in colonizing, exploiting mineral wealth, and spreading Christianity among the Native American peoples. In 1720, the Spanish sent out a military expedition to expel French traders from the plains, but most of the members of the Villasur expedition were killed by the Pawnee in Nebraska. The first Frenchmen known to have met the Comanche were the brothers Pierre Antoine and Paul Mallet in 1739. The Mallets met the "Laitane" (Comanche) along the Arkansas River in Colorado. The French brokered a peace agreement between the Wichita and the Comanche in 1746.

The most powerful tribe the Comanche faced in the eastern Great Plains were the Osage who prevented the Comanche from advancing eastwards beyond approximately the middle portion of both Kansas and Oklahoma. In the 18th century the Osage expanded from their Missouri home onto the Great Plains to hunt bison and satisfy the French demand for bison robes and slaves. The Osage had ready access to French products, including guns. The hostility of the Osage forced the Wichita, trading partners and allies of the Comanche, to move southward from northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas to the Red River Valley of Oklahoma and Texas about 1750. In northern Kansas and Nebraska, the Comanche were sporadically at war with the Pawnee, another powerful tribe allied with the French. From the 1740s onward the Comanche raided the Pawnee for slaves and the Pawnee raided the Comanche for horses.

Rise and fall: nineteenth century
In 1805, the governor of Louisiana James Wilkinson said the Comanche were "the most powerful nation of savages on this continent." The Comanche controlled 200000 sqmi of the Great Plains, possessed a marketable commodity with their large herds of horses, and relied on the seemingly inexhaustible herds of bison for subsistence. A smallpox epidemic had thinned their numbers in 1780-1781. Reoccurrences of smallpox and other European diseases would continue to cause a decline in their numbers, but they still numbered about 20,000 as their population was bolstered by captives adopted into the tribe. (In 1823, the Mexican government estimated that the eastern Comanche had 2,500 captives among their numbers, and that was not counting a sizeable number of persons who had voluntarily joined the tribe. An estimate from the early 1830s claimed 500 to 600 not counting Native Americans in slavery. In 1790 the Comanche added new Native American partners: 2,000 Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache joined them as allies in Comancheria. The peace agreements with the Spanish remained mostly effective, keeping a delicate balance between "accommodation and antagonism." The Spanish continued to give gifts and hospitality to the Comanche. The French were gone after 1803 when they sold Louisiana to the United States.

Anglo-Americans on the borders of Comancheria provided a new market and new dangers for the Comanche. The Spanish were few in numbers; the Americans were numerous. The Spanish and Puebloan population of New Mexico was 25,000 in 1800 and was increasing after decades of war with the Comanche. Texas had a Spanish population of perhaps 5,000. In contrast, the United States had a population of 10 million in 1820 and Anglo-Americans were beginning to settle in Texas. The Anglo market for Comanche horses and mules was large. Irish-born Phillip Nolan was one of the first American traders with the Comanche in the 1790s.

The peace with the Spanish in Texas suffered stains after 1795 and in New Mexico when the Mexican War of Independence began in 1810, although the Comanche continued to trade with the Spanish. The tribute extended to the Comanche dried up as the new country of Mexico had few resources to devote to its remote provinces. In 1822 the Mexicans made a grand effort to reduce the Comanche threat by inviting a delegation of Comanche leaders to Mexico City and signing a treaty "between the Mexican Empire and the Comanche Nation" that granted many trading privileges to the Comanche. In 1824, attempting to secure the survival of the settlements in Texas, the Mexican government opened Texas to foreign settlers and the Anglo-Americans, who were already trading extensively with the Comanche, swarmed in. The concern of the Mexicans was real. In 1825, 330 Comanche rode into San Antonio, the capital and largest city of Texas, and remained there for six days, looting and enjoying themselves. In 1832, 500 Comanche occupied San Antonio for several days without any resistance from Mexican soldiers. The weakness of Mexican Texas enabled the Anglos to win the independence of Texas from Mexico in 1836.

Comanche and independent Texas: 1836–1845
By 1836, when Texas gained independence, the inflow of Anglo immigrants had erased the demographic advantage of the Comanche and their allies. From fewer than 5,000 Spanish in the early 19th century, the population of Texas in 1836 was 38,000 Spanish and Anglo inhabitants. The population of Native Americans in Texas, including the Comanche, was estimated at 14,000 (possibly an underestimate). Moreover, as the Anglo population of Texas grew rapidly, the Indians suffered additional losses from smallpox in the late 1830s. In 1840, however, the Comanche gained important allies. An agreement with the southern branches of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes ended a wasting war on the Comanche's northern frontier and gained about 2,000 new allies. The Cheyenne and Arapaho were allowed to live in Comancheria and, as customary, the peace makers exchanged gifts. The Comanche were generous. They gave about five horses from their vast herds to each Cheyenne and Arapaho man and woman.

The new Republic of Texas had immediate problems with the Comanche. In May 1836, Comanche and Kiowa warriors killed five men and captured five women and children at Fort Parker, 100 miles south of Dallas. One of the captives was 9-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker who later married a chief, Peta Nocona, and gave birth to a son, Quanah Parker, who would become the last war chief of the Comanche in the 1870s. The egalitarian and acquisitive nature of Comanche society facilitated the integration of captives into the tribe as they needed labor to manage their large domain.

The first President of Texas, Sam Houston, negotiated with the Comanche with the objective of establishing a firm border between the Anglo settlers and Comancheria. His successor Mirabeau B. Lamar, confronted the Comanche directly. In 1840, the Comanche sent a peace delegation to San Antonio and in a dispute about captives the Texas soldiers killed 35 Comanche, many of them chiefs, in the Council House Fight. In response the Comanche under a surviving chief, Buffalo Hump, launched the Great Raid of 1840, sacking the towns of Victoria and Linville (near the Gulf of Mexico), killing several people, and capturing a huge amount of goods. With the help of Tonkawa scouts, Texas militia ambushed the retreating (and careless) Comanche in the Battle of Plum Creek near Lockhart, Texas, recovering some of the goods and killing several Comanche. Later that year, Texas militia attacked a Comanche village and killed 140 men, women, and children.

Mirabeau's campaigns against the Comanche bankrupted the Texas government and both Texas and the Comanche sought peace. A treaty between the Republic of Texas and Texas Comanches was ratified in December 1845. It established a line of trading houses which functioned as a border between Texas and Comancheria. The Comanche agreed to refrain from raiding in Texas in exchange for gifts and trading privileges with Texans.

Raiding Mexico: 1779–1870

After 1840, Comanche policy in Texas became more defensive. Instead, the Comanche prioritized accessing the riches to be found south of the U.S. border in Mexico. The Comanche raided south of the Rio Grande as early as 1779, their target being the Lipan Apache. In the 1820s, the newly independent and weak Mexican state could not defend its northern outposts, nor provide the Comanche the yearly tribute to which they were accustomed. In 1826, responding to the increased threat, the government of Nuevo Leon forbade its citizens in the northern portions of the state to travel in the countryside except in groups of at least 30 armed and mounted men. Large scale Comanche raids began in 1840 and continued until 1870. The Comanche and their allies, the Kiowa and other tribes, raided hundreds of miles south of the border, killing thousands of people and stealing hundreds of thousands of head of livestock, much of which they sold to Anglo-Americans in the United States. In 1848, traveler Josiah Gregg said that "the whole country from New Mexico to the borders of Durango is almost entirely depopulated. The haciendas and ranchos have been mostly abandoned, and the people chiefly confined to the towns and cities."

The northern states of Mexico and the soldiers and militia they could muster were left on their own to deal with the Comanche raids. The national government of Mexico was "too incapacitated by fiscal insolvency, civil war, and, ultimately, foreign intervention" to assist the north.

Comanche and the United States: 1845–1875

When the United States annexed Texas in 1845, it negotiated a treaty with the Comanches and other Texas tribes to replace the Texas treaty of the previous year. This was done in May 1846 on the upper Brazos River (Butler-Lewis Treaty). Signed by the Penateka/Hois Comanches, Ioni, Anadarko, Caddo, Lipan Apache, Wichita, and Waco), the treaty promised, besides peace and friendship, trading posts, a visit by a Comanche delegation to Washington, D.C., and a one-time payment of $18,000 in goods. A boundary line between Comancheria and Texas was alluded to, but not defined.

The Comanche delegation went east shortly afterwards and met President James K. Polk, but with the Mexican War just beginning, Congress had more important concerns, and the Senate adjourned without ratifying the treaty. By the time the treaty was amended and ratified in March 1847, the Comanches were certain they had been betrayed. War was averted only when traders and Indian agents advanced credit to send part of the promised gifts. When the amendments were read to the Comanches, the meeting almost ended, but eventually they agreed to the changes. Additional money was appropriated for more gifts, but once again, a boundary line was never established.

Meanwhile, there was a serious question over whose responsibility it was to deal with the Texas tribes, the federal or the state government. The problem was not settled until after the Civil War. In the interim, policy was set by both, and this was confusing, so the 1846 peace treaty brought very little peace to Texas.

In May 1847, Texas allowed the German settlers near Fredericksburg and New Braunfels to make their own treaty with the Texas Comanches. In exchange for land, the Germans promised a trading post and gifts. Unfortunately, the Germans not only encroached beyond the agreed boundary, but were slow to pay, and in response the Comanches made raids. A boundary line was eventually set by the Texas governor but was to be enforced by the American army which had taken over the line of Texas forts on the frontier. Army commanders felt they had no authority to enforce state laws, and meanwhile, Texas continued to operate its ranger companies, which were not under federal control, as military units. The Rangers did nothing to prevent encroachment on Comanche lands but would retaliate if the new settlements beyond the line were attacked. To make matters worse, only the Penateka had signed the 1846 treaty. The Nokoni, Tenawa, and other Comanches did not consider themselves bound by the agreement and continued to raid in Texas.

On the other side of Comancheria, many things had changed with the beginning of the Mexican War in 1846. An American army under General Stephen W. Kearny seized Santa Fé and moved on to California. The Santa Fé Trail became a heavily-travelled military supply route, and forts were built to protect it. Five companies of Missouri volunteers were sent to garrison these posts during the summer of 1847 and quickly became engaged in fights with Plains Indians. At least one of these at Fort Mann involved the Pawnee. In the other cases, the fights were probably with Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Arapaho, and the amount of Comanche involvement is uncertain.

The first part of 1848 was relatively calm, and during that year, Texas Comanches even provided guides for the survey of the route of the new Butterfield (California) trail across southern Texas to El Paso and California. The calm changed suddenly with the California Gold Rush. As thousands of gold-seekers raced west, they needed horses, and the Comanches moved to meet this new demand. Horse raids increased in Texas, but the major target was northern Mexico. Comanche raids struck deep into Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Durango, reaching their peak during 1852 when they struck Tepic, then in Jalisco, 700 mi south of the border at El Paso. To protect the immigrant routes across the plains, the United States called the "Peace on the Plains" conference at Fort Laramie (Wyoming) in 1851. This was an attempt to end, or at least limit, intertribal warfare by defining boundaries between tribal territories.

Almost every plains tribe attended and signed the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty, and received gifts. The Comanches and Kiowa did not attend. A smallpox epidemic had broken out in their villages, and there was a deep distrust of the northern tribes. Since the Santa Fé Trail was a vital route, it was essential to reach an agreement with them. As the southern Plains tribes gathered around Fort Atkinson for the distribution of the annuities from the Fort Laramie treaty, large groups of Kiowa and Comanches also came, and they were not in a good mood.

Eventually, 6,000 to 9,000 Indians were gathered in the vicinity, and the situation was becoming dangerous. The American agent took it upon himself to distribute $9,000 in gifts to the Comanches and Kiowa, and in 1853 the Kiowa and Yamparika signed their own treaty at Fort Atkinson. In return for safe passage and a promise to stop raiding in Mexico, the United States agreed to pay those tribes $18,000 per year for ten years.

There were several reasons the Comanches and Kiowas had been angry in 1852. The first was they had recently been devastated by epidemics of smallpox and cholera. Their first experience with smallpox had been an epidemic (1780–81) so severe that it caused the disappearance of some Comanche divisions. The Comanche were hit again by smallpox during the winter of 1816–17. The wave of immigration from the California Gold Rush first brought smallpox (1848) and then cholera (1849) to the Great Plains. These were devastating to every plains tribe, but especially to the Comanches and Kiowa. The government census estimated a drop in the Comanches' 1849 population of 20,000 to 12,000 by 1851, and the Comanches never recovered from this loss. Smallpox struck again from New Mexico during 1862 and is believed to have been equally devastating. Cholera returned in 1867. By 1870, the Comanches numbered less than 8,000, and their numbers were still dropping rapidly.

The Comanches kept their promise for safe passage on the Santa Fe Trail, but remained angry about events in Texas where white settlers continued to encroach deeper and deeper into Comancheria and the Texas Rangers were still attacking them. As the frontier advanced, the American army built a new line of forts; when it advanced further, a third line was built. At first these outposts had been garrisoned almost entirely with infantry, allowing the Comanche to simply by-passed them. Within a few years however, the infantry was replaced by new light-cavalry regiments. In all, it took three lines of forts and most of the army's pre-Civil War strength to keep the Comanches in Texas in check.

Even more aggravating from the Comanches' point of view were posts like Fort Stockton at Comanche Springs, which were intended to block the "Great Comanche War Trail" leading to northern Mexico. The Americans were required by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to prevent raids into Mexico. Between 1848 and 1853, Mexico filed 366 separate claims for Comanche and Apache raids originating from north of the border.

Not all efforts to deal with the Texas Comanches were limited to military force. In 1854 the Texas legislature provided 23,000 acres (93 km²) for the United States to established three reservations on the upper Brazos River for the Texas tribes. Besides Caddo, Delaware, Wichita, and Tonkawa, the United States Indian agent, Robert Neighbors, convinced some Penateka Comanche to move to these locations. Camp Cooper (commanded in 1856 by LTC Robert E. Lee) was built nearby. Almost immediately, local settlers began to accuse the reservation tribes of stealing horses and other depredations. Many of these accusations were either exaggerations, lies, or referred to raids by Comanches from the Staked Plains. The situation became dangerous in 1858 after the army abandoned Camp Cooper.

Texas urged the army to make greater efforts against Comanches beyond its borders after the Texas Rangers discovered that bands of Kiowa and Comanche were using the Indian Territory in Oklahoma, as a sanctuary from which to raid into Texas and then elude pursuit after. Between 1858 and 1860, the army's new light-cavalry regiments were used for an offensive against Comanches in Oklahoma. In May, 1858 Colonel John Ford's Texas Rangers, ignoring the state-line, attacked a Comanche village on Little Robe Creek. Three months later his Caddo, Delaware, and Tonkawa scouts were expelled from Texas as undesirables. In October, 1858 Captain Earl Van Dorn attacked a Comanche village at Rush Springs killing 83. The following May, Van Dorn struck the Comanches at Crooked Creek in Kansas.

The result of this offensive by the army and Rangers was to cause trouble elsewhere. Attacked from Texas, Comanches and Kiowa separated into small bands and moved north near the Santa Fe Trail. In response to increased Indian attacks on the trail during the summer of 1860, three columns of cavalry were sent into the area on a punitive expedition. In July, the command of Captain Samuel D. Sturgis made a major contact. After an eight-day chase, he fought a battle with Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and, presumably, some Comanches.

During the spring of 1859, a mob of 250 settlers attacked the reservation, but were repulsed. As Neighbors was hated by local Texans, rather than continue to fight them, he arranged to close the reservations and move the residents to Indian Territory. The peaceful Penateka were forced to leave Texas, along with tribes that had never fought Texans, including the Tonkawa, Caddo, and Delaware, who had served loyally as scouts for the Texas Rangers. After leaving his charges at the new Wichita agency at Anadarko, Neighbors started back to his home in Texas but never made it, near Belknap, he was ambushed and shot in the back.

When federal soldiers withdrew from the region entirely following the outbreak of the Civil War, Confederate troops initially replaced them. Albert Pike, the newly appointed Indian Agent for the Confederate States of America, signed two treaties with Comanches in August, 1861; one with the Penateka, and a second with the Nokoni, Yamparika, Tenawa, and Kotsoteka. Besides the usual promises of peace and friendship, the Comanches were promised a large amount of goods and services. Because the Confederacy needed every cent it had to fight the war, the Comanches never received what was promised. For the same reasons, Texas had to send most of its men and soldiers east to fight against the Union, as a result, most of the federal forts and outposts that had held the Comanche at bay for a generation could no longer be manned and were abandoned. With the frontier unguarded and the Confederate treaty promises unfulfilled, Comanches began raids intended to drive settlement back. The Texas frontier retreated over 100 mi during the Civil War, and northern Mexico was hit by a new wave of Comanche raids.

The war also provided the Comanches with an opportunity to seek revenge against the Tonkawa. The Comanche disdained the Tonkawa for their prior service as scouts with the Texas Rangers; but the Texas Comanches had a special hatred for the Tonkawa ever since they had killed and eaten the brother of one of their chiefs. The Comanches were not a gentle people, but they found cannibalism repulsive.

After Texas Indian agents had taken over administration of the Wichita Agency in Oklahoma, Comanches participated in an attack on the agency (October, 1862) by pro-Union Delaware and Shawnee from Kansas. When it was over, 300 Tonkawa had been massacred. The survivors crossed the Red River and settled near Fort Griffin. In the years following, they would exact their revenge by serving as army scouts against the Comanches.

After 1861, Comanches, Kiowa, Cheyenne and Arapaho almost succeeded in closing the Santa Fé Trail. When federal officials at Fort Wise learned the Comanches had signed treaties with the Confederacy, they were certain that they had become hostile. While the rest of the nation was bleeding itself to death on eastern battlefields, the ranks of the Union army on the frontier were filled with men who were unemployed, did not wish to fight in the war, and hated Indians. By the fall of 1863, the performance of these "soldiers" had provoked a general alliance between the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanches, and Kiowa-Apache.

In the autumn of 1864, Colonel Kit Carson was sent at the head of a column from Fort Bascom, New Mexico into the Staked Plains to chastise the Comanches and Kiowa. His Jicarilla and Ute scouts located their camps on November 24. Carson had found more Comanches and Kiowa than he could chastise, and the First Battle of Adobe Walls came very close to being "Carson's Last Stand." Only the skillful use of artillery kept the Yamparika and Kiowa from massing and overrunning his position. Afterwards, Carson returned to New Mexico and left the chastising of Comanches to others.

In the final days of the Civil War, the Confederacy made a final attempt to exploit the hostility of the plains tribes that had been provoked by the federal volunteers. In May, 1865 a council was held on the Washita River in western Oklahoma. It was well attended by the Comanches and other tribes, but Robert E. Lee had surrendered in Virginia two-weeks prior, effectively ending any hope for the continuation of the Confederacy.

That summer, while the Union celebrated its victory, the plains were in turmoil. The Santa Fé and Overland trails were closed, and virtually every plains tribe was at war with the United States. As federal troops began to re-occupy their posts in Texas, the Great Plains and Indian Territory, government commissioners met with the plains tribes in October on the Little Arkansas River near Wichita to arrange a peace. The Little Arkansas Treaty of 1865 gave the Comanches and Kiowa western Oklahoma, the entire Texas Panhandle, and promised annuities of $15 per person for forty years.

Of the Comanche divisions, only the Yamparika, Nokoni, Penateka, and Tenewa were parties to the agreement; the Kwahada and Kotsoteka were not. The Kiowa-Apache did not sign the Comanche-Kiowa version but asked to be included under the Cheyenne-Arapaho treaty. This served as an indication of how unstable the situation was. When the annuities arrived, there was widespread disappointment. The Comanches had expected guns, ammunition, and quality goods; what they got were rotten civil war rations and cheap blankets that fell apart in the rain. The peace was soon violated by both sides, and war resumed for another two years. It was a bitter struggle, and General William Sherman finally ordered the army not to pay ransom for white captives held by Indians to avoid giving them incentive for further kidnappings.

While the army was making its own plans to deal with the hostiles by force, the federal government decided to make one final effort to resolve the conflict through treaty. The result was a milestone peace conference held at Medicine Lodge Creek in southern Kansas (October, 1867). In exchange for a wagon train of gifts brought by the commissioners and the payment of annual annuities, the Comanches and Kiowa signed the Medicine Lodge Treaty exchanging Comancheria for a 3 million acre (12,000 km²) reservation in southwestern Oklahoma. The arrangement did not work as intended. Because of an outbreak of cholera in their camps, the Kwahada neither attended the conference nor signed the treaty. Afterwards, they did not consider themselves bound by the Medicine Lodge Treaty, and chose to remain on the Staked Plains.

Most of the other Comanches moved to the vicinity of Fort Cobb and remained on the reservation for the winter, but since the treaty was not yet ratified, there was no money to pay for rations. After a starvation winter, most of the Comanches and Kiowa at Fort Cobb chose to return to the plains in the summer of 1868. Once again raids were made into Texas and Kansas, and the new reservation was used as a sanctuary to prevent pursuit by the army. Even Fort Dodge was attacked, and its horses stolen. The frustrated Indian agent at Fort Cobb resigned and went east, leaving the mess in the hands of his assistant.

The treaty was ratified in July, and funds were made available, but the responsibility for the administration of annuities was placed with the army. After all tribes were ordered to report to Fort Cobb or be considered hostile, General Philip Sheridan set plans in motion for the winter campaign of 1868–69 against the hostiles in western Oklahoma and the Staked Plains. LTC George Custer and the 7th Cavalry attacked a southern Cheyenne village on the Washita River in November, and Major Andrew Evans struck a Comanche village at Soldiers Spring on Christmas Day. Afterwards, most of the Comanches and other tribes still on the plains returned to the agencies.

In March, 1869 the Comanche-Kiowa agency was relocated to Fort Sill and the Cheyenne-Arapaho agency to Darlington. Only the Kwahada were still on the Staked Plains. The Kiowa and other Comanches were on the reservation, but by the fall of 1869 small war parties were occasionally leaving to raid in Texas. During one of these raids near Jacksboro in May, 1871, the Kiowa almost killed William Tecumseh Sherman, commanding general of the United States army. "Great Warrior" Sherman was conducting an inspection tour of western posts, when a Kiowa war party noticed his lone ambulance and small escort. They chose instead to attack a nearby supply train. When Sherman learned of his narrow escape, he was furious and proceeded directly to Fort Sill. When he discovered the Kiowa chiefs were openly bragging about the latest raid, he ordered their arrest and sent them to Texas for trial. After a Texas court sentenced them to life imprisonment, the Comanches and Kiowa launched a series of retaliatory raids that killed more than 20 Texans in 1872. At the same time, Texas civilians stole 1,900 horses from the tribes at Fort Sill.

Meanwhile, the army in Texas was trying to deal with the raids from the reservation and massive thefts of Texas cattle by the Kwahada for sale to New Mexico Comancheros. In October, 1871 a raid led by Quanah Parker stole seventy horses from the army at Rock Station. The commanding officer, Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie, did not take this lightly. For the next two years, Mackenzie and his black cavalry troopers ranged the Staked Plains chasing the Kwahada. The campaign ended with an attack on a Comanche village at McClellan Creek (September, 1872). Mackenzie captured 130 women and children and held them hostage at Fort Concho. This slowed the raiding while the Comanches negotiated for their release. In April, 1873 they were released and sent under escort to Fort Sill. A detour had to be made around Jacksboro to prevent a riot. At the request of the Secretary of the Interior, Texas Governor Edmund J. Davis paroled the Kiowa chiefs in October after they had served only two years on the condition that the raiding stop. The Kiowa were grateful, but an occasional war party still slipped off the reservation, crossed the Red River, and headed south into Texas.

Buffalo hunting
Meanwhile, the great slaughter of the plains buffalo had begun. Between 1865 and 1875, the number of buffalo on the Great Plains fell from fifteen million to less than one million. Unofficially sanctioned by army commanders who issued free ammunition to hunters, it destroyed the basis for the plains tribes' way of life. During the winter of 1873–74, Cheyenne hunters returned to the Darlington agency to report that Kansas buffalo hunters were destroying the southern buffalo herds. As this news spread, violence erupted at the Darlington and Wichita agencies, which had to be put down by troops. Afterwards, large groups of Cheyenne left the reservation and headed for the plains. At first the Comanches and Kiowa thought the Cheyenne were mistaken, but their story of the plains littered with dead buffalo was eventually confirmed.

Second Battle of Adobe Walls
In December, the government decided to deal harshly with the Kiowa and Comanches to end the raids in Texas. The agent at Fort Sill was ordered to limit rations and suspend the distribution of ammunition. A sense of general panic set in, and by May several groups of Comanches and Kiowa had left the reservation. At first they were uncertain what to do. Several Comanches had recently been killed in Texas by Tonkawa scouts, and some of the first thoughts were of revenge. However, the agent had learned of their departure and purpose and had alerted the army.

After some discussion, a decision was made to attack the buffalo hunters on the Staked Plains. In June, 1874 a large Comanche-Cheyenne war party attacked twenty-three buffalo hunters camped in the Texas Panhandle at the site of Carson's 1864 battle at Adobe Walls. The Second Battle of Adobe Walls marked the beginning of the Buffalo War (or Red River War) (1874–75), the last great Indian war on the southern plains. After the initial rush failed, the Comanches came under fire from the hunters' long-range buffalo guns and were forced to retire. The uprising spread rapidly as more warriors left the agencies and joined the hostiles on the Staked Plains. To halt this, soldiers began to disarm the Comanches and Kiowa who had remained on the agencies. In August, groups of Penateka were peacefully drawing rations at the Wichita agency when soldiers stationed at the agency demanded they surrender their weapons. When this was refused, a fight broke out and the Comanches fled, but the agency was under siege for the next two days until it was relieved by troops from Fort Sill.

By September only 500 Kiowa and Comanche were still on the reservation; the others were out on the Staked Plains. That same month the army began to move. Three converging columns moved into the heart of the Staked Plains. Trapped between them, the Comanches, Kiowa, and Cheyenne had little rest. Colonel Nelson A. Miles' column made the first contact and defeated a group of Cheyenne near McClellan Creek. For the Comanches, Cheyenne, and Kiowa, the major blow occurred when Mackenzie located a mixed camp hidden in Palo Duro Canyon (September 26–27). After driving off the warriors during a short battle on September 28, he burned the camp and killed 2,000 captured horses.

There were few other encounters, but the relentless pressure and pursuit throughout the fall and winter had its effect. Starving, the remaining Comanches, Kiowa, and Cheyenne began to return to the agencies, mostly on foot because they had been forced to eat their horses. By December there were 900 on the Fort Sill reservation. In April, 200 Kwahada, who had never submitted, surrendered at Fort Sill. In June the last 400 Kwahada, including Isatai'i and Quanah Parker, surrendered. The war was over. Mackenzie disposed of many of the Comanche and Kiowa horses. After giving 100 to his Tonkawa scouts, he sold 1,600 horses and mules for $22,000. The proceeds were used to buy sheep and goats for his former enemies.

By 1879, the buffalo were gone. That year, the Kiowa-Comanche and Wichita agencies were merged into a single agency. Always pragmatic, the Comanches adjusted, but in typical Comanche style. Taking advantage of his Texas heritage, Quanah Parker emerged as an important Comanche leader. He collected tolls on cattle herds that used the Chisholm Trail to cross the reservation and sold grazing rights to nearby Texas ranchers. Few argued with him about price. With his five wives he moved into a large comfortable house, called the "Star House." It had eight large stars painted on the roof to insure he had more stars than any U.S. army general. He was elected a sheriff and served as a tribal judge. By the time he rode in Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade in 1905, Quanah had amassed 100 horses, 1,000 cattle, and 250 acre of cultivated farmland.

Population history
In 1832 Comanche chiefs told George Catlin that the tribe numbered up to 40,000 people, being able to muster up to 8,000 warriors. This high population appears to be confirmed by Bourgmont who was told by a Comanche chief that the tribe consisted of 12 villages and when Bourgmont visited one of those villages, he found there 800 warriors (if every other village was equally populous, the total number of warriors would be 9,600). In 1774 a French trader, J. Gaignard, wrote that one division of the Comanche (the Naytane, also known as Yamparika) had 4,000 warriors divided into four bands which were never together. In 1786 Spaniards estimated that the Comanches may have numbered up to 30,000. Jedidiah Morse around year 1820 estimated the Comanche at between 38,000 and 41,000. In 1819 three bands of the Comanche were reported as 2,500 warriors. Indian Affairs 1837 reported 19,200 people. Charles Bent in 1847 reported that they had 2,500 lodges. Indian Affairs 1849 reported them as 4,000 warriors and 20,000 total population. Around the middle of the 19th century A. W. Whipple, E. Domenech and H. Howe all reported that the Comanche numbered up to 30,000 people.

The Comanche population apparently rapidly declined in the second half of the 19th century. The census of 1890 found only 1,598 in Oklahoma. According to Indian Affairs there were 1,507 (in 1895), 1,499 (in 1900), 1401 (in 1905) and 1,476 (in 1910).

Comanche population has rebounded in the 20th and 21st centuries. The census of 2020 found 28,193 Comanches in the USA.

title: Comanche history


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Werdau

Werdau is a town in Germany, part of the Landkreis Zwickau in Saxony. It is situated on the river Pleiße, 8 km from Zwickau.

The town was mentioned as early as 1304, and in 1398 it was purchased by Frederick, then margrave of Meissen, who afterwards became Elector of Saxony.

The textile industry was the dominant industry in Werdau since the 14th century. The industrial character of the town further increased in the 20th century with the large-scale truck production by the IFA conglomerate. Both industries were not competitive after the German reunification in 1990, leading to a sharp deindustrialisation. The character of the town changed dramatically over the last 20 years after almost all factories were demolished and the characteristic East-German residential Plattenbauten were scaled back.

In 1905, the city held a contest for the design of a new town hall, as the old one built in 1727 had become too small. The tower and floorplan of one design was combined with the façade of another, and ground was broken for construction on 1 August 1908. It was inaugurated on 26 April 1911, with Frederick Augustus III of Saxony in attendance.

Werdau station is located on the Leipzig–Hof railway.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Werdau


text: User talk:84.9.21.90

title: User talk:84.9.21.90


text:
User talk:Matroy773

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
 * Help pages
 * Tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Manual of Style

title: User talk:Matroy773


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The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers

The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers is an American animated space Western television series created by Robert Mandell and produced by Transcom Media, Inc. and Gaylord Entertainment Company. It was broadcast in syndication between 1986 and 1989. The series combines sci-fi stories with traditional wild west themes. It is one of the first anime-style shows produced mainly in the United States, although the actual animation was done by the Japanese animation studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha. At the time it aired, The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers was considered a revolutionary children's show.

Plot
The show is set in the future, some time after the year 2086, when two aliens from the planets Andor and Kirwin travel to Earth to search for allies against the expansionist Crown Empire led by the Queen of the Crown. In return for the help, the two aliens gave mankind construction plans for a hyperdrive device. After this key event in human history, interstellar travel flourished and a huge number of colonies emerged in distant star-systems. Alongside the growth of human activities in space, criminal activities also grew, and the new colonies required defense against various threats, including the Crown Empire. A group known as "BETA" (Bureau for Extra-Terrestrial Affairs) was founded to cope with these tasks, with a "Ranger" division being a part of it. BETA is shown to be the major military and exploratory arm of Earth. The organization's headquarters are on Earth. BETA sustains several bases on and around Earth, such as the Longshot Research Facility in the Grand Canyon and the BETA space station in Earth's orbit.

Most of the colonies portrayed in the show specialized in either agriculture or mining "star stones". Many of the planets on the show have names that evoke ideas of a Western setting, Nebraska, Mesa, Ozark, and Prairie being a few.

After the catalyst first episode, "Phoenix", where one of the main characters, Zachary Foxx, loses his wife to the Queen of the Crown, he puts together a group called the Galaxy Rangers, dedicated to providing law and order across the new frontier, ultimately trying to get rid of the Crown Empire. Each ranger is equipped with an experimental piece of tech called the Series-5 to boost natural abilities.

The Series-5 Brain Implant, or S5, is implied to be the closest mankind will ever get to merging with cybernetics. The S5 implant enables a dramatic boost of innate abilities due to its unique conversion of bio-electrical power generated by alpha radiation stored within the badges worn by the Galaxy Rangers.

The Crown Empire, also known as the "Crown", is ruled by the Queen of the Crown, whose intentions and motivations are described as being evil. She controls a large number of planets in a vast section of the galaxy, all of which she rules as a cruel tyrant. The Queen controls her empire using creatures called Slaver Lords with whom she has a psychic link. Slaver Lords derive their power from the psychic energy of other beings. After the Empire encountered humans, the Queen discovered that they were more suitable for energy extraction than any other previously encountered species.

Zachary Foxx
Zachary Foxx is the captain of the Series-5 Rangers. He was seriously injured in a battle with a space Pirate named Captain Kidd and his entire left side was replaced with bionics, allowing him to fire blasts of energy with his left arm and giving him extraordinary strength. Within Captain Zachary Foxx, the implant's function is simply to act as a power conduit: triggering the badge activates a sequence of events that supercharges his left-side bionics and enables either a boosting of the myomer muscles and tendons, or a channeling of bio-electrical energy through the bionic amplifiers to produce an energy blast of up to 16 standard carbine shots, which makes him capable of blasting a wall apart, spot-welding circuitry, or possibly punching through a ship's hull. He is married and a father of two. His wife's mind was kidnapped by the Queen of the Crown and is contained in a "psychocrystal".

Foxx was voiced by veteran actor Jerry Orbach.

Shane Gooseman
Shane "Goose" Gooseman was genetically produced in a test tube as part of a government genetic experiment to create a group of enhanced mutant soldiers known as "Supertroopers". A civilian senator dosed the Supertroopers with a gas meant to speed up their mutation and make them more powerful, but it had the side effect of making the Supertroopers more aggressive and mentally unstable. Goose was at the firing range at the time, and thus avoided the gas, thereby becoming the only remaining unaffected trooper. The other troopers had to be cryogenically imprisoned, but some escaped. Goose was given the option to avoid cryogenic freezing on the condition that he join the Galaxy Rangers and hunt down the escaped Supertroopers. His Series-5 bionic implants allow him limited control over his body's molecules giving him the ability to heal, absorb energies, and adapt to various environmental conditions by temporary shape-shifting his body to adapt based on his situation or environment. Goose's implant supercharges his genetic bio-defenses, enabling them to react almost instantly, instead of minutes or hours, as would normally happen. This brings him close to the level of the rogue Supertroopers, and makes him the only one capable of going one-on-one with them in personal combat. His characterization is heavily inspired by Clint Eastwood. It is also noted during the show's credits that he is the only Supertrooper with compassion.

Niko
Niko is an archaeologist specializing in ancient cultures and has innate psychic abilities. She carries a large gun and knows martial arts. Her Series-5 implant boosts her psychic abilities and she can create shields, lift objects, and has clairvoyance. Niko's implant acts as a psychic amplifier, boosting her innate psychic abilities by adding power from the converted radiation into a psionic boost which can increase her range from simple tactile up to light years distant. She can also generate a shield of ambient energy which will dramatically drain her implant, but can be augmented by touching the other rangers and drawing power from them. This shield can defend against all forms of attack, but cannot be held for long. Throughout the series a romantic tension exists between her and Goose.

Niko was born on the failed colony world of Alspeth. After the destruction of her colony, she was found by Ariel and taken to the haven world of Xanadu where her psychic abilities were nurtured. At the age of 19, she left Xanadu to return to her people and joined the Galaxy Rangers. After the academy, she was accepted into the experimental Series-5 program. She was later assigned to the Series-5 Rangers as their mystic and archaeological expert, due to the number of missions they embarked on involving new cultures and varied belief systems.

Walter Hartford
Walter "Doc" Hartford is a swashbuckling character who fights with a sword, a gun, and his fists. He is a computer genius who, along with the BETA Scientist 'Q-Ball', is responsible for most of the automated systems that the Galaxy Rangers use daily. His Series-5 implants allow him to communicate with and control special programs called 'tweakers', which appear as flying holographic computer-animated geometric shapes. Ranger Hartford's implant produces the oddest effects - and they still cannot properly be explained. Commander Walsh puts it best: "Doc Hartford, your implant makes you a computer wizard, able to conjure fantastic programs."

Doc carries a Computer Diagnostic Unit; a compact computer which has advanced diagnostics and maintenance functions, along with sensory and computer linkage capability. The CDU acts as a focus for Doc's implant power, and also as a storage facility for his "tweakers" (Pathfinder, Tripwire, Firefly, Searchlight, Lifeline, and Pixel). His "tweaker" computer programs are part of his personality and offer capabilities far beyond any normal computer program, virus, or worm. His implant gives him control over his "tweakers" via simple verbal communication, and his "tweakers" give Doc control over any computer system.

Hartford, from the Island of Jamaica, was born to wealthy parents, and so he was educated in private school, topped off with Mrs. Abercrombies Charm and Finishing School. He left there to join the Ranger Corps after he signed up with some biochemical corporations to help them produce better computer programs, but found out that his skills were not being challenged.

"No Guts, No Glory"
The theme song for the show, "No Guts, No Glory", was featured in the opening credits and preceded by a spoken introduction. The song was written and composed by Phil Galdston and John Van Tongeren, and performed by Van Tongeren using the stage name Johnny Vancouver. The song was also featured in the end credits for episodes 1-35 and episode 37.

"Rangers Ride Forever"
The song "Rangers Ride Forever" (commonly known as "Rangers Are Forever"), which featured as the end theme for episodes 36 and 38-65, was performed by the UK rock/AOR band FM, whose lead singer is Steve Overland. FM also performed the song "Showdown" (commonly referred to as "Out Beyond The Stars"), which was included as foreground music in several episodes. Both songs were written and composed by brothers Steve and Chris Overland.

Home releases
Hasbro's Entertainment One currently owns the DVD distributions rights to Galaxy Rangers through Koch Vision (and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in several non-US countries). Four Galaxy Rangers DVDs, each containing four episodes, were released in the United States. Koch has released the entire series which consists of two box sets. The first set was released on May 13, 2008 and the second set was released on August 19, 2008

KSM Film in Germany released the series on DVD in 5 episode volumes from May to November 2005, 25 episode volumes from April to August 2006, a complete set (65 episodes over 4 discs) in June 2008 with a Blu-ray (65 episodes on 1 disc) version released in November 2012. The Blu Ray version is presented in standard definition.

Reception
The show has become a cult favorite and been considered innovative and ahead of its time. It had a unique sense of humor, and each character was well defined, without the trait of clichés to sell toys which was common among shows at that time.

title: The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers


text: User talk:80.56.86.189

title: User talk:80.56.86.189


text:
DHL International Aviation ME

DHL International Aviation ME (Correct name DHL Aviation EEMEA B.S.C. (C), and sometimes branded as SNAS/DHL) is a cargo airline based in Bahrain. It employs 265 workers to dispatch, fly and maintain a fleet of Boeing 767 freighters operating under a Bahraini AOC. DHL International is the central platform for DHL Air Network Operations in the Middle East. It is wholly owned by Deutsche Post and operates the group's DHL-branded parcel and express services in the Middle East and North Africa as part of DHL Aviation. Its main base is Bahrain International Airport.

History
The airline began dedicated cargo flights between Bahrain and Riyadh in 1979 with a Fokker F27 Friendship. In 1980, with demand for a reliable overnight service increasing, the Fairchild Metro were introduced. With its fast cruising speed of 250 knots, this aircraft proved to be ideal for this type of service and destinations soon expanded to include Dubai, Kuwait and Jeddah. In 2004, larger jet aircraft were introduced with the deployment of 6 Boeing 727s. The Middle East is today connected into DHL's network via dedicated long haul flights from the US, Europe and Asia.

Current fleet
As of August 2023, the DHL International fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Former fleet
DHL International formerly operated the following aircraft:
 * Boeing 727-200F
 * Boeing 757-200PCF
 * Boeing 757-200SF
 * Boeing 767-200BDSF
 * Convair CV-540
 * Fairchild Metro 23
 * Fairchild Metro III
 * Fokker F27 Friendship

Accidents and incidents

 * 2002 Überlingen mid-air collision: On July 1, 2002, DHL Flight 611, a Boeing 757-200PF (registered as A9C-DHL) was flying from Bergamo, Italy, to Brussels, Belgium. The aircraft was flying over southern Germany when it collided with a BAL Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154M on a charter flight from Moscow, Russia to Barcelona, Spain, over the city of Überlingen near the German-Swiss border. The DHL plane’s tail slammed into the fuselage of the Tu-154. The collision killed the 2 crew members on board the Boeing 757, and all 69 passengers and crew on the Tupolev, mostly Russian schoolchildren from Bashkortostan on a vacation, organized by the local UNESCO committee, to the Costa Dorada region of Spain.

title: DHL International Aviation ME


text:
User:Nihonfreak

Mission
Old time Wiki lurker from Chile. Trying to factcheck and improve Chile-related pages in english.

title: User:Nihonfreak


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Talk:Riprap

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 10 September 2020 and 15 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Biostudent2.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 08:12, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Coast Management article merge tag
I disagree with merging this article into Coast Management. Riprap has many other uses besides Coast Mangement (sp?), such as biofilters, bioswales, dam spillways, drainage fields and drywells. --Duk 18:56, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

Merging this into Coast Management is a good idea, because it plays a vital role in Coast Line Management, but then it should be merged into all areas for which it fits. (Civil Engineering)- LSD

Per the Arbor Day Foundation, but I don't have a formal citation for this, it's just from a phone conversation with them, a while ago, but they prefer to use tree plantings to stabilize shorelines. When I can, I'll get a formal citation, and more information on it. Trees look lots better, and they're better for the environment. So I would keep this article separate from the coast management article, which I haven't looked at. I was only here to be sure I understood what rip rap is. Entwhiz (talk) 04:02, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Revetment merge
These seem to be the same thing ...? Saint|swithin 18:47, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

they definently are not the same thing, because they just are ! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.131.230.95 (talk) 14:43, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Riprap
This is the preferred page for civil engineers. The items concerning bank defence works on rivers, lakes and beaches should be taken from the "revetment" page to the "riprap" page. Only the items concerning fortification should perhaps be left in the "revetment" page but this is not my field of knowledge. See also the well written Coastal management page.Artreve 19:15, 18 October 2007 (UTC) rip-rap are just rocks. reventments can be wood aswell. they also affect waves differently and revenments can have an affect on longshore drfit whereas rip-rap generally dont. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.189.175.60 (talk) 14:37, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

The Riprap article states that riprap is also known as revetment. If the terms are in fact equivalent, they should be merged. If there exists a distinction only insofar as one group of professionals prefer one term over another, they should be merged with a comment as to the differing terminology. However, if there is some real distinction between "riprap" and "revetment" then they should NOT be merged, however that call requires expert judgement. --Navaburo (talk) 23:26, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Revetments are a wide category of sloping coastal defences, which includes riprap. Revetments could also be wooden, concrete, or walls for example. howeer, revetments can also mean a form of military fortification, as shown by its own page. However, if nothing has been done about this since 2007, perhaps something is wrong? --BobSagetOoosh (talk) 20:10, 06 April 2016 (UTC)

Do not merge with revetment
Do not merge with revetment. Riprap is a material used in many erosion protection structures including but not limited to revetments. A revetment is one type of structure that may or may not contain riprap. /s/ Professional Engineer
 * I've removed the merge tag --Duk 20:13, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

 * Gary Snyder, a major American poet, has a poem called, "Riprap," and he claims that riprap is also the stone trail made for horses on steep slick rock in the mountains. He worked in parks for many years, so even if that definition isn't exactly correct, the word was obviously in use for that meaning also. Readers of Snyder's poem will be searching for this page too, so thanks for deciding not to merge. Deanya Lattimore (talk) 02:28, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Curling anyone?
In light of the cyclical interest in curling, should a refrence or link be made to the term 'shot rock' which is used in curiling? rem486 Yea, I know i didn't sign in. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.255.86.240 (talk) 15:06, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

No it should not —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.225.135.154 (talk) 19:06, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

Environmental consequences
I am planning on adding a brief section that details some of the environmental consequences of the implementation of rip-rapsBiostudent2 (talk) 19:07, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Riprap


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Talk:Coastal Management

Article merges
I disagree with merginr riprap into this article, it has many other uses besides Coast Mangement (sp?), such as biofilters, bioswales, dam spillways, drainage fields and drywells. --Duk 18:56, 4 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I too oppose the merge on the basis that revetting things is by no means exclusive to coastal defences eg peristalith. adamsan 17:32, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I also disagree with merging this article. It serves it's purpose most relevantly as it's own article.  I got here from concrete ships.  Soulsrocker 20:57, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

revetment also has a meaning in military science. M-w.com says "EMBANKMENT; especially : a barricade to provide shelter (as against bomb fragments or strafing)"

Spelling Mistake in Diagram
I noticed that there is a spelling mistake in the diagram Coast Mangement.png. It reads "Additionally, there usually cheaper..." whereas it should say, "Additionally, they're usually cheaper...". Is there any way of easily changing this or does the diagram need remaking? --Matthew Dingley 17:38, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

About Merging "Revetment" with "Costal Management"
The term "revetment" applies to much more to slopes in general (slopes, riverbanks AND shorlines) and should stand on its own or be merged with another geotechnical topic.

(also...revetments are also used as barricades against shrapnel in warfare)

 * Keep it. There is nothing wrong with having an article on revetment provided the whole subject is covered, perhaps by links between articles. The technique of revetting is used in river management, coastal management, road and railway cuttings as well as in ancient, medieval and modern fortifications. Even the shoring of a pipe trench in the road or a mine gallery is a form of revetment.
 * The Revetment article itself would be well adapted to dealing with questions of the relief of hydraulic and other pressure and the variation of these forces with the height of the revetment and so on. Links should then be made between it and other articles such as Coastal management, Fortification so as to illustrate the significance of revetment in its various contexts. Be patient and the present, unbalanced state of affairs will even itself out. A little nudging such as by this merger proposal, is part of that process. (RJP 08:39, 7 June 2006 (UTC))

Cost
Can we get dates for the estimated costs?

Have changed:

"Cost – est. £5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00,000-£200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, per 100m,(i.e it aint cheap!)". That's not the kind of article we need.

Merging with Breakwater
I'm against it. A breakwater has a role in coastal management but breakwaters are also used for entirely different reasons - building artifial harbours and protecting anchorages - so breakwaters deserve an article in their own right. 193.115.188.2 12:52, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Strongly disagree. The breakwater article stands very well on its own. -RNLion 01:40, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Coastal Management


text:
User talk:Ak-47~enwiki

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title: User talk:Ak-47~enwiki


text:
Talk:Techwood Homes

Not the first
Techwood Homes was an early government-owned housing project, yet it probably was not the first one to be constructed in the United States. It may have been the first one in Georgia.

The Administration of U. S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt constructed government-owned housing projects in Western Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh around 1934.

The Lincoln Administration constructed Freedmen's Village on General Lee's estate named Arlington where Arlington National Cemetery is now located. Freedmen's Village is often regarded as being the first government-owned housing project. TooPotato 18:57, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Techwood Homes


text: File:Anti communist.png

title: File:Anti communist.png


text:
Talk:Lúcio Costa

Innacuracies
I'd like to comment on a few innacuracies concerning this bit here:

"Most streets have cloverleafs or traffic circles rather than intersections or traffic lights, so cars have no reason to stop. It is virtually impossible for pedestrians to travel east and west in the city without crossing the axial expressway and risking their lives."

In spite of having this fluid traffic, there is a rather efficient system of traffic lights that allows a pedestrian to cross from virtually every supersquare to another. As for the axial expressway, there are underground galleries, which pedestrians often choose not to use for reasons other than bad city planning (at least, regarding the original concept). Also, there's a somewhat high number of radars all around the city, so it's not like the cars are able to travel faster than expected anyway. It is true though, that the city is far from being pedestrian-friendly, but for other reasons (such as great distances due to the way the city was divided).

Other than that, shouldn't this bit of information be moved to "Brasília" anyway?

(Does anyone even read these talk pages, by the way?)
 * (Sometimes!) It is NOT "virtually impossible for pedestrians to travel east and west in the city", tough. The underground galleries are there, people don't use them because they're not clean and sometimes you have to walk too much to get to one of them (actually I think this is the foremost reason, people are lazy or simply don't want to waste their time...). Flavio Costa (talk) 14:49, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

 * 40 years ago in a transportation engineering course, this design and the pedestrian problems were discussed. The professor stated that the design wrt crosswalks and such was a consequence of the death of Costa's wife.  She was killed by a car while crossing the street.  Costa was determined to prevent such deaths and as such designed the street system to separate pedestrians from cars as much as possible.  The result was that the design ended up unworkable for pedestrians.  I have no reference for this, however.  If someone knows of something, it may be useful to add to the article. 99.245.230.104 (talk) 06:02, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Weasel Words
I added the weasel words notice to this article. From the introduction to the "Controversies" and "Brasilia" sections that follow, it is clear that someone has an axe to grind. There may be legitimate points behind some of what is being said, but it all comes across as a point of view biased against Costa. Let's see some legitimate citations, not just "Some pedestrians complain" and "became famous for a long career in which he pretty much sucked at life." -- aluxeterna (talk) 04:53, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

 * I agree. The whole article comes off as hostile and angry with its subject. I'm not disputing the content, but the wording is sarcastic and seems to present more contempt for Costa than information. I've added the (pov-check) tag to reflect this. Check my edit if you need to see an example of what I mean, but you ought to be able to tell by looking, I think. --Oceanhahn (talk) 00:38, 1 February 2011 (UTC)
 * To clarify, the section on Brasilia is is an especially greivous offender here, but the whole thing could use a look. I'd do it, but I'm too busy right now. Thanks! --Oceanhahn (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 00:43, 1 February 2011 (UTC).

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: moved per request. Favonian (talk) 21:13, 5 February 2013 (UTC)

– accurate spelling per sources: Lúcio (name) Brazilian city-planner; Ilídio Angolan freedom fighter; Hélder Mozambican and Portuguese footballers; Júlio César Brazilian footballers; Vítor Portuguese theatre director, Brazilian basketball player; Fábio Brazilian footballer and rural electricity entrepreneur; Márcio footballers. Compare Donté Stallworth, Noël Coward, Renée Geyer, etc. In ictu oculi (talk) 04:49, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Lucio Costa → Lúcio Costa
 * Ilidio Machado → Ilídio Machado
 * Helder Muianga → Hélder Muianga
 * Helder Esteves → Hélder Esteves
 * Julio Cesar do Nascimento → Júlio César do Nascimento
 * Julio Cesar Rodrigues de Souza → Júlio César Rodrigues de Souza
 * Vitor Gonçalves → Vítor Gonçalves (theatre director)
 * Vitor Benite → Vítor Benite
 * Fabio Rogerio Correa Lopes → Fábio Rogério Correa Lopes
 * Fabio Rosa → Fábio Rosa
 * Marcio Richardes → Márcio Richardes
 * Marcio Souza Da Silva → Márcio Souza Da Silva
 * Support; more accurate spelling. bobrayner (talk) 12:48, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Support per nom and past outcomes. --BDD (talk) 17:55, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Support The use of the correct native language diacritics / accents in the names helps users know at first sight that the subject is not an English speaking [native] person. For example the footballer Sócrates.warshytalk 15:18, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in WikiProject Football's list of association football-related page moves. ★☆ DUCK IS PEANUTBUTTER ☆★ 00:36, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

 * Support per encyclopedic correctness. HandsomeFella (talk) 17:12, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

title: Talk:Lúcio Costa


text:
Mawan, Hubei

Mawan is a town of about 41,000 in the east-central part of Hubei province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of the sub-prefecture-level city of Tianmen, 19 km to the west-northwest. To the north is Lake Chen (沉湖), and to the north is Lake Hua (华湖).

Administrative divisions
Mawan has undergone several administrative changes since the founding of the People's Republic: in 1950, it was created as a township, changed to a people's commune in 1976, upgraded to a district in 1984, and with the formation of Tianmen as a sub-prefecture-level city, downgraded to a town in 1987. It is noted for being the ancestral hometown of overseas Chinese, spread across 34 nations and territories on 5 continents.

One community:
 * Mawan

Twenty-five villages:
 * Machang, Chenma , Luwan , Zouwan , Zhengwan , Bianhekou , Litan , Yangang , Zhawu , Hengdi , Nanzha , Zhangwan , Chenhuang , Liaowan , Jianghu , Zengliu , Guozui , Datai , Wangchen , Hedi , Xiaohu , Kuangtai , Tukeng , Chendu , Chengang

title: Mawan, Hubei


text:
Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers

Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers (25 October 1898 – 27 February 1988) was a French Dominican theologian and, later in life, a Traditionalist Catholic bishop who supported sedevacantism and sedeprivationism and was excommunicated by the Holy See.

Biography
Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers was born near Paris, France, on 25 October 1898.

In 1921, he entered the Scuola Normale Superiore. He studied for two years in Rome, with Professor Tullio Levi-Civita.

In 1925, he entered the Order of Preachers. He entered the Dominican novitiate of Amiens in 1927. He made his profession in 1930.

He was a normalien and agrégé in mathematics.

Priesthood
On 29 July 1931, des Lauriers was ordained a priest.

In 1933, he became a professor of philosophy at the Dominican school of theology Le Saulchoir, in Belgium. In 1940, he received a doctorate in mathematics with thesis Sur les systèmes différentiels du second ordre qui admettent un groupe continu fini de transformations.

Under Pope Pius XII, he served as a professor at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.

In 1979, worried about Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and a possible deal with the Vatican among other things, des Lauriers wrote to Lefebvre warning him.

Sedeprivationism
Des Lauriers supported the belief that the current state of the papacy, based on Paul VI allegedly teaching heresy in the context of the Magisterium, was that Paul VI could not be a true pope, being only pope materially and not formally. This position known as the Thesis of Cassiciacum.

Episcopacy
On 7 May 1981, after long consideration, des Lauriers was consecrated a bishop by the sedevacantist bishop Thuc in Toulon, France. He was thus excommunicated from the Catholic Church in March 1983 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

Des Lauriers consecrated two bishops: Günther Storck (a German) on 30 April 1984, and Robert McKenna (an American) on 22 August 1986.

Death and legacy
Des Lauriers died in Cosne-sur-Loire, France, on 27 February 1988, at the age of 89. He is buried in Raveau, France.

There are some bishops who adhere to his Thesis of Cassiciacum: Bishop Geert Stuyver (a Belgian) of the Istituto Mater Boni Consilii (IMBC), and Bishop Donald Sanborn of the Roman Catholic Institute (RCI).

By des Lauriers

 * Le Saint-Esprit, âme de l'Eglise, Étiolles, Seine et Oise : Monastère de la Croix, 1948.
 * Garabandal, S.l., 1965.
 * Lettera ad un religioso di Simone Weil ; trad. di Mariella Bettarini. Risposta alla Lettera ad un religioso di Guérard des Lauriers ; trad. di Carmen Montesano (Lettre à un religieux), Torino : Borla, 1970.
 * La Mathématique, les mathématiques, la mathématique moderne, Paris : Doin, 1972.
 * Homélie (prononcée le 15 mai 1971 pour l'anniversaire de la mort de l'amiral de Penfentenyo de Kervéréguin), Versailles : R.O.C., 1973.
 * La Charité de la vérité, Villegenon : Sainte Jeanne d'Arc, 1985.
 * La Présence réelle du Verbe incarné dans les espèces consacrées, Villegenon : Sainte Jeanne d'Arc, 1987.

title: Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers


text: User:Astavrou

title: User:Astavrou


text:
Lowrider bicycle

A lowrider bicycle is a highly customized bicycle with styling inspired by lowrider cars. These bikes often feature a long, curved banana seat with a sissy bar and very tall upward-swept ape hanger handlebars. A lot of chrome, velvet, and overspoked wheels are common accessories to these custom bicycles. The bikes are typically a highly individualized creation. Early modified bikes have been crafted as a part of lowrider culture by Chicano youth since the 1960s. They were at first stigmatized by mainstream U.S. culture, even as they were a symbol of pride in Chicano communities. They later became accepted and popular elsewhere.

Lowrider Bicycle was a magazine dedicated to the bikes first published in 1993. The bikes are now popular internationally, such as in Japan and Europe. Despite the fact that these bikes originated within the poverty of the barrio, lowrider bikes can be expensive. Some of the bikes are not rideable and exist only for aesthetic purposes.

History
Early modified bikes first appeared in California alongside Lowrider car culture popular in Chicano communities. Mexican American youth would emulate the craft of lowrider cars with their bicycles as a canvas for creativity, usually starting with common muscle bikes. This allowed those who were too young to drive a car to have a custom vehicle. Similar to lowrider cars, the bikes were stigmatized as a part of "gang culture" by mainstream America simply because of their origins within the Chicano community.

In 1963, the Schwinn company released of the Schwinn Sting-Ray. George Barris, who moved to Los Angeles to "become part of the emerging teen car culture" opened a shop in Bell, California, a Mexican American neighborhood. He used the Schwinn stock frame to create a modified bike for The Munsters set in the mid-1960s. This bike had a chain body to fit the macabre style of the show, but did not have an elongated body. This was for the character Eddie Munster, yet the bike did not appear on the show and was largely unknown at the time. In the 1990s, Lowrider Bicycle magazine used this bike to "effectively creat[e] an origin myth for the lowrider bicycle movement."

The lowrider bicycle with an elongated body and stylistic flare has sometimes been credited to Joe Manny Silva, who worked on bikes out of his shop when he emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico and opened a shop in Compton, California in 1973. He had worked on bikes since he was ten. His bikes were featured in prominent music videos and films. Some have referred to Silva as the "Godfather of Lowrider Bicycles" because of his long history in the community and his influence in expanding the lowriding bike scene,  despite bike modifications being around among Mexican American youth prior. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, lowrider bikes were featured alongside lowrider cars in shows. The club Rollerz Only was founded in 1988 in Los Angeles and grew to 42 chapters worldwide over time. Lowrider bicycles surged in popularity in the 1990s, as competition over style and design became intense. With the increased popularity, classic Schwinns, which became the body of choice as a starting base to create unique designs and modifications, were far more scarce and more expensive. Stemming from this new popularity, a magazine titled Lowrider Bicycle started publication in 1993 as an offshoot of Lowrider Magazine.

In the 1990s, Alberto Lopez, who was a publisher at the magazine, crafted the Aztlan Cruiser bike. The first bike to be featured on the cover of the magazine was known as "Claim Jumper" and owned by Danny Galvez, Jr. of Los Angeles, California. The bike elevated standards for crafting of lowrider bikes throughout the country: "everyone started slamming their bikes by bending their forks as radically as possible to give the bikes that old school flavor."

In the 1990s, bike mechanic and designer Warren Wong, who worked with BMX bikes, became a pioneer in lowrider bicycle history with his wheel design. He became known as the "Wheel King" and crafted a unique clover-laced design which became known as his "Body Count." These were an important development in lowrider wheels that were later duplicated by others.

In the late 1990s, popular American advertisements by various corporations began to use the bikes in ads in order to capitalize on its popularity. This expanded the bike's notoriety further, pushing its reach internationally. The Lowrider Bicycle magazine expanded its reach and became more popular. In 1996, the documentary "Low y Cool" was created on the lowrider bike scene in Tucson, Arizona. It challenged the violent Hollywood image portrayed of Chicano youth in films like “Blood in, Blood out,” “American Me” and “Mi Vida Loca." In 2000, the bikes were featured in Chicano techno artist DJ Rolando's video for "Knights of the Jaguar," which showed various portraits of Chicano life in Detroit.

The Los Chilangos lowriding bicycle club of Mexico City formed in 2014. In a story on the group, one photographer who followed the group credited the importance of the Chicano culture in bridging lowriding bike culture across the border and expanding its popularity in Mexico.

The bikes are still featured in advertisements as of 2022 and remain an important cultural symbol of pride for Chicanas and Chicanos. A article for The Daily Chela by Brandon Loran Maxwell noted that there is a resurgence of lowrider bicycles occurring.

Popular source bicycles
Some makes of bicycles are particularly popular among lowrider builders.

 * Schwinn Sting-Ray, one of the most sought after bases for a lowrider build. The bicycles were American-produced (usually 20")
 * Schwinn Tiger is popular in smaller sizes such as 16"
 * Schwinn Pixie
 * Malvern Star and Speedwell dragster bicycles both in short and long frame varieties are popular bicycles of choice in Australia
 * Bratz beauty bikes are popular both in Australia, America and other countries.
 * Aztlan Cruiser
 * Pre-built and even custom-made one-of-a-kind lowriders are available from lowrider bicycle shops and even some lowrider car workshops. Some top lowrider bicycles shops are Manny's (Compton), Fantasy Toys Lowrider & Hobby (Cleveland), Krazy Kutting (Yuma).

Modifications
Basic or classic characteristics of a lowrider bike (most accessories are highly polished chrome, though gold can also be used for added flare):
 * Baby Daytons — like the car rims, they are over-spoked — 144 chromed spokes per wheel is usual — and radially laced, with white-wall tyres
 * banana seats
 * custom upholstery
 * customized sissy bar
 * Ape hanger or Schwinn-type handlebars
 * "Springer forks" — "old school" spring-action suspension for the front forks
 * Fenders both front and back
 * Chain steering wheel

Some custom modifications include twisted forks, spokes or handlebars, what are known as "bird cages" (twisted metal strips that resemble a bird cage) that are cut and welded onto handlebars, sissy bars or pedals. Many bikes also feature custom framework such as tanks and skirts which are the addition of sheets of metal, usually welded onto the frame to give it a "filled-in" look. Some lowrider bicycles even have air or hydraulic cylinders set-up to emulate the height adjustable suspension of lowrider motor cars.

One American bicycle mechanic Sheldon Brown wrote:they are built purely as an exercise in styling, with no real concern for riding qualities. Some of them, in fact, are not rideable, because the cranks are so close to the ground that the pedals cannot turn around."

Lowrider tricycles
Some lowrider bikes are modified into lowrider tricycles, for style. Converting a lowrider bicycle into a tricycle often allows the bike to sit closer to the ground while still being rideable, and even hop without falling over if they have airbag suspension or hydraulic suspension. Converting a bicycle into a tricycle often creates extra carry-space at the back of the bike.

The space between the two rear wheels is sometimes used to mount either a two-seater "love seat", a "boombox," or even pumps for hydraulic or air suspension.

Commercially bolt on conversion kits to convert any existing lowrider bicycle into a tricycle are available from many sources.

Lowrider Bicycle magazine
Lowrider Bicycle (LRB) magazine (published by Lowrider), debuted in the winter of 1993, bringing the culture of lowrider bicycle to mainstream America.

LRB notable moments:
 * first cover bike: "Claim Jumper," by Danny Galvez, Jr. of Los Angeles, California (LRB Winter 1993)
 * first out-of-California cover bike: "Smile Now, Cry Later" ('69 Huffy), by Patrick Torrez of Silver City, New Mexico (LRB July/August '95
 * first Hawaii cover bike: "Tribute to the Gods" (candy-painted '77 Sting-Ray), by Kainoa Piscusa of Hawaii (LRB March/April '96)
 * first Texas cover bike: "Space Age Cruiser," by Freddy Velasquez of Houston, Texas
 * first Arizona cover bike: "Fire Dragon," by Julian Cons of Arizona

LRB Lowrider Bike of the Year

 * 1993 — Gold Rush, Chava Hernandez of Oxnard, California
 * 1994 — Field Of Dreams
 * 1995 — Twisted Obsession
 * 1996 — Casino Dreamin, Mike Lopez, Jr.
 * 1997 — Casino Dreamin, Mike Lopez, Jr.
 * 1998 — Casino Dreamin, Mike Lopez, Jr.
 * 1999 — Casino Dreamin, Mike Lopez, Jr.
 * 2000 — Wolverine II, Pete Moreno III of Houston, Texas
 * 2001 — Spawn, Angus West of San Francisco, California
 * 2002 — Spawn, Angus West of San Francisco, California
 * 2003 — Wolverine III, Pete Moreno III of Houston, Texas
 * 2004 — Prophecy
 * 2005 — Prophecy
 * 2006 — Pinnacle
 * 2007 — Pinnacle

LRT Trike of the Year

 * 1997 — Fatal Attraction
 * 1998 — The Crow
 * 1999 — Knight's Quest
 * 2000 — Knight's Quest
 * 2001 — Livin Legend, Freddy Madrigal
 * 2002 — Lil Outer Limits
 * 2003 — Dragons Revenge
 * 2004 — Dragons Revenge
 * 2005 — Lil Outer Limits
 * 2006 — Pocket Change

Lowrider Bicycle Club of the Year

 * 2000 Legions Bike Club

In popular culture
In 1992, the Beastie Boys mentioned Lowrider bicycles in their song "Professor Booty", on the album "Check Your Head".

In 1994, the AirWalk shoe company made a commercial featuring lowrider bikes.

In 1996, Marianne Dissard and Robert Kramer made the documentary film Low y Cool with the South Tucson, Arizona, lowrider bicycle club Los Camaradas.

Also in 1996, as part of Kodak's Advantage camera systems advertising campaigns, the company shot Rene Vargas and his "Gangster Madness" bike (featured on the Nov./Dec. '95 issue of LRB) for a nationwide commercial, which debuted during the 1996 Summer Olympics.

This was the beginning for more usage of lowrider bikes in commercials, as the industry loved the lifestyle involved with the bikes and wanted to capitalize on the hot youth trend. In 2000, Sprite shot a television commercial focusing on the youth of lowriding, which featured four-time LRB Bike of the Year Champion Mike Lopez, Jr. and his club, Finest Kreations. (After "retiring," Lopez, Jr. also traveled to Europe to display his bike in a cultural exhibition.)

In 2001, PepsiCo made a commercial titled What's Your Thirst.

In 2022, the bikes were featured in a 7-Eleven commercial.

title: Lowrider bicycle


text:
User:EKIK

Hi!

I have no idea whatsoever on what to put on a page like this...

I'm currently studying computer science at Högskolan Dalarna (Sweden).

Perhaps I'll write something semi-useful here someday, but not today since it's teatime now!

Take care!

title: User:EKIK