Penatuhkah Comanche Trails Partnership

Welcome To The Penatuhkah Comanche Trails Partnership
The Penatuhkah Comanche Trails Partnership is a coalition of Chambers of Commerce, Visitors Bureaus, historical non-profits, the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma, and private landowners in the area. This Central Texas association plans to develop a landscape conservation plan to protect and interpret the traditional lands and resources of the Penatuhkah Band of the Comanche people as well as promote heritage tourism in the region.
The Penatuhkah Comanche Trails Partnership encompasses approximately 15,000 square miles in the heart of Texas. This area coincides with the homeland of the Penatuhkah band of the Comanche Nation from about 1750 to 1875. The views, ecology, heritage, and history of this area sacred to the southern Comanche lend it tremendous potential to provide tourism opportunities for Texans seeking to learn of the extent of the great Comanche Empire.
Mission
The Penatuhkah Comanche Trails Association promotes the restoration, conservation and interpretation of Comanche Traditional Cultural Properties (TCPs) and the history and traditions of the Penatuhkah Comanche band in Texas. This partnership creates economic opportunities for all partners through heritage and ecotourism programs that tell the stories of this significant history at the places where it happened and encouraging a Comanche presence in their Texas homeland.
Goals
The Penatuhkah Comanche Trails Partnership will use its expertise concerning the significant Traditional Cultural Properties (TCP) in our target area to agree on the suitable purposes of those TCPs and restore them to Comanche awareness and use. The Penatuhkah Comanche Trails Partnership is knowledgeable of places other than TCPs in our target area that can tell the Penatuhkah story and will develop ways to tell the story. And the Penatuhkah Comanche Trails Partnership will deliver programs that promote the areas Penatuhkah Comanche history and its economic development.

– At the zenith of the “horse culture”, Comanches may have possessed as many as 10,000 horses.
Recent Events
Crowd Gathers to Explore the Legacy of Comanche Marker Trees with Anthropologist Linda Pelon
More than 60 guests gathered at the Mills County Historical Museum at Goldthwaite on July 10th for a captivating presentation by anthropologist Linda Pelon on the history and cultural significance of Comanche marker trees. The event was a collaborative effort between the Texas Botanical Gardens & Native American Interpretive Center, Inc., the Mills County Historical Museum at Goldthwaite, and the Penatuhkah Comanche Trails Partnership.
Guests from Mills, San Saba, and Lampasas counties, among others, attended the presentation to learn how Native Americans shaped trees to mark trails, campsites, water sources, and sacred sites. These marker trees, bent and trained in their youth, grew into distinctive horizontal shapes that still stand as living testaments to Indigenous land use and knowledge long before modern roads or boundaries existed.
Dr. Pelon, co-author of Comanche Marker Trees of Texas, shared not only the historical importance of these trees but also practical tips on recognizing, identifying, and documenting these historical treasures across our region. The event was a powerful reminder of the importance of preserving Indigenous knowledge and honoring the deep-rooted connections between people and the land.
Special guests Montie Guthrie and Eddie Gomez of the Penatuhkah Comanche Trails Partnership shared in the experience, further honoring the deep-rooted Native American heritage in the Central Texas.
The Texas Botanical Gardens & Native American Interpretive Center, Inc. extends heartfelt thanks to all who participated and helped make the evening a powerful step forward in cultural education and community engagement.
Resources
Pelon, Linda Nash. Issues in Penatuhkah Comanche Ethnohistory (Thesis), Arlington, TX: University of Texas at Arlington, 1993.
Hämäläinen, Pekka . Comanche Empire, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2008.
Pelon, Linda. Texas Comanche Land Revisited, Abilene, Texas: H. V. Chapman and Sons, 2019.

The Comanche Empire
Pekka Hamalainen

Comanche Land Revisited
Linda Nash Pelon

Comanche Marker Trees of Texas
Steve Houser, Linda Pelon, Jimmy Arterberry
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Address
P.O. Box 3
Santa Anna, TX 76878
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Information Center Hours
Thursday – Saturday : 10am – 6pm