A friend and i were discussing how American Indian tribes ended up where they are now and he recommended I read Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynn. Its about the Comanches, their origins, and how they ended up ruling hundreds of thousands of miles of prairie from the mid-1750s up until the late 1800s. Every other tribe respected and feared them during this period. The Mescalero Apaches, long the boogeymen of Settler dreams, were forced to hide in the mountains in Southern New Mexico rather than continue fighting the Comanches. There is a theory that the initial white settlement of what would become Texas was encouraged by Mexico because Mexico wanted a human buffer between them and Comanche raiding parties.
So far, its a great, well written and well researched book. The audiobook is well done too.