Comanche Lodge George Catlin’s painting of a buffalo-skin lodge in the mid-1830s shows Little Spaniard, of mixed Spanish and Indian heritage, arriving in camp. The introduction of horses on the Great Plains allowed nomadic hunters like the Comanches, who had relied on dogs to transport the poles and covers of their tepees, to live in much bigger and heavier shelters. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY