The Comanche TV Series
ALAN NAFZGER’s Comanche TV Series
The Comanche TV Series – Pecan Street Press
Lubbock ● Austin ● Fort Worth – The Comanche TV Series
The Comanche TV Series is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Amazon edition – Comanche
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Copyright © 2016 Alan Nafzger
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ISBN: 9781071229477
Comanche — television pilot — comanche-tv-series
Written by Alan Nafzger
Dances with Wolves was originally written to portray the Comanche Indians. The film was changed to portray the Sioux, because of the larger number of Sioux speakers. This television series will be the long awaited story of the “dominate” native tribe, the Comanche.
Comanche TV Series
FADE IN:
Comanche TV Series
EXT. THE COMANCHERIA – LATE AFTERNOON
Six young Comanches led by Buffalo Hump are engaged in a fight that will be to the death with eight APACHE WARRIORS, distinguishable by their clothing. The APACHE are fleeing west into the setting sun.
Comanche TV Series
Many of the Comanches wear buffalo scalps on their head, complete with horns. The Comanche men wear their hair long and have it ornamented profusely. The dress of the men consisted of leggings and moccasins, a breech cloth or flap.
Comanche TV Series
Comanche society was based on raiding. These ComancheS WARRIORS wear some of their stolen booty: stovepipe hats, women’s corsets, etc., giving them an almost circus-like appearance. The effect would have been comic, if they were not so dangerous. In this anticipatory sequence, the COMANCHE are about to run down and kill the APACHE WARRIORS.
Comanche TV Series
Comanches do not shave, but instead, they pluck their face clean of its scant growth of beard; and many of these ComancheS have also pull out their eyebrows.
Comanche TV Series
All the horses have has been running a very long time. The APACHE horses are inferior and are about to break down. Many of the APACHE horses have arrows in them. Some of the APACHE WARRIORS also have arrows in them. They are barely able to remain on their horses. The APACHE horses are about to die.
The ComancheS peruse firing arrows. When several of the APACHE horses do collapse, the ComancheS veer off and stop. They watch. They follow Comanche military doctrine and they NEVER press a charge home. Instead they rely on horse archery to defeat the opposition.
We see that the Comanche tactic is extremely well synchronized and orchestrated.
Comanches approach the exhausted APACHE at a gallop, weaving, each warrior apparently taking no orders from BUFFALO HUMP. These magnificent horsemen never form a solid line (like other cavalries), instead they form a swirling, breaking, dissolving and regrouping mass of separate individual riders, making difficult moving targets.
They move into range, launch their arrows and dart out of range before the Apache can return fire.
The whooping riders charge and break off before contact; they are dodging and weaving whilst at the same time circling the enemy, showering them with arrows from all directions.
The Comanche also employee a trick of hanging over the far side of their horse by a strap, thus being almost protected from APACHE arrows.
The Comanche warriors used their mounts like a shield. We see Comanche speeding toward the enemy, shooting arrows from beneath their horse’s neck and having nothing but a leg hooked over the backbone of his mount. The warriors have a loop of rope braided into his horse’s mane. Our Comanche warriors slip the loop over his head and under his outside arm, affording him the freedom to cling to the side of his horse and have both hands free for shooting. The Comanche bows are short and powerful, ideal for use on horseback.
One by one the APACHE succumb. NONE of the Comanche are harmed. And only one COMANCHE horse is wounded. The bodies of the dead lie in a “last stand” pile.
The APACHE have shown unflinching courage but we quickly appreciate the COMANCHE fighting skills and horsemanship, speed of thought, almost dodging the APACHE arrows and known exactly their range.
We see that the last APACHE is already badly wounded, with blood streaming from a wound in his chest. BUFFALO HUMP concentrates on him for a moment, riding, turning, firing arrows, twisting away so the APACHE wastes his diminishing energy and arrows. Finally the APACHE stumbles to his knees and BUFFALO HUMP fires a second arrow into his chest.
BUFFALO HUMP and the others dismount and surround the last APACHE as he dies.
BUFFALO HUMP – Comanche TV Series
Welcome to the Comancheria.
Comancheria (Nʉmʉnʉʉ Sookobitʉ) means literally the “Comanche Land).
BUFFALO HUMP is suddenly weary of death; he trudges a few yards and surveys the APACHE laying dead on the battle field. In the gathering gloom of dusk an eerie silence has fallen. Eight bodies, arrowed and speared lie on the ground. And there is a huge flock of crows and ravens flutter about ready and feast upon the corpses.
The COMANCHES ride away from the dusk (East). BUFFALO HUMP turns around and looks back at the battlefield and the dead APACHE.
There is not one living human thing moving over that field of death – except a solitary figure. It is Big Cannibal Owl (Pia Mupitsi). A TALL WOMAN with a long buffalo skin cloak and a wide-brimmed hat, holding a lance, she moves slowly between the bodies of the APACHE dead, seeming to note and inspect each one. She is a spectral figure, strange, disturbing, powerful, with ravens sometimes perching upon her shoulders… and BUFFALO HUMP watches her like one transfigured, like one who has come face to face with a god.
Big Cannibal Owl pauses by one of the APACHE dead and points him out with his spear. At that moment the air around appears to glisten and two or three almost semi-transparent, almost naked YOUNG FEMALE HELPERS appear and gather the slain warrior into their arms. In great brightness the young women lift into the humid air… and vanish.
Big Cannibal Owl is something similar to the grim reaper in our Anglo culture.
BUFFALO HUMP watches this phenomenon in silent awe, then looks over again at the tall woman. For a brief moment the tall woman lifts her head, revealing her face beneath the wide-brimmed hat.
The face is indescribable – except for its owl like eyes, which stare back at BUFFALO HUMP with a pitiless and terrible intensity. And then she is gone, as if she had never been there. She leaves BUFFALO HUMP to survey the darkening mysterious scene.
EXT. CAMP ON THE COLORADO RIVER – MORNING
The Penateka (Honey Eaters) are camped on the Colorado River. BUFFALO HUMP is sitting outside of a teepee watching TWO WARRIORS breaking a wild horse.
The WARRIORS have the horse exhausted and choked down with a rope around his neck. Of course, catching the wild horses is one thing. Training them is another matter and involves a great deal of physical effort and determination. Choking a horse is not a matter to be taken lightly.
To break the strong-willed wild horses means establishing dominance over the animal. The two Comanche warrior have choked the wild horse into exhaustion and have pull it to the ground. They fasten a pair of hobbles on the animal’s two forefeet. One WARRIOR lays over the horses body to prevent it from rising. The lasso around the neck of the horse is loosened and the horse is allowed to breath. The other WARRIOR asserts his dominance over the animal by blowing their breath into the horse’s nostrils.
INT. TEEPEE – MORNING
The buffalo hide teepee is dark and is lit by tallow candles. From outside comes the dull rumble of summer thunder. Somewhere in the darkness a WOMAN is breathing heavily and groaning. We hear the sound of other WOMEN’S VOICES, low and sibilant, almost chanting.
Outside, Buffalo Hump is anxious and restless; he crosses the space and looks into the chamber where his wife, Sight of day, lies upon their bed giving birth. She is surrounded by three or four OLDER WOMEN, one of them older.
MEDICINE WOMAN
What do you want?
Buffalo Hump
Isn’t it here yet?
The older woman doesn’t bother to respond and places her hands again on Sight of day’s swollen stomach and resumes her low, strange chant.
One of the other MID-WIVES speaks more kindly.
MID-WIFE
Not yet, Buffalo Hump. Go away and do something useful.
Outside the storm breaks apart, the thunder leaves and rain disappears in the distance. The wild horse is up and seems to be broken. The WARRIORS are congratulating each other and laughing.
Comanche
The Comanche /kəˈmæntʃi/ or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (Comanche: Nʉmʉnʉʉ; “the people”[3]) are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in Lawton, Oklahoma.[1]
The Comanche language is a Numic language of the Uto-Aztecan family. Originally, it was a Shoshoni dialect, but diverged and became a separate language.[4] The Comanche were once part of the Shoshone people of the Great Basin.[5]
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Comanche lived in most of present-day northwestern Texas and adjacent areas in eastern New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, western Oklahoma, and northern Chihuahua. Spanish colonists and later Mexicans called their historical territory Comancheria.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Comanche participated in nomadic horse culture and hunted, particularly bison. They traded with neighboring Native American peoples, and Spanish, French, and American colonists and settlers.
As European Americans encroached on their territory, the Comanche waged war on and raided their settlements, as well as those of neighboring Native American tribes.[6] They took captives from other tribes during warfare, using them as slaves, selling them to the Spanish and (later) Mexican settlers, or adopting them into their tribe.[5] Thousands of captives from raids on Spanish, Mexican, and American settlers, assimilated into Comanche society.[7]
Decimated by European diseases, warfare, and encroachment by Europeans on Comancheria, most Comanche were forced to live on reservations in Indian Territory by the 1860s and 1870s.[5]
In the 21st century, the Comanche Nation has 17,000 members, around 7,000 of whom reside in tribal jurisdictional areas around Lawton, Fort Sill, and the surrounding areas of southwestern Oklahoma.[2] The Comanche Homecoming Annual Dance takes place in mid-July in Walters, Oklahoma.[8]
Name – Comanche
The Comanche’s autonym is nʉmʉnʉʉ, meaning “the human beings” or “the people”.[9] The earliest known use of the term “Comanche” dates to 1706, when the Comanche were reported by Spanish officials to be preparing to attack far-outlying Pueblo settlements in southern Colorado.[10] The Spanish adopted the Ute name for the people: kɨmantsi (enemy), and transliterated it into their own language phonetics.[11] Before 1740, French explorers from the east sometimes used the name Padouca for the Comanche; it was already used for the Plains Apache.
Government – Comanche
The Comanche Nation is headquartered in Lawton, Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdictional area is located in Caddo, Comanche, Cotton, Grady, Jefferson, Kiowa, Stephens, and Tillman counties. The tribe requires enrolled members to have at least 1/8 blood quantum level (equivalent to one great-grandparent).[1]
Economic development – Comanche
The tribe operates its own housing authority and issues tribal vehicle tags. They have their own Department of Higher Education, primarily awarding scholarships and financial aid for members’ college educations. They own 10 tribal smoke shops and four casinos.[1] The casinos are Comanche Nation Casino in Lawton; Comanche Red River Casino in Devol; Comanche Spur Casino, in Elgin; and Comanche Star Casino in Walters, Oklahoma.[12]
Cultural institutions – Comanche
LaDonna Harris, Comanche activist and founder of Americans for Indian Opportunity
The Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center in Lawton, Oklahoma, has permanent and changing exhibitions on Comanche history and culture. It opened to the public in 2007.[13]
In 2002, the tribe founded the Comanche Nation College, a two-year tribal college in Lawton.[14] It closed in 2017 because of problems with accreditation and funding.
Each July, Comanche gather from across the United States to celebrate their heritage and culture in Walters at the annual Comanche Homecoming powwow. The Comanche Nation Fair takes place every September. The Comanche Little Ponies host two annual dances—one over New Year’s Eve and one in May.[15]