Comanche

COMANCHE:

#Out on the prairie they tell a tale

#Jim Read was riding the Comanche

trail

#He beat Art Downey quick

to the draw

#He obeyed the law so he could not fail

#A man is as good as his word,

#as good as his word as he

#And if he is as good has his word

#That's good enough for me

#A solemn promise he's bound

to keep

#Or else, he never could fall sleep

#He'll keep his promise

as best he knows

#And what he sows, so shall

he reap

#A man is as good as his word,

#as good as his word as he

#And if he is as good as his word

#He's good enough for me

Why don't you buy it?

The hair of the doll. Look!

It is real.

From the scalps of the Comanches.

It costs you three pesos.

Give me my doll! My doll. It's mine.

Go!

My God! Comanches!

Comanches!

Medicine arrow, guard this

this woman well.

I will come for it later.

Go! Go!

Maybe there's a way

to make a deal?

A rescue, perhaps? I have money.

I will pay you.

Plenty money. Plenty gold.

Many Comanche scalps.

How many times Huarte

Rosa get $50?

You know my name?

It is wise to know the name

of those who still

collect gold for Comanche scalps.

Mercy, mercy great chief!

Don't shoot me!

Many soldiers coming!

Hold! They have crossed into

the United States.

Comanches!

Get the scalps out of the wagon.

Hurry it up!

Burn them!

Burn them.

Untie them!

Let them go.

Give them horses.

Fresh Comanche scalps in

the their wagon.

The Mexicans are enemies

but white eyes are worse.

For each Comanche scalp,

take ten of theirs!

Why didn't you save them scalps?

I was saving my own!

We have company.

Coming fast.

Comanches?

You don't see Comanches until

they're on top of you.

- Any patrols out?

- No, Mr. Read. Just us.

Something is spooking

those riders.

We better wait and see.

It's Art Downey and his bunch.

- Friends of yours?

- Not exactly.

- What's you're hurry, Downey?

- Comanches.

They jumped us.

They got our wagons.

What are you doing in Indian

territory?

Hunting buffalo.

No law against that.

There ain't no law here at all.

That's right! We're west of the law.

There's the law of the scalping knife.

You know better than to rile

Comanches.

I'd like to rile them real good.!

Peters and Flanagan.

- How'd they get away?

- Thought they was dead for sure.

There we were, tied spread-eagle

to them wagon wheels

and them savages putting

brush around my legs ...

One Comanche looked

like the boss ...

Quanah?

Whoever it was,

told them to let us go.

Never seen an Indian with

a face like his.

I felt his eyes cutting right

through me.

They gave us horses and

turned us loose.

Quanah is trying to

say something.

I know what I'd like

to tell him!

I know, Downey.

You've made a career out

of Indian hating.

Now, I'm telling you: you stay

out of this territory.

Let's escort them to camp, French.

Hold on, Read.

Ain't you gonna try and get

out wagons back?

The whole regiment couldn't

get 'em back.

Read.

Are you really aiming to keep me

out of Indian territory?

First, you had me kicked off

the scouts, and now ...

You were no good, Downey,

and you know it.

They say you're prettty good

with a gun, Read.

- Well, just how good?

- I manage to stay alive.

I asked ya a question, Read.

How good?

That's your gamble!

At one time I would have

called and drawn.

But here ...

Here, I say you're an Indian lover

not fit to be around whites.

Nobody moves.

- Just who are you, soldierboy?

- Second Lt. John French.

Now move, or you're all

under military arrest.

All right, soldierboy.

I be seeing you, Read.

You probably will.

Why don't you two ride out and see if you

can save any scalps from those wagons?

Well, there's headquarters.

The general will probably be waiting.

Well, thanks for everything French.

Don't forget, you're on

Downey's list, now.

Thanks. I'll remember.

- How do you you?

- You got here fast.

You said it was

urgent, General.

- We cut across the staked plains.

- With Comanches loose?

We traveled by night, mostly.

Comanches hole up at night.

- It's a bad medicine for them.

- Today is going to be worse.

- What's the trouble, sir?

- Everything happens at once.

Comanches are raiding

into Mexico, again.

John Ward, Indian Bureau chief

is here from Washington.

Senor Gonzalez, Mexican

embassy.

Ward wants martial law.

I don't, but he has the power.

Big medicine, huh?

Let's see just how big!

We signed a peace

treaty in 1848,

which terminated the hostilities

with Mexico.

In 1853, through the Gadsden

Purchase,

we paid $10 Million for parts

of this territory,

and established our borders.

These treaties, guaranteed

that we would stop the

ferocious Comanche raids into Mexico

and return all captives

and property.

President Grant directed me

to stay out here

until this is accomplished.

If the comanches don't come in peacefully,

we're going to make them.

There are thousands of Comanches.

Who's going to tell 'em?

- You.

- I don't think so.

You take Army pay, don't you?

As a scout, not as a political.

Read, Gen. Miles, rates you

as the best man on the plains.

These biggest outbreaks since

we took over the territory.

Washington ... the whole nation

want them stopped.

It's preposterous, this Mexican and

Comanche carnage,

should go on forever.

It's been happening for over

200 years now!

Senor Read is correct.

This hatred of the Comanches

and my people is ancient.

no one in truth can

say when it began.

When the Spaniards first

explored here

around 1707, they were

received with open arms.

It seems the Indians had

had some tribal belief

that the white man

come from the East

It would be something

special, almost a god.

Well, the white man came and he

proved to be really special, all right!

They discovered silver and forced

the Indians at gun point,

to work in mines for them.

It was slave labor, paid for

with beatings, brutality

and death, at the whims

of the overseers.

The Comanches got sick

of that. They rebelled.

They massacred every Spaniard

they could find.

By the time the Comanches,

Navajos and Pueblos

had avenged themselves,

There wasn't much left in the

settlements of Pueblo and Taos.

There wasn't much left

of people, either

with all the torture

and mutilation.

A pretty messy business.

So the, the Spaniards

passed a law,

offering a bounty for every

Comanche scalp.

Ranging from $25 to

$100 a scalp.

The $100 was for the warriors.

you got $50 for a squaw

and $25 for a baby,

the Papoose.

Correction, sir.

Since our Independence,

the Mexican government

has revoked it.

No longer will Mexico pay for the

scalp of the Comanche.

Your government is to be

complimented, Senor,

but renegades on both sides

of the border got rich.

They made big business out of

hunting down Comanches.

Looking for scalps, like

animals for their pelts.

Once they staged a big fiesta

and invited the Indians.

More than 400 came.

Men, women and children.

And they massacred them

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes