Comanche Nation Fair Brings Back Buffalo Butchering

The Comanche Nation fair has officially begun, and the Comanche Nation Tribal Historic Preservation held a buffalo butchering on Saturday, September 23, at the Comanche Nation Tribal Complex.

Comanche Nation Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Martina Minthorn said people across the United States and internationally were at the butchering.

“Utilizing as much as that we could today, and it was just a good welcoming to see everybody come, young and old, from far away,” she said. “We've had people in from Texas or California. We had some people come from China that just happened to be here. So, we're just excited to be able to have a camaraderie of everybody coming together.”

Minthorn said it was a blessing and a representation of the tribe’s traditional way of life.  

“As far as the Comanches, us being nomadic people following this animal, it's just a blessing today,” she said. “Today of all days is fall solstice, so it's just good to be able to see that renewal of being able to have this time and being able to harvest, butcher a buffalo. We wouldn't be here, you know, a lot of us. That was all our subsistence, from our clothing to our food to our shelter. So, it was just good that they recognized this is our traditional way of life.”

Minthorn said she felt great being able to pay respect to the buffalo.

“Whose life was given to us and to see the relationship that we have with the Cheyenne-Arapaho people and their success of their buffalo program,” she said. “And for us as a Comanche Nation, being introduced into the Intertribal Buffalo Council, that's a blessing for us. To see how things were for our ancestors having to be forced to come onto the reservation because of starvation. To see that these animals were just killed for their buffalo robes and just for us to be able to know that we would have used every part of this animal. And so, it's good that we are going to be utilizing these tools to show our kids as far as this is the things that we were using.”

Archeologist and Comanche Mary Motah was also at the butchering.

“She just now retired from New Mexico Archaeology Program, and so we're glad that she's here. She's a wealth of knowledge about our star alignments to our history of going far back,” Minthorn said. “And so she has just been able to help us with being able to utilize all these bones. We buried last year's bones to be able to make the tools. And so, it was a blessing to finally, whenever they finally got to the bones yesterday, her excavation. And the guys that all helped out, they were really proud to be here and for her to explain everything to them. And when we finally hit the bones, the buffalo came pulling in.”

Those who shot the buffalo won a raffle, which raised funds for the Comanche Academy Charter School.

“It was good to see our hunters today being able to take their shots,” Minthorn said. “And so, we've had a female, Sissy Singleton, a mother, a college student. She's actually interning for the Bureau of Indian Affairs on a buffalo project. So, and then, too, we had 80-year-old Ludy Lorentino, the son of Dorothy Lorentino. And so, he's 80 years old, and he said he can now die as a happy man. So, we're glad to have them as the ones who did our kill today.”

She said it was good to see all ages at the butchering.

“We have little girls that are here, like three, four, five; they're all lining up carrying meat to the freezer,” Minthorn said. “So, it's just cute. Everybody, the elders that just sat and watched, it's just a blessing to see, you know, this was our everyday living. And now, you know, we're able to do this.”

Comanche Nation Fair campers will receive rations, and Minthorn said she was grateful the Cheyenne-Arapaho tribe provided the buffalo.